First Breakdown in the Dart

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dart4forte

dart4forte

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Well, yesterday at O Dark Thirty I was heading to the Hemi Show in Phoenix when I got that dreaded puff of smoke from under the dash. Car goes dead and here I’m on the off ramp to the 17, pulled over to the shoulder with not much room. No flashers.Got out and poped the hood.

Called Haggerty. The got DPS on the phone and had the dispatch a trooper.
Once the trooper arrived he determined I was stuck in a really daangerous psoition so much to my chagrin he gave me a push. He was really careful and only gave a slight nudge so I could roll down the off ramp. He followed zigging from lane to lane blocking traffic. Got down to the center median where it was safe.

Of course he chatted with me for a bit, took some pictures of the car etc. The trooper formally workd at an Audi dealer so he’s kinda a car guy.

Anyway, waited an hour for the tow. He arrived and of course he had to take pictures. Finally got the car home. Jumped in the truck and headed for he show. Met up with several board members to include “C” and ended up having lunch with a moparts member.
The show turned out to be a really nice gathering. Pretty good car count. They had a dyno so there were some Challangers making pulls. so nice cars.

Ill crawl under the dash Monday to see what the problem is. Ordered several fuseable links since the one in the car did it’s job and was toasted.

Anyway, that’s my drama for the weekend.
 
dart4forte said:
Well, yesterday at O Dark Thirty I was heading to the Hemi Show in Phoenix when I got that dreaded puff of smoke from under the dash. Car goes dead and here I’m on the off ramp to the 17, pulled over to the shoulder with not much room. No flashers.Got out and poped the hood.

Called Haggerty. The got DPS on the phone and had the dispatch a trooper.
Once the trooper arrived he determined I was stuck in a really daangerous psoition so much to my chagrin he gave me a push. He was really careful and only gave a slight nudge so I could roll down the off ramp. He followed zigging from lane to lane blocking traffic. Got down to the center median where it was safe.

Of course he chatted with me for a bit, took some pictures of the car etc. The trooper formally workd at an Audi dealer so he’s kinda a car guy.

Anyway, waited an hour for the tow. He arrived and of course he had to take pictures. Finally got the car home. Jumped in the truck and headed for he show. Met up with several board members to include “C” and ended up having lunch with a moparts member.
The show turned out to be a really nice gathering. Pretty good car count. They had a dyno so there were some Challangers making pulls. so nice cars.

Ill crawl under the dash Monday to see what the problem is. Ordered several fuseable links since the one in the car did it’s job and was toasted.

Anyway, that’s my drama for the weekend.
Click to expand...

Amp meter wires at the gauge?
Missed ya there yesterday somehow I guess.
 
TrailBeast said:
Amp meter wires at the gauge?
Missed ya there yesterday somehow I guess.
Click to expand...


I run an electric temp gauge as a backup.mDidnt want to drill holes in the firewall since we spent a lot of time welding up holes on the firewall that were not stock. While I was waiting for the tow I got under the dash and found the hot wire for the gauge burned up. Pulled out that wire. I had it wired to a spade on the fuse box. From what I can tell the gauge is toast. Of course the fuseable link did its job thus saving the wiring harness.

I was under the dash on Thursday replacing the brake switch. I may have uninvertantly bumped a hot wire that is exposed. Another possibility, which was suggested yesterday is I had the wire hooked at the wrong end of the fuse so If thats the case my screwup. In any case I need to find a better way of running a temp gauge.

I came back to the show in my truck at around 11. I saw your car and looked for you. I ran into “C” and her husband
 
dart4forte said:
I run an electric temp gauge as a backup.mDidnt want to drill holes in the firewall since we spent a lot of time welding up holes on the firewall that were not stock. While I was waiting for the tow I got under the dash and found the hot wire for the gauge burned up. Pulled out that wire. I had it wired to a spade on the fuse box. From what I can tell the gauge is toast. Of course the fuseable link did its job thus saving the wiring harness.

I was under the dash on Thursday replacing the brake switch. I may have uninvertantly bumped a hot wire that is exposed. Another possibility, which was suggested yesterday is I had the wire hooked at the wrong end of the fuse so If thats the case my screwup. In any case I need to find a better way of running a temp gauge.

I came back to the show in my truck at around 11. I saw your car and looked for you. I ran into “C” and her husband
Click to expand...


Forgot to mention that when I send the instruments cluster in for restoration I had Instrument Specialties convert the amp meter to a voltage gauge.
 
dart4forte said:
Forgot to mention that when I send the instruments cluster in for restoration I had Instrument Specialties convert the amp meter to a voltage gauge.
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Glad your car did not burn up like so many Mopar have. The Outlaw DennisH has had several close calls, so we upgraded his wiring by setting up his car with the Madd Electric techniques. So far, so good on his.

I carry both a smaller Halon type and a larger powder type fire extinguisher with you in your car? If the Halon extinguisher kills the fire, you are left with no clean up of white powder, which is virtually impossible to clean up afterwards. It's a small price to pay to save a car though.

Electrical fires are hard to put out, as you have to kill the power first.
 
dart4forte said:
I came back to the show in my truck at around 11. I saw your car and looked for you. I ran into “C” and her husband
Click to expand...

I was probably over by the dyno listening to how many of their motors broke up in the higher RPM's.:D
Probably almost half of the cars had misses above 5k.
 
Ouch!!!!

Hope you get it fixed up and any damage is minimal.
 
I was under the dash yesterday afternoon. Pulled the two gauges to check them out. The hotwire spade on the water temp gauge is scorched. Gauge smells burned. Oil gauge seems ok. I checked the wire for the lights. I comes off the fuse box and is connected to the lamp fuse. It’s ok.

Ill be under the dash today checking the fuse box ad looking for damaged wires. Given the wiring harness under the dash was new I’m baffled as to where a wire would short out. Im thinking the gauge shorted.

This is the culprit wire and what’s left of the fuseable link.

B1417ACA-94F1-4682-86B9-C2DD687061EA.jpeg
 
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Is that the bulkhead fusible link? Hopefully nothing got smoked further up the line or in the under dash harness.

If it were mine, I'd get rid of the fusible link and put a ATC fuseholder in that gauge line. Maybe a 3 amp fuse at most depending on what the gauges require.
 
crackedback said:
Is that the bulkhead fusible link? Hopefully nothing got smoked further up the line or in the under dash harness.

If it were mine, I'd get rid of the fusible link and put a ATC fuseholder in that gauge line. Maybe a 3 amp fuse at most depending on what the gauges require.
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Yes, at the bulkhead. I’m checking all that, So far no other burned wires. I’d spice into the wiring harness and add a fuse holder if the car were a clone or a regular 318 car but its all original so I’d like to keep it that way.

I have a mechanical gauge coming so as far as wiring I’ll only have an added wire for the gauge lights. That’s a good idea of adding a fuse holder on the gauge lamp wire.
 
I'm not suggesting cutting the wire harness. Is the water temp gauge aftermarket? Is that burnt red wire a factory wire or was that used to attach at the fuseblock?

If it's not a factory wire, I would place a fuseholder in it.
 
crackedback said:
I'm not suggesting cutting the wire harness. Is the water temp gauge aftermarket? Is that burnt red wire a factory wire or was that used to attach at the fuseblock?

If it's not a factory wire, I would place a fuseholder in it.[/QUOTE



Found where the hot wire for the temp gauge shorted out. It looks like it was laying on the oil pressure gauge fitting which is brass. Some how it must of come loose or the wire was frayed. It makes sense in that the portion of the wire burned was on the gauge end. Again, the electric gauge goes away replaced by a mechanical.

The electric water temp is going away. There’s a spare spade in the fuse box for a lamp connection so I should have protection from the lamp fuse.
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20180307_112127.jpg


20180304_164618.jpg
 
It definitely looks like it was shorting into that fitting, is that the origin point? That wire got cooked badly, may be hard to identify origin point.
 
crackedback said:
It definitely looks like it was shorting into that fitting, is that the origin point? That wire got cooked badly, may be hard to identify origin point.
Click to expand...


Hard to tell but definitely was shorting at that point
 
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