Testing circuits

[Mattax]

On the OEM connectors.
Use a terminal tool or make a small flat from a cotter pin or such.
Remove the covers by depressing the terminal's retaining barb. There's a little cutout in the plastic cover to slip a tool in.

Then the terminal can be slid out the back.

The wire conductors should be firmly held in the 1st crimp and the insulation held by the second crimp.
Other things that go wrong include the locking tab not locking to the plastic hosuing resuolting in the female terminal not gripping the male tab.

For male terminals, squeeze the the side barb

Reverse before reinstalling or the terminals will back out of the connector.

 

[toolmanmike]

On the OEM connectors.
Use a terminal tool or make a small flat from a cotter pin or such.
Remove the covers by depressing the terminal's retaining barb. There's a little cutout in the plastic cover to slip a tool in.
View attachment 1716417544

View attachment 1716417545

Then the terminal can be slid out the back.

The wire conductors should be firmly held in the 1st crimp and the insulation held by the second crimp.
Other things that go wrong include the locking tab not locking to the plastic hosuing resuolting in the female terminal not gripping the male tab.
View attachment 1716417546

View attachment 1716417547

For male terminals, squeeze the the side barb
View attachment 1716417548

Reverse before reinstalling or the terminals will back out of the connector.

Those open barrel connectors crimp neatly with the proper tool.

The one on the bottom photo is a ratchet style with an assortment of jaws for different types of crimps (that no one used) LOL. I sold a lot of those kits though because the crimp was proper and the same every time. From guys that built custom golf cars to tow truck builds, They liked the professional crimp and the consistency.

 

[Mattax]

Those open barrel connectors crimp neatly with the proper tool.

The one on the bottom photo is a ratchet style with an assortment of jaws for different types of crimps (that no one used) LOL. I sold a lot of those kits though because the crimp was proper and the same every time. From guys that built custom golf cars to tow truck builds, They liked the professional crimp and the consistency.

View attachment 1716417551

View attachment 1716417552

Wonder if the one being advertized in the video can really do 10 and 12 gage wires.

 

[toolmanmike]

Wonder if the one being advertized in the video can really do 10 and 12 gage wires.

It looks heavy enough and has the die for it.

 

[Mattax]

It looks heavy enough and has the die for it.

The one from MAC does the same, yes? And has some sort of mechanical leverage built in.

 

[toolmanmike]

Wonder if the one being advertized in the video can really do 10 and 12 gage wires.

The top ones were S&G Tool Aid. They were fairly lightweight, non ratcheting, and fully manual. Once you waste a few connectors practicing and get used to using them, they would produce a nice crimp. Great for the 14-16 g crimps. The farm equipment tech's did more wiring and terminal repairs than the automotive guys did and they bought a lot of those crimpers. (hundreds) There is a lot of long harnesses in combines and planters and such and the critters love to chew the harnesses when they are parked in the machine shed over the winter. Not to sidetrack but, probably the trickiest ones were the Deutsch connectors. I was the only truck for a long time that carried the release tools and crimpers for those.

 

[toolmanmike]

The one from MAC does the same, yes? And has some sort of mechanical leverage built in.

Yes. The Mac one with all the dies is a ratcheting tool and adjustable for crimp strength. The handles won't release until the maximum crimp is reached. There is a manual release in case you need it.

 

[Righty]

Thanks for those pictures Mattax that’s really helpful.
I put the battery on slow charge over night on Thursday, took my wife’s friend out for a birthday spin on Friday, no starting problems at all, then went to take him out to the local car and coffee gathering this morning and of course just cranking no start.
For the sake of it I popped in the new ballast resistor, no change still cranking no start, so I worked my way round the engine bay pulling and reseating as many connections as I could get to. Couple of things I noticed, the coil to distributor lead is about as short as it could get, it’s pulling almost tight.
I reseated both ends but I’m going to make up a new one with just a couple of extra inches, also working round the spark plug leads into the distributor one felt like it wasn’t fully seated. Satisfyingly it cranked and started pretty clean after that, so I got a consolation drive by at the C and C, didn’t want to risk stopping!
So obviously not fixed anything, but I guess it’s a steer that I need to put some time into working through the connections

I noticed quite a build up of black dust on the alternator, I’m assuming that’s from the belt, I fitted the original fixed fan last week so I guess I’ve not managed to tension the belt tight enough, it hasn’t been squealing. I could only tension it by pulling the alternator by hand back to a mark indicating its position before I loosened it. If anything it ‘feels’ like it is deflecting less than before, but I can’t believe I’d be able to over tension it by hand.

Hard to see from the photo but the ceramic core inside the coil is cracked all along and the terminals are really loose, that’s on the 0.5ohm side.

 

[Righty]

I’m going to ask this as someone who knows their limitations, especially with regard to electrics, so I’m not wanting to come across as a quitter, or looking for the easy route, but I am honest about my trouble shooting capabilities and knowledge level.
Is there an argument that it would be more sensible for me to buy a model specific engine bay or engine bay/ forward lights harness from Evans or M & H, they both make a version for cars that have been converted to electronic ignition. Obviously this isn’t a golden bullet as there are still several components that may be problematic - ignition key, voltage regulator, coil etc but it is a quick and certain way to get the wiring back to near stock and eliminate any of the additional connections and alterations that have been made?

 

[Dave999]

yep provided your updated car followed some semblance of sanity i.e what you put back may differ from what you take out..BUT the saving grace is, its all the same kit you are connecting up

but unless Mr hackit about has been in there... it will be poor connections first and foremost... can of de-oxit and some needle nose pliers and you could be well on your way

in mine i cut off the last 5-8 inches of any suspect wire got a length of the right colour crimped on a nice new connector with appropriate insulating jacket or plastic connector, plugged it into the device and then ran it back with enough slack to join with the loom.
slid some heat shrink tube a long way along and solder

i solder my connections doing a poor interpretation of the "line Mans" splice and cover with heat shrink when cool.

i say poor interpretation because a lineman's splice is only really appropriate for solid core cable. its a physical connection which is hard to pull apart. and i make it harder by glueing it with solder....

many will say this is not the right way.... but it works and has worked for many years for me..
and if you ever do unwrap the whole loom of a chrysler. you will find the factory were happy to do the same thing, mid cable run, under the wrap, where it could not be seen. end of one spool of wire connected to the next... no wastage in the wiring loom shop at least in Australia there wasn't. a soldered physical connection in a supported loom with little flex is not going to fatigue....

word of warning what was put in originally is often a better quality connector than what you can find today. choose replacements wisely, the silver stuff with blue plastic insulator from Halfords works but is really quite rubbish.

Dave

 

[Mattax]

I'll say with the battery relocated to the boot if you pay someone else its going to go one of two ways.
1. They cobble their own method. This is most likely. I see electricians do this in residences all too frequently. It's faster and more profitable.
2. They spend the time to figure out what was done, whether it makes sense, and then comes up with a plan. You're going to have to pay them for their time.

In either case if you haven't learned what the car has now, you'll have little to judge whether the mechanic is doing right by you or just making a hack job that will bite you down the road.

 

[Righty]

I've spent some time this weekend looking things over and thinking through how I want to approach this.

How I see it is the most useful thing to do at this stage is to work my way round, checking, cleaning and repairing connections, I can do this section by section. Ignition key etc.

I'll leave the battery where it is for now, its been done well and can stay put. There is a whole bunch of additional wiring back there to power a 7 pin caravan socket but for the time being I have capped that off and tucked it in the boot.
At some point I want to remove the aftermarket indicators and replace the tailget trim panel that they were drilled into, so that's when I could look at tackling some of that wiring and relocating the battery to the engine bay.
I'm still going to think about a new harness down the line, as it really appeals to me that socket by socket, connection by connection I could rewire the engine bay myself with the original diagrams and the new harness as my guide. I think I'd back myself to be able to do that.
The reason its tempting is that it would remove the dead headed circuits for the fans and tacho etc and I could get the ECM, coil and ballast resistor wired up with no unknown mystery connections. Hopefully this would then give me a solid baseline to work through testing and re installing the original components.

And I hear you about the cheap Halfords connectors Dave. When you look at how little CA spent on the development budget for the Valiant Charger it's amazing how they made the most of the resources they had, I guess that ethos spread to the electrical department!

Thanks again guys.

 

[Righty]

Just wanted to bump my thread to say thanks for the advice and help, in the end I just spent a bit of time checking connections making sure that everything was seated and not corroded, I have a couple of sections I should look at replacing but apart from being a bit messy and my mystery wires to the ballast and the coil I’m happy with how things are, and certainly there is an improvement in starting. So for the moment it’s time to make the most of the amazing weather over hear and drive it. In fact at the moment I think I’ve developed a bit of a problem, pretty much every day I just head out for an hour just cruising round the reservoirs or somewhere it’s too hard to resist. Anyway thanks again all.