Almost lost Dana (my C500) last night, fixed her, video and pic update; pg.3

[hemi68charger]

Yeap,,
Coming home from my club's display at the World-of-Wheels AutoRama, electrical chaos accorded in the central nervous system of Dana...  I noticed the instrument lights weren't acting properly.. Figured it 'might' be the notorious dimmer switch... Well, about 4 to 5 miles from home on a 30 mile journey the amp gauge starts freaking out and then about 15 seconds later, a loud and visibly obvious white flash happened under the dash.. My step-son Josh and I notice A WHOLE LOT of smoke coming from under the dash and it's filling the driver's compartment pretty darn quick.. At the very same moment, water starts squirting onto my windshield. I was thinking the bang wasn't the amp gauge, but the motor blowing and anti-freeze is not pouring out of the motor... Come to find out, the wires in the engine compartment fry and send voltage to the washer squirter motor and activate it...  Well, I do a "Dukes of Hazard" exit from the interstate and shut down in a burger parking lot.. I pop the hood and notice glowing red wires and I immediately muster all my gripping strength and twist off the positive cable from the battery..  Smoke is still filling the interior and the smell sucks....

Well, I averted a fire and didn't need the extinguisher my buddy had in his truck who followed me..  A good citizen saw everything and had a friend with a flatbed towing service and within the hour, Dana was pushed into her nest...  Man, it could have been MUCH worse, but sucks nonetheless...

I quickly asset the engine bay damage and it was obvious.. Seems the alternator shorted out and then the rest is history.. I'm not sure why my fusible link didn't melt faster, but that was the glowing wire previously mentioned.... I haven't looked under the dash yet, but I'm sure I'll have to replace the complete dash harness and instrument cluster circuit board and at the minimum, amp gauge.....  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So, the search for parts beginth........  I've contact my insurance company to see if they cover this sort of event...........

Here are pictures of the night with Dana loading on the flatbed.. I surprised myself with my lack of freaking out and calmness I had.. I thought I'd be furious.. I guess one has to make the best of the situation and make it as light-hearted as possible........   Maybe being a brand new Dad put things in perspective....... 

Troy

Here's a video (my 1st).. Sorry for being at night............

Dana fired up video after repairs..... pic on page three

[Shakey]

Sounds like you got lucky that night!   

As hard as it may be to comprehend that, it is in fact true.

Good luck with the surgery.

[hemi68charger]

Sounds like you got lucky that night!   

As hard as it may be to comprehend that, it is in fact true.

Good luck with the surgery.

Oh, I believe you.. That's why I have a smile on my face there last night....... Could have been MUCH worse...........

[Blown70]

WOW, that is never fun to see smoke..... Glad she is intact.... Best of luck chasing down the culprit.... I do have a 69 SE wire harness around.  Took it out of an 18,000 mile car, however is it just an underdash one. not engine.

Tom

[PocketThunder]

all stock wire harness?  I'm glad the car didnt burn up.

[hemi68charger]

WOW, that is never fun to see smoke..... Glad she is intact.... Best of luck chasing down the culprit.... I do have a 69 SE wire harness around.  Took it out of an 18,000 mile car, however is it just an underdash one. not engine.

Tom

That's what I'll be looking for as well........  I'll PM you.........

Troy

[hemi68charger]

all stock wire harness?  I'm glad the car didnt burn up.

Yeah, the harness both in the engine and dash are stock.. The underdash is original while the engine looks like it was replaced with an NOS one many many moons ago....

Troy

[OttawaCharger]

Wow - that is lucky!  I think that you've convinced me to put one of those quick disconnect battery connectors on mine. 

[Aero426]

I had a similar situation with starting the Daytona in April 2005.   Smoke from under the dash, and a full discharge on the ammeter with the key in the ON position.   Same deal.  Run out, and pull the battery terminal.  

The wire harness running between the wiper motor to the ammeter was fried.    As I understand it, the ammeter gets full amperage, which is living dangerously.    I replaced the engine harness and wired in a fusable link to the ammeter, but I thought there was a more proper fix for this.   Scared the bejeezus outta me, as I'm sure it did you.

[hemi68charger]

I had a similar situation with starting the Daytona in April 2005.   Smoke from under the dash, and a full discharge on the ammeter with the key in the ON position.   Same deal.  Run out, and pull the battery terminal. 

The wire harness running between the wiper motor to the ammeter was fried.    As I understand it, the ammeter gets full amperage, which is living dangerously.    I replaced the engine harness and wired in a fusable link to the ammeter, but I thought there was a more proper fix for this.   Scared the bejeezus outta me, as I'm sure it did you.

Yeap, the connection between the bulkhead connection and the amp gauge is direct.. I'm thinking of placing, under the dash so it isn't visble, an in-line fuze between the bulkhead connection and amp gauge.. I'll just have to figure out how many amps of a fuze to use.....  You're right, it did scare the bejeezus out of me... But, she's home now...

Daddy will help her.. 

Troy

[Hemidoug]

Troy, sorry to hear of your troubles, let me know if you need anything, I'll look through my extra stuff and see if I can help. You will probably find that your amp gauge is at the center of you problems. Every electron that flows through the car goes through that gauge. There was a good article on how to replace it with a volt meter in one of the Mopar mags this year, I'll dig it out for you. The other thing that is Charger specific is the headlight switch, they had a tendency to overheat. Best thing to do is wire in a relay so the juice for the lamps doesn't go through the switch. Good luck with her, glad you and the car are safe and sound. Let me know if there is anything you need buddy!

[nascarxx29]

I have had this kind of electrical experiences on my own cars for years .And customers cars I rewired.Found these to be the troublesome areas.Bulkhead connections on both sides clean and tight same goes for terminals on backside of fuse box.Amp gauges I bypass them .If you have one it is insulated by the factory in a metal dash housing by paper.I insulated them better than factory method with a short cut piece of vacuum hose on the gauge stud.If it does happen to slide down.And loose connections that carries power cause resistance.It will not blow a fuse or fusible link.It will heat up and give you a plastic smell.This happens alot at the headlight switch and dimmer switch connections.Another bad area is where the fusible link has been bypassed.I had a car with a short in the marker light.Caused alot of damage .A bad regulator or field wire will set the engine harness on fire .Will quickly spread inside

[johntpr]

Wow..Glad you saved it Troy !

[nascarxx29]

I recall a F6 daytona that had a wiring harness that scared me  .But it was replaced.But watch out for those 68 charger wiring harnesses .Your parking lights wont stay on 68 lights go out 69 lights stay on .Anyone remember a older posting guy had a superbird in GA parked in garage.And underhood fire kicked off..On my 70 coronet I had a electrical problem reached back and felt connections on amp gauge.Got loose and it was hot from resistance.Causing intermitant connection

[hemi68charger]

I took all the connections off the bulkhead connection about 2 years ago and checked for fit. I'm a real stickler on male/female fits. I wire brushed all terminal ends made sure there were good connection... Dave, know whatcha mean about the amp gauge terminals.. I make sure all my insulation is in good repair.. I did that about a year ago when I detailed the instrument gauges, albeit it doesn't mean it could have gone south since then.. I'll dive into Dana later on this week....

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions.......

Troy

[hotrod98]

Troy, Man that was a scary story. Ironically, I was thinking about you and Dana this weekend. Was a year ago that we attended the show in Houston and first met you.  Since I wasn't worried about originality, I replaced the amp gauge in my chal convert with a voltage gauge. In fact, I replaced all of the gauges with Autometer gauges since I wanted to make sure that everything worked well since I didn't want to hurt my new 426 hemi. I have a low mileage 70 Barracuda gran coupe in storage that was retired early in it's life due to electrical problems. Upon removing the cluster we found a burned amp gauge.  Now I'm totally paranoid about electrical problems. I went out and bought fire extinguishers for all of my cars. I keep one right behind each of the driver's seats. I also installed the quick disconnects on the ground side of the batteries.
Glad everything turned out okay.

[tan top]

     sorry to hear that  Troy      like the other guys said could of been a lot worse ,

[hemi68charger]

Here are some pics of the engine harness.. I tried taking some of the dash, but it was too cumbersome. I did check it out and the harness has a nice burnt section in a couple of places... Grrrrrrrrrrr

[Chris G.]

Troy, that sure sounded scary. Glad you saved it.  Although that magical shirt you're wearing might have had something to do with the save. 

[62 Max]

Here is how I solved that problem 14yrs ago.Had the same thing happen to my Superbird.Take apiece of fuse link about 2" long.Male one end,female on the other.Put it between the field wire and field terminal.It will go before any damage can go anywhere else.It is usually the field that shorts but you can also use one on the battery connection.Sort of like putting the cart before the horse but it works..

[69charger383]

Your lucky man. I would of been devestated if I lost that thing!

[nitrometal]

Geez Troy, that sounded like a very hairy experience. I hope that you can get her back on the road soon. Glad to hear that you're alright, considering.

I keep reading about this happening on the forum all the time.  I'm really glad that the insurance company made me go out and buy a fire extinguisher for my car.

Looks like the best prevention will be to stop it before it happens to me too.  First thing is to put the fusible links and shut-off switches in the system like everyone has mentioned above (great tips everyone!). Then, go out and buy a new harness. These cars are just too valuable to take a chance with 30+ year old wires!!!

So, after all this, how was Autorama?  I totally forgot about it this year.

Phil

[nascarxx29]

You can do all necessary procedures and mopar electrical system will bite you  After the melt down the hottest wire usually one .Without the insulation is your suspect

[Dodge Don]

I'm going with 100% new harnesses and having Redline convert my Ampmeter to VDO to avoid fires.

[Ghoste]

Wow!  There just isn't anything else to add that hasn't already been said.  I'm glad both you and the car came through relatively unscathed.  Just... wow!