Sad night at our local cruise night...

[projectanimal]

Here in CT there is a cruise night every Monday night throughout the summer which usually brings in 800+ cars being shown.  Costs nothing on a huge farm property, and they sell some burgers and treats to help pay for up keep. 
My wife and I try to attend a few  times each summer and hope by next summer we will be driving our charger there for show. 
So as we arrived there was a very nice 69 R/T in the entrance but off to the side recovering from
An electrical fire!   
They were lucky they pulled over and the damage was mostly wires along the firewall and brake booster area... 
I was going to take pictures, but felt to badly to do so in front of the owner who was trying to clean up the fire extinguisher spray....
The car is a beautiful olive green R/T and hopefully there isnt much damage and they can rebuild.
The rest of the show was great with 2-3 68's and a lot of cuda's and challengers with a mix of 383 and 440's!   Can't wait to bring our 70 there next year!
If the owner is on here, I am sorry to see the damage, but beautiful car!  Hope all is okay!

Matt

[squeakfinder]

     That's terrible. Wondering if the wire to the amp gauge was the problem.

[projectanimal]

The black burn area was where the brake booster and main wire plug on firewall.  I think some came in the footwell also...   
It was tough to see all the damage due to extinguisher spray, but it could have been A LOT worse! 

[myk]

Someone up there must like them; I hope they get their wiring issues resolved-all of that shiny paint and straight sheetmetal won't do any good if the car won't reliably start, run, light up or be counted on to not go up in flames.  On another note, I guess all of the other Mopars are everywhere in the world except for California/San Diego.  Any time I head out to a show or a cruise there's almost NEVER another Mopar, let alone a Charger of any generation.  I should win a "Only-car-in-manufacturer-class" trophy or something...

[projectanimal]

Myk, we were surprised to see so many older chargers too!  I just read on the cruises website that early Sept is Mopar night, so we will definitely attend that one and bring the camera! 

[Ghoste]

The bulkhead connector is one of the bigger problem areas, that corrosion gets in there and the resistance goes up and with it the heat. Add in dried up old insulation and its a recipe for trouble.

[Charger_Dart]

Matt, was that at Smiley's in Thomaston ?

[hemi68charger]

That stinks... My amp gauge (former '69 Charger 500) took a dump and when that happened, all heck broke loose... Smoke everywhere... Both my dash and engine harness were fried.. A lot of times, the culprit is the amp gauge. From there, the flood of electricity doesn't have anywhere to go........  Hopefully his insurance is enough to get him back and going and he didn't have too much of a problem getting his car home..

[bill440rt]

Eesh... that blows. 

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

That stinks... My amp gauge (former '69 Charger 500) took a dump and when that happened, all heck broke loose... Smoke everywhere... Both my dash and engine harness were fried.. A lot of times, the culprit is the amp gauge. From there, the flood of electricity doesn't have anywhere to go........  Hopefully his insurance is enough to get him back and going and he didn't have too much of a problem getting his car home..

So given modern technologies, what is today's solution? 

[projectanimal]

This cruise in is Marks Cruise night by Bradley!  Great event, gates open at 5 and we arrived around 6 and they were at the 400 mark already!  Some great cars show up.  Last night turned out to be VW night so there were a lot of "Herbies"... LOL. 
On Sept 17th it's Mopar night, so I will have camera ready!!! 

We just re-wired our entire car so this is our biggest fear for next year....

[Ghoste]

Re-wired how though?  If it's all new it should be your least fear.

[Todd Wilson]

What I have done on the old Mopars is use a spray that I use on my old antique radios. Its called Deoxit.   Its a tuner wash of sorts but is not the standard radio shack tuner wash. It has a deoxidizing chemical in it to clean the contacts and a slight bit of oil for lube.  I have sprayed all my connections with this stuff and its helped a lot. This stuff is expensive but it goes a long ways when using. You dont hose stuff down but use just a fast shot of this stuff.

All the metal contacts corrode over time. As others have said this will create resistance and that creates heat.

I would also recommend checking your engine harness.  I have found the harness wire coatings to become brittle and sometimes are not there due to age. This is a bad area as its all old and is around lots of heat and maybe some oil.   I've spent a few hours with an engine harness taking all the old tape off  and checking each wire. If it was bare in a big spot I would cut the wire  slide on some heat shrink tube and resolder it back. Then shrink the tube. When I was all done with that I rewrapped the harness with electrical tape. and its ready to go again. The wires to the alt. are the important ones here. Cracked insulation can also make your temp and oil gauges act funky.


Todd

[Ghoste]

I use the deoxit stuff too and then add a bit of dielectric grease.  Its good stuff.

[projectanimal]

True Ghoste... It's all new through Y1 so it should be the best part of the car, but concern of electrical is always there!! May try sOme of the tricks posted to ensure safety! 

[Todd Wilson]

I use the deoxit stuff too and then add a bit of dielectric grease.  Its good stuff.

I've never used grease but would think it would help seal and keep moisture out.

My old 74 Dodge pickup truck used to burn the end cap off its heater fan fuse every winter. Get so hot the metal end cap would come undone from the fuse link. It got so hot a few times it melted the plastic around the side of the fuse box.  I finally hit it with deoxit and that solved the problem. The metal contacts were so tarnished it was creating lots of heat.

Todd

[66FBCharger]

This cruise in is Marks Cruise night by Bradley!  Great event, gates open at 5 and we arrived around 6 and they were at the 400 mark already!  Some great cars show up.  Last night turned out to be VW night so there were a lot of "Herbies"... LOL. 
On Sept 17th it's Mopar night, so I will have camera ready!!! 

We just re-wired our entire car so this is our biggest fear for next year....

Mark's is an awesome cruise night. We haven't made it up there this year. It has been a busy summer with the three kids. There is usually something going on that takes priority.
Where can i buy Deoxit?

[Todd Wilson]

This cruise in is Marks Cruise night by Bradley!  Great event, gates open at 5 and we arrived around 6 and they were at the 400 mark already!  Some great cars show up.  Last night turned out to be VW night so there were a lot of "Herbies"... LOL. 
On Sept 17th it's Mopar night, so I will have camera ready!!! 

We just re-wired our entire car so this is our biggest fear for next year....

Where can i buy Deoxit?

Sometimes Radio Shack here has it. Most decent electronics stores will carry it.


Todd

[resq302]

Any specific product made by Deoxit?  I just googled it and there are at least half a dozen or more versions......

[Ghoste]

I've only seen one on the shelves.

[Brass]

I was going to take pictures, but felt to badly to do so in front of the owner who was trying to clean up the fire extinguisher spray....

That's really considerate.  Not many would consider the possibility the owners might not want to be caught on film at that particular moment.

[projectanimal]

Thanks Brass..... I know if I was in his shoes I wouldn't want a bunch of pictures....
His ride was very nice, so I truly wanted to capture the good points.. Hopefully we see him back soon so I can take pictures and hear the details. 
We'll see if he makes it to Mopar night in a month. 

As for the deoxit - I'm going to to find some (radio shack is a mile away) and make sure we start off all our electric on the right foot.  I fully understand that with our system being new it shouldnt have any issues...

[moparfan53]

Any specific product made by Deoxit?  I just googled it and there are at least half a dozen or more versions......

Just looked at their website ( www.caig.com ) and I see they do make several versions of Deoxit. After reading the info there I think the Deoxit "D Series" would be the one to use on our cars, however on radioshack.com I could only find a twin pack of Deoxit "power booster" and "gold".     Perhaps a member who has some would post the name/number on the can.

 

[hemi68charger]

So given modern technologies, what is today's solution?  

My experience:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,21155.0.html

You do the amp-2-volt meter conversion. I did it on that same C500 that fried the wires... It basically reads 12v. Since amperage and voltage are proportional to each other (needle deflects the same direction), you can sort of tell what's going on. I sent my cluster frame with the amp gauge to http://www.redlinegaugeworks.com/ for the conversion.... It is a peace-of-mind modification. I had them silkscreen the gauge to look like the original amp gauge. They can do voltmeter as well.....

Of course, you should always check and clean the connections at the bulkhead connector as well.. I did that too.. Cleaned all terminal spades and made sure the fit between the male and female was tight again. (ok all you dirty minds)  

Just bend the female terminal a little to get a more snug fit...

[Todd Wilson]

Any specific product made by Deoxit?  I just googled it and there are at least half a dozen or more versions......

Just looked at their website ( www.caig.com ) and I see they do make several versions of Deoxit. After reading the info there I think the Deoxit "D Series" would be the one to use on our cars, however on radioshack.com I could only find a twin pack of Deoxit "power booster" and "gold".     Perhaps a member who has some would post the name/number on the can.

 

This is what I have!