Meltdown

[Sixtyeight]

Hi,

Have a problem,

The plus of my choke came of at the carb and made contact with ground. After this the Charger is completely dead. Nothing works, not even the interior light. Saw a light flash come from under the alternator gauge in the dash when it happened. It seemed to come from below.

I took the dash out, but cannot see anything happened on the wiring or alternator gauge...I suspect it came from the ignition switch.
Is this possible? Is there a way to test this? Has someone experienced a similar situation?

Thanks,

Jeroen.

[firefighter3931]

Hi,

Have a problem,

The plus of my choke came of at the carb and made contact with ground. After this the Charger is completely dead. Nothing works, not even the interior light. Saw a light flash come from under the alternator gauge in the dash when it happened. It seemed to come from below.

I took the dash out, but cannot see anything happened on the wiring or alternator gauge...I suspect it came from the ignition switch.
Is this possible? Is there a way to test this? Has someone experienced a similar situation?

Thanks,

Jeroen.

There is a fusable link on the main harness that will fail if there is a short. Have a look to see if it is still intact.

Ron

[Sixtyeight]

Yes, I did, it's still intact.

Jeroen.

[dkn1997]

if you have the dash out, try taking the wires off the ammeter and putting a bolt/nut through to connect them.  You might have fried your amp gauge.

visit mad electric's website.  they have a very simple diagram of the mopar charging system with the amp gauge in there.  stick your head up under the dash with a flashlight and make sure that the main charge wire did not meltdown where it comes through the bulkhead connector. I am talking about the interior side of the bulkhead connector, not the engine compartment side.

I had this happen once when my ballast pos wire made contact with the bracket. melted it on inside of bulkhead connector.

mad electric's website has a diagram of a nice easy upgrade you can make to bypass the bulkhead connector

[Sixtyeight]

if you have the dash out, try taking the wires off the ammeter and putting a bolt/nut through to connect them.   You might have fried your amp gauge.

visit mad electric's website.   they have a very simple diagram of the mopar charging system with the amp gauge in there.   stick your head up under the dash with a flashlight and make sure that the main charge wire did not meltdown where it comes through the bulkhead connector. I am talking about the interior side of the bulkhead connector, not the engine compartment side.

I had this happen once when my ballast pos wire made contact with the bracket. melted it on inside of bulkhead connector.

mad electric's website has a diagram of a nice easy upgrade you can make to bypass the bulkhead connector

Hi,

read the site...
I have measured the amp gauge and there's no disconnection there...
No visual damage on the amp gauge
I also have 12 volts on the red and black wire to the amp gauge...

Can I asume from these measurements that the wiring and bulk connector are ok?

Jeroen.

[BigBlockSam]

did you test the fusable link. it may look ok but be  bad inside

[Sixtyeight]

did you test the fusable link. it may look ok but be   bad inside

Yep tested it with a multimeter...is ok

Jeroen.

[Nacho-RT74]

could it be all fuses out ?.

Ignition switch.. I don't know. I don't know on earliers, but 3rd gens feeds the lighting system BEFORE the ignition switch ( no switch related on any position ), so if you don't have beams or ilumination inside, damn I can't think what it could happen beside the fuse link or all fuses blow, or loosen batt terminal or bulkhead conector melted, but is true, if you have 12 Volts at ammeter, you have ok the bulkhead... check for 12 volts at alternator stud ( or black wire there if you have disconect ).

carb source comes from the blue line of engine harness what it feeds, ballast, regulator, ignition module if equipped, brush if is double field alt... and is the same wire comming from ignition switch.

[Sixtyeight]

All fuses are ok, could one of the parts u mention cause a total disconnection off all power?

Jeroen.

[Nacho-RT74]

Only if there is a short that blows fuse link or melts the ignition switch... but at least on 3rd gens, lights have nothing to do on ignition system

[clausoe]

If ALL power is gone and the ground is good there must be something wrong on the path between the battery plus and the welded splice. I have never heard of the splice failing and that would be the the next point to check if you have power at both sides of the ammeter, have you checked the voltage at the BATT connection on the ignition switch?

I would still double check the bulkhead, this is the weak point and I have experienced as you reading voltage behind the firewall when nothing is in use but as soon as you try to run some amperes the connection where the fusible link enters just fails. This might be what is happening if the bulkhead is damaged by the short you had.

[Sixtyeight]

Hi,

Took the bulkhead out, for a double check. Nothing seems te be wrong with it.
There's no volts at the bat connection of the ign switch connector. (there is if i connect the altmeter wires)

So the splice seems to be the next thing to check. Where can I find it?


Jeroen.

[Sixtyeight]

Looked in the tech diagram and measured through all the connections that go through the splice.
All are ok...

I'm getting out of options now...

Jeroen.

[8WHEELER]

I had a similar thing happen to me over the summer, the only electrical thing in the car
that would still work was the E-Flashers believe it or not. Turns out I had melted the brown
wire that came off the back side of my ign switch, it was fried all the way to the bulk head
connector. I am not saying this is your problem but I never thought it would happen to me either.
Where are you getting your power from for your choke?

Dan

[Sixtyeight]

from the ballast resistor

[8WHEELER]

YEP

[Sixtyeight]

I measured everything thats measurable...everything works. The only thing I cannot measure is the ign switch...I ordered a new one...waiting for it now...

Jeroen.

[Sixtyeight]

Put the new one in,

Everything is solved!

ps John Slatner (USA), is visiting the Netherlands, came to take a look at my Charger and he brought a new switch for me!
THANKS very much John! 

Jeroen.

[8WHEELER]

  Great, I could not think what else it could be, like me main power to switch yours was the switch.

Dan