Dashboard Woes

[Isaiah Estrada]

Long-time no speak for myself here on the forums. Despite multiple attempts to sell the car for money I just can't seem to get an acceptable offer! Did have one amazing offer from a fellow member here for a trade, but in the end I feel like it comes down to me needing to finish the car if I can't sell it now. Once it's a driver I'll just keep it.

My dash was supposed to be done by now but unfortunately the guy who has it seems to be having trouble figuring it out and getting it rewired back to factory. What is the best option for me to get past this hurdle?

The wires in my dash were rearranged in a strange manner. Like a sort of primitive ammeter bypass, that still resulted in something melting / potentially catching fire. The harness seems solid for the most part except for wherever someone messed with the ammeter wiring.

Would sourcing a complete and good used dashboard harness be my best bet? Plugging that dash into the car would bring me much closer to having it back on the road. I have the FSM, and wiring diagrams but I'm not the greatest with messing with electrical. Might be time to have to learn? Also been thinking of a painless kit, which I understand is completely anything but painless. However might be worth it to try and get the 68 back on the road

 

[CBODY67]

The original Painless Wiring kits were for street rods. That is its heritage. Street rods that needed a full re-wiring, front to back. Their "ace in the hole" was the use of OEM-level Packard wiring wire and terminals. The two guys that started the company did that work in their garage for other street rod people, so they went into business of building universal harnesses. THAT universality is where the OEM-type "pains" tend to happen as each circuit is dedicated, unlike the OEM-level where one power feed can feed three other circuits, and such.

The other "advantage" is that Painless uses late model mini-fuses rather than the older glass tube fuses in their fuse block. Not sure if that is a real advantage, though, as we got along with the old glass fuses for ages.

In reality, that ONE big harness is really a group of INDIVIDUAL harnesses for specific controls and switches. As the hvac harness, the lighting harness, etc. For each of the wires in the bulkhead connector, trace each one to see where it goes in the schematic. Looking at things that way might make things a bit easier?

Perhaps Evans Wiring might have some of those harnesses pre-made?

Keep us posted on your progress,
CBODY67

 

[413]

"Painless" is a clever marketing term, but they are a big job install. Not an entry level task.

Just the amp meter wires melted? Replace them.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Yes, get an original factory harness, and then repair it as required using the FSM diagrams.

 

[Big_John]

Time to drag out the wiring harness board pic.

I've repaired wiring harnesses by getting a piece of plywood and laying the old harness out. Then I outline it with marker and finishing nails.

From there, once it's laid out, I start to remove the wrap carefully and then replace one wire at a time. This is the method that I've seen in factories to build harnesses.

Labeling the runs will help. Any insulators at the at the connections can usually be removed and reused without much drama. Your FSM wiring diagram is very helpful here.

I suggest Rhode Island Wiring Service Inc. for any supplies not easily found and to use automotive wire and not the generic insulated wire that places like Home Depot.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

@Isaiah Estrada - ^^this^^ is the best advice

 

[3175375]

Understanding what and how the wiring is critical and getting smart on this will pay dividends over tenfold. @Big_John nailed it.

To quote Yoda, “Do or not do, there is no try…

 

[mrfury68]

I agree with Big_John & Ross. A factory harness is the best way to go. Using Big_John's method you can clearly see all of the wires in your harness. Unless your harness is severely butchered and / or melted, you can use it and be able to see what wires need repaired or replaced. Solder any repairs and cover with heat shrink tubing. You have the FSM so you know the colors of the wiring. I actually have a color wiring diagram from Classic Car Wiring. It is about 12"x20" and laminated. Very good resource to have handy. As for Evan's Wiring, I believe they only do engine harness wiring and maybe rear lighting harness. I spoke to them at Carlysle years ago and the don't do dash harnesses. You could contact them to be sure though. With all of the work you have done so far, from what I have seen posted here, I think you could tackle this project and do it right. Good luck.

 

[volksworld]

my advice...crimp, solder and shrink wrap...use uninsulated connectors and a real crimping tool (like a Thomas and Betts WT 111 that does large and small connectors) some solder adds extra insurance and gives more surface area between the wire and the connector...improperly crimped connectors (usually insulated ones) force current to flow through a smaller contact area and leads to resistance, overheating and future failure of the crimp, especially in high amperage applications like alternator circuits...and solder alone without crimping can melt out if the joint overheats...Harbor Freight has a marine grade shrink wrap assortment for about 6 bucks that has a waterproof sealer/glue inside that works great...I'd recommend bypassing the bulkhead connectors for the ammeter circuit as those connectors really aren't large enough to handle the current, and upgrading the 12 ga wire in those circuits to 10 ga where you can....if you want to replace stock appearing uninsulated spade connectors American Autowire makes an overpriced crimping tool that actually works, as opposed to the 3 Amazon look-alikes that didn't...

 

[volksworld]

Previous owner's '' repairs "

'

 

[71Polara383]

@Isaiah Estrada glad to see you digging back in.

 

[Gerald Morris]

I have a considerable bit of the old 1966 Newport wiring harness which I removed from Mathilda's carcass before consigning it to the scrap yard. It's NOT in good shape, and I know not how long ago it was hacked, but after it cooked just a couple weeks after I bought her 9 yrs ago, I repaired it nicely to my liking and had no further trouble.

These Old Gold cars really have simple wiring, and so long as you mind a few basic rules, you can rewire them safely and well.

1. Any long term connection should be soldered, brazed or have the wire replaced if its been damaged.

2. Use good overcurrent protection for every circuit. I use 3 fusible links in my car, 1 for the charging circuit, one for the battery feed to the dash, and one more for the auxiliary fuse bus I use for added circuits. The latter include Bosch relays for the headlights, the stereo feed, the auxiliary power jack in the passenger compartment and the electric pusher fan I run on the radiator. NONE of that comes off any original wiring.

3. If you're using a higher ampacity alternator, be damned sure to size the charge wire up for the maximum ampacity of the alternator over a given length. At low voltage such as 12VDC, this matters quite a lot.

4. If you're restoring the car for sale to a collector, carefully reconnect the ammeter as per factory specifications, and likewise, replace the alternator with what was specified for the exact car.

4. If you're REPAIRING the wiring harness for your own driving on the other hand, bypass that damned antiquated dash heater, get a decent voltmeter to read voltage from your primary battery feed, and run the increased ampacity feed all the way to the fusebox. DON'T FEED THE BRAZED ("welded") joint under your dash as per the MAD(ness) Bypass or the original wiring. I made the latter mistake, and while nothing bad came of it, I decided in retrospect not to gamble on any of the old wire under the dash for a primary current carrier. I ran parallel #12 TEW wires, cut at exact same lengths, fed them to the fuse bus on the "battery" side, ring terminal connected those to the #8 TEW feed through a rubber grommet, disconnected the factory fusible link and the dinky #12 AWG alternator wire which ran to the ammeter, as well as the #12 from the bulkhead on the interior side. I might sell that original fusible link someday, or keep it where it is, but I won't run so much as a single electron through it. I might eventually remove the ammeter from the instrument panel also, replacing it with a suitable voltage meter. For now, I read my supply voltage in a cluster w the oil pressure and temperature gauges under the steering column.

I watch your work on that car with some interest. While it's not likely, it isn't impossible I will want to purchase it. So may St. Joe pray that your work goes well.

 

[cbarge]

Late to this party but as mentioned get a good used factory harness, go through it and repair as needed.
This is where the FSM wiring diagrams come in handy
From my experience, using a multi meter I test continuity on each and every circuit.
If you have to open up the harness to do any repairs, now is the time to wrap it up with new tap neat and tidy. Lol.
Hope this helps.

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Wow! I seem to have trouble getting notifications from FCBO (got a new phone, just haven't got it set up right.)

This is a goldmine of information, thanks to everyone for your responses! @Big_John, I think I will go that route, I like how it's mapped out and easy to understand! Will post pics as I go along thru the process.

Should be getting my dash back tomorow, really really bummed that a year later nothing got done to my dash. Was hoping that i'd at least have it back and working by now. Can't be too trusting nowadays I guess!

The car deserves another chance at life.

 

[D Cluley]

One thing I did, was scan a copy of the black & white wire diagrams from the FSM and then use a paint program on the computer to color the lines (could print it out and use markers or something too) Not only did this get me a set of colored diagrams, but by the time I was done tracing the wires on the drawing, the actual wires in the car made a lot more sense.

 

[HWYCRZR]

One thing I did, was scan a copy of the black & white wire diagrams from the FSM and then use a paint program on the computer to color the lines (could print it out and use markers or something too) Not only did this get me a set of colored diagrams, but by the time I was done tracing the wires on the drawing, the actual wires in the car made a lot more sense.

Buying the pre- colored schematics is the easy way. But I agree, if you really want to learn and understand your wiring, tracing with a colored pencil (or modern technology) really helps you understand how the electrical system works. Will also save you a lot of trouble shooting time in the future when you understand your circuits.

 

[Big_John]

Wow! I seem to have trouble getting notifications from FCBO (got a new phone, just haven't got it set up right.)

This is a goldmine of information, thanks to everyone for your responses! @Big_John, I think I will go that route, I like how it's mapped out and easy to understand! Will post pics as I go along thru the process.

Should be getting my dash back tomorow, really really bummed that a year later nothing got done to my dash. Was hoping that i'd at least have it back and working by now. Can't be too trusting nowadays I guess!

The car deserves another chance at life. View attachment 712976

A little more advice I'll give is use a decent pair of crimpers for the terminals, especially the open barrel type.

It's been suggested a couple times here that you solder and crimp. That's always subject to some opinions if that's good or bad, so I'll leave it to you. IMHO, unless you are really good at it, you take the risk of the solder wicking down the wire and making it stiff and making it subject to failing because it doesn't flex. This is the reason they don't solder crimp connections in aircraft. Myself, I do solder some connectors, but most are crimps.

What I do recommend is you stay away from the connectors with the hard plastic insulators. Those use a very simple crimp, but the crimp isn't as good, and the wire can pull out. I like to use an uninsulated connector and then use heat shrink tubing to insulate it.

Way back when I worked for GE (probably before you were born LOL), we did occasional pull tests on crimped wire samples and it was interesting that done correctly, the wire often failed before the crimp did.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Wow! I seem to have trouble getting notifications from FCBO (got a new phone, just haven't got it set up right.)

This is a goldmine of information, thanks to everyone for your responses! @Big_John, I think I will go that route, I like how it's mapped out and easy to understand! Will post pics as I go along thru the process.

Should be getting my dash back tomorow, really really bummed that a year later nothing got done to my dash. Was hoping that i'd at least have it back and working by now. Can't be too trusting nowadays I guess!

The car deserves another chance at life.

I like what I see there! You NEVER should trust most of these professional assholes bro. That's the MAIN REASON I DRIVE OLD MOPARS! Chrysler Corp had the best FSM, and the most sensible construction of automobiles for the generalist home repairman. Nowadaze, I see that the word "technician" gets used to describe specialized insects certified by State bureaucrats to work a jerk on automobiles a little. The last ******* we hired for that proved so incompetent that I took the machine home from him before letting him touch the cam, which I still need to replace BTW. And this exhaust tube monkey had been CERTIFIED BY THE STATE TO WORK ON CARS!!!!! He managed to seal the cylinder heads alright, which was what he was hired to do, but that was the only thing he did correctly.

Think about whether you want to keep that car Isaiah. My brood would like something with a metal roof.....

 

[jmustian]

The original Painless Wiring kits were for street rods. That is its heritage. Street rods that needed a full re-wiring, front to back. Their "ace in the hole" was the use of OEM-level Packard wiring wire and terminals. The two guys that started the company did that work in their garage for other street rod people, so they went into business of building universal harnesses. THAT universality is where the OEM-type "pains" tend to happen as each circuit is dedicated, unlike the OEM-level where one power feed can feed three other circuits, and such.

The other "advantage" is that Painless uses late model mini-fuses rather than the older glass tube fuses in their fuse block. Not sure if that is a real advantage, though, as we got along with the old glass fuses for ages.

In reality, that ONE big harness is really a group of INDIVIDUAL harnesses for specific controls and switches. As the hvac harness, the lighting harness, etc. For each of the wires in the bulkhead connector, trace each one to see where it goes in the schematic. Looking at things that way might make things a bit easier?

Perhaps Evans Wiring might have some of those harnesses pre-made?

Keep us posted on your progress,
CBODY67

Hang in there. It takes time especially if you hate electrics like me, but only way I could get it done.

 

[mopar preferred]

Do you suppose it may be possible to get a replacement harness from Murray Park?