Welcome Exner Rules! to FCBO!

[Exner Rules!]

I dont let any "mechanics shops" touch any of my cars. If you want it done right by someone who gives a ****, then look in the mirror. Nobody will care about your ride as much as you do, except for fellow mopar fanatics like us of course. This is the place to be for C body advice.

Ohh so true! I HAD Grundy antique Auto ins. Big mistake! They are underwritten by Philadelphia Indemnity, just your typical ins.rip off co. They insisted I take my car to a shop and would not work directly with me. Took it to Totally Auto, owned by Dave Ferro located in Philly, Pa. High end Mopar only shop that's been in business for 25 years or more. Mistake #2! He must have thought my Fury ragtop was comparable to a Hemi Cuda ragtop in value as his estimate was about 3 times more expensive than a real quote should have been...they (Ins Co.) totaled out my car. It went downhill from there! Now have Haggerty Ins. and finally got my car home last November. Still burnt all to h--- ! Guess I got my wish of fixing it myself! Ha! Ha!

 

[Moparmat2000]

Well the good thing about all this, if there is a silver lining is, all the bulkhead plastic plugs for your 69 fury are available new either from evilbay or classic industries. Should be the same as A&B body. The male and female spade connectors that plug into the bulkhead connectors are known as packard 56 type. You can buy these in bulk pretty cheaply along with fusable link wire from del city or Pico wiring online.

When i mended my harness i tend to crimp the new terminal end, then solder and shrink tube it. I believe del city also sells wire in bulk, however i have actually hacked harnesses out of late model cars and dissassembled them and used the wire from them. This way you can get correct color coding when rewiring. If you decide to buy wire in bulk, stay away from wire labelled CCA. That stands for copper clad aluminum. Its pure junk

Additionally on ebay i was able to buy an 11x16 laminated color schematic for my barracuda which helped a lot with tracing and pinning wires. I bet you can get one for a 69 fury. It may not show additional accessory wiring like light package wiring, however there a place online that has scanned mopar wiring diagrams.

Now would be the perfect time to do that ammeter bypass, get rid of that fire hazard, and install a volt gage in its place. I used a sun volt gages guts and my old ammeter face to make an in dash volt gage for my cuda. I'm betting this can be done easily on your fury.

All i can tell you is go slow, and wire one circuit at a time. Route the wires where they would normally route on the body and engine but do not terminate the ends or wrap them with black harness tape until you are sure that is how they are supposed to be.

I use wire bread ties to keep the bundles temporarily together until sure everything is where it needs to be, then i wrap the wires with vinyl harness tape, removing the bread ties as i go.

I hope this helps you out.
Best of luck to you.

 

[Exner Rules!]

Well the good thing about all this, if there is a silver lining is, all the bulkhead plastic plugs for your 69 fury are available new either from evilbay or classic industries. Should be the same as A&B body. The male and female spade connectors that plug into the bulkhead connectors are known as packard 56 type. You can buy these in bulk pretty cheaply along with fusable link wire from del city or Pico wiring online.

When i mended my harness i tend to crimp the new terminal end, then solder and shrink tube it. I believe del city also sells wire in bulk, however i have actually hacked harnesses out of late model cars and dissassembled them and used the wire from them. This way you can get correct color coding when rewiring. If you decide to buy wire in bulk, stay away from wire labelled CCA. That stands for copper clad aluminum. Its pure junk

Additionally on ebay i was able to buy an 11x16 laminated color schematic for my barracuda which helped a lot with tracing and pinning wires. I bet you can get one for a 69 fury. It may not show additional accessory wiring like light package wiring, however there a place online that has scanned mopar wiring diagrams.

Now would be the perfect time to do that ammeter bypass, get rid of that fire hazard, and install a volt gage in its place. I used a sun volt gages guts and my old ammeter face to make an in dash volt gage for my cuda. I'm betting this can be done easily on your fury.

All i can tell you is go slow, and wire one circuit at a time. Route the wires where they would normally route on the body and engine but do not terminate the ends or wrap them with black harness tape until you are sure that is how they are supposed to be.

I use wire bread ties to keep the bundles temporarily together until sure everything is where it needs to be, then i wrap the wires with vinyl harness tape, removing the bread ties as i go.

I hope this helps you out.
Best of luck to you.

THANK YOU! Your response is much appreciated and will get me started on my " how to rewire my ol'Mopar 101 course!" I,ve always been drawn towards all things mechanical but it's now time to expand and include the Electrical side of our great hobby. Thanks again!

 

[Moparmat2000]

No problem. Glad to help you out. Also i have made depinning tools out of jewelers screwdrivers to unpin female spade connectors from the plastic sockets, and i use needle nose plyers to remove the male spades. Look at the design of the connectors and you can see how to depin them. The bulkhead connector has the pin outs labelled A,B,C,D,E etc. You can also find color coded wiring online too if need be. I recommend getting rid of the ammeter, or at least bypassing it and leaving it in the gage panel to fill the hole. Very bad design on chryslers part IMHO. Second schematic shows ammeter bypass. To install a volt gage all you need is ign sw hot, and a ground. You can see how the ammeter is taking all the alternators output power through a plastic bulkhead connector with spade terminals just to run an ammeter, then back to the battery. Over time as this corrodes at this junction amperage builds up until the connector melts from heat, the wires cook, the magic smoke comes out, and the car dies and your stuck on the side of the road.

 

[Moparmat2000]

I used a sunpro pn# CP8215 volt gages guts to replace the ammeter in my 67 barracuda. You may be able to do the same in your fury. The negative post on the volt gage i case grounded to the metal gage housing, the positive post i drilled the housing hole for it to come through a bit larger and insulated it with a rubber grommet, then ran a jumper on the back of the cluster to the 12V input wire lug into the cluster. Your instrument cluster will be different but not by much.

I did this and added a 12v discharge fault light, however i am using a modern denso mini alternator, its internally wired for a fault light. My pic shows a negative and positive wire from the volt gage to power and ground, i have since removed the negative wire, as its unneeded. The gage grounds to the housing. Ask about the backlighting for my gages. I will be happy to share.

 

[Exner Rules!]

I used a sunpro pn# CP8215 volt gages guts to replace the ammeter in my 67 barracuda. You may be able to do the same in your fury. The negative post on the volt gage i case grounded to the metal gage housing, the positive post i drilled the housing hole for it to come through a bit larger and insulated it with a rubber grommet, then ran a jumper on the back of the cluster to the 12V input wire lug into the cluster. Your instrument cluster will be different but not by much.

I did this and added a 12v discharge fault light, however i am using a modern denso mini alternator, its internally wired for a fault light. My pic shows a negative and positive wire from the volt gage to power and ground, i have since removed the negative wire, as its unneeded. The gage grounds to the housing. Ask about the backlighting for my gages. I will be happy to share.

Wow! great info! I'm printing all this off into a 3 ring notebook to add to my vast "how to" library. Thanks for the super clear photos as they paint an image of exactly what you are describing. I have all the under hood wiring from a donor car that Murray Park is pulling for me and should be here within a week or 2. I plan to use these as a great guide in re-mfg. these harnesses using the info you sent. Yes I'm interested in the back lighting you performed on your cuda's gage cluster , it really looks great! Thanks again, your info has been so valued! Wow...the 'ol Fury may be rolling up to Carlisle this July after all!

 

[Moparmat2000]

Hey no problem. I am an A body nut , but want a C body too if the right one comes along. I'm a fusie fan. Your car also has an IVR . On your C body gage cluster in the back is a little rectangle box with 3 prongs. Its the IVR or instrument voltage regulator. It drops the 13.5 VDC down to approx 5.5 VDC for the dash instrumentation. It accomplishes this via a vibrating set of points.

Over the years these can become troublesome. If the points stick open the gages like fuel level , oil press, water temp will shut off, if it sticks closed, they will peg on full high. Your in luck as you can buy a new replacement IVR that looks just like the oem, plugs in the same way but is solid state, and uses a small semiconductor chip in place of the points.

On my cuda they mount the points regulator inside the gas gage. I had to remove it, and make my own IVR out of about $2 worth of parts and mount it outside the cluster on the back. I think the plug n play IVR is about $25, or i am including a schematic and you can make your own with plug in spades. The semiconductor is an NTE960 or equivalent. It will take up to 35VDC input and convert it to 5.5VDC output. So for a 12v car electrical system its not working very hard at all.

Again my dash is an A body rallye dash, with IVR built inside fuel gage. I prob could have mounted this device back inside the gage, however i preferred to make it an external mount in case i ever have to change it out. Yours will be a bit different looking gage panel wise however the IVR concept is the same. If you decide to build your own, You will have to find the 12V that feeds the IVR from the wiring coming into the cluster, the 5.5V output side of the IVR and the IVR ground. If you dont have a digital volt ohm meter , and some alligator clip test leads for fixing your wiring i'd recommend investing in that stuff now.

 

[LocuMob]

Hello from Minnesota. Nice ride!

 

[Moparmat2000]

The backlighting, yeah the backlighting. Very simple solution. As easy as Ebay. Look for LED flexible peel and stick light strip. It does not need to be the weather resistant kind. That has a clear coating on it, and will not allow it to bend as tight inside the housing.

About $5 to $7 will get you a 5 meter strip. Thats approx 12 feet !!! The 5630 LED strip is the brightest dimmable i could find. It comes in many colors including red, orange, blue, light blue, purple green, pink, as well as white. i chose green though i wish there was a blueish green.

You line the perimeter of the gage housing with it. As far as electrifying it. No problem. There is a cut line every 3 light segments, along with positive and negative spots to solder wires onto it. It comes with a pair of black and red wires already soldered on one end.

I started peel and stick where a dash back lighting socket was located then worked my way around the perimeter of the gage housing allowing for enough space that i can cut the excess off at the cut line on the light strip. Being that the light strip is wired in parallel, the cut end does not need wires attached if they are attached at the other end of the strip.

I soldered the red and black wires to a gage bulb socket, and popped it back in place. This is where you want to hook up some test leads with a 9V battery and check to see if it lights up. LEDs are polarity sensitive. If they dont light up when testing with a negative case ground to the cluster housing with a fresh 9v battery, simply pop out the bulb socket and pop it back in reclocked 180° from the way it was. That will swap the wiring on the socket to allow a negative ground. Its shown lit up with a 9v battery in the pix. Its very efficient.

I also recommend swapping all the rest of the indicator lamps out with LEDs they make the other bayonet style as plug n play. This lessens the times you have to crack into your instrument cluster. Again remember LEDs are polarity sensitive

Heres pix
Hope this helps
Matt

 

[Exner Rules!]

The backlighting, yeah the backlighting. Very simple solution. As easy as Ebay. Look for LED flexible peel and stick light strip. It does not need to be the weather resistant kind. That has a clear coating on it, and will not allow it to bend as tight inside the housing.

About $5 to $7 will get you a 5 meter strip. Thats approx 12 feet !!! The 5630 LED strip is the brightest dimmable i could find. It comes in many colors including red, orange, blue, light blue, purple green, pink, as well as white. i chose green though i wish there was a blueish green.

You line the perimeter of the gage housing with it. As far as electrifying it. No problem. There is a cut line every 3 light segments, along with positive and negative spots to solder wires onto it. It comes with a pair of black and red wires already soldered on one end.

I started peel and stick where a dash back lighting socket was located then worked my way around the perimeter of the gage housing allowing for enough space that i can cut the excess off at the cut line on the light strip. Being that the light strip is wired in parallel, the cut end does not need wires attached if they are attached at the other end of the strip.

I soldered the red and black wires to a gage bulb socket, and popped it back in place. This is where you want to hook up some test leads with a 9V battery and check to see if it lights up. LEDs are polarity sensitive. If they dont light up when testing with a negative case ground to the cluster housing with a fresh 9v battery, simply pop out the bulb socket and pop it back in reclocked 180° from the way it was. That will swap the wiring on the socket to allow a negative ground. Its shown lit up with a 9v battery in the pix. Its very efficient.

I also recommend swapping all the rest of the indicator lamps out with LEDs they make the other bayonet style as plug n play. This lessens the times you have to crack into your instrument cluster. Again remember LEDs are polarity sensitive

Heres pix
Hope this helps
Matt

Wow ! That's just too cool!...and you make it so easy to understand for us "electrically " challenged. More to add to my "how to series" notebook! The Fury lights the gage panel from up top and uses direct lighting directed toward the complete instrument area. This should really help out and brighten things up a bit as years ago I removed the tinted plastic lens that covered the bulb ports in order to see everything better. Problem solved! Thanks again Matt for your sharing this info with me. Have a glorified day Bro and keep it between the white lines! I had a mishap this wkend with my daily driver 1966 Dart GT cvt. I had my usual 3-4 car following distance on local interstate; two cars zipped in as if going to a fire, traffic came to a screeching halt....drum brakes suck in panic stops!!! I didn't rear end the a--hole but car got sideways and nosedived into the concrete barriers that VDOT crowds on the roadsides. Drove the Dart home but looks like I'll have a bumper, Rt. fender and bezel on my want list for Carlisle this year!...and a disc brake conversion too!! Ha! ha! Later!

 

[Exner Rules!]

Hello from Minnesota. Nice ride!

Thanks for the "hello"...aayy. I know the lingo as I resided in the U P. of Mich. in my childhood! Hope your weather cooperates and you have a very generous Springtime for ya this tear. More quality time for driving your favorite ride! Note: old snow tires make great burnouts!!

 

[Moparmat2000]

I am an aviation mtx tech sheetmetal structures trainer by trade, plus i'm very detail oriented. I drive my coworkers nuts lol. Thanks for the compliment on my writeups.

Dont forget to do a dual chamber master with that swap. If you use BBJ geometry corrected tubular upper arms, you can use FMJdippy, fifth ave discs. Everything from spindle out. This gives you big bolt pattern 1/2" studs, and 2.75" dia caliper pistons.

 

[Exner Rules!]

I am an aviation mtx tech sheetmetal structures trainer by trade, plus i'm very detail oriented. I drive my coworkers nuts lol. Thanks for the compliment on my writeups.

Dont forget to do a dual chamber master with that swap. If you use BBJ geometry corrected tubular upper arms, you can use FMJdippy, fifth ave discs. Everything from spindle out. This gives you big bolt pattern 1/2" studs, and 2.75" dia caliper pistons.

Ah Ha! Aviation Industry instructor...my kinda guy! I'm a machinist/tool & die maker employed at Norfolk Naval Ship Yard...passionate about all things mechanical! It helps to be able to mfg. some project parts too. thanks for the low buck disc swap info. That's one I haven't heard about.Well got to go for now as I work 2nd shift and have to go in early to do qualifying training to keep my nuclear quals current. Without them ,I'm on the sidelines. Thanks again and have a great day!

 

[Moparmat2000]

Hey no problem. Your 66 LCAs can be reused. You need to get A body disc brake lower ball joints, and 73-76 A body big ball joint upper control arms, and the grade 8 through bolts and nuts needed to bolt the FMJ dippy fifth ave spindle onto the lower ball joint..

Reason for buying the bolts is that When you buy the fmj brakes from the spindle out, the fmj spindle is through drilled just like a 73-76 A body is for the lower ball joint but its lower ball joints are threaded for bolts, and configured differently from an A body. Your drum brake through bolts will be too short for the disc brake spindle and disc brake lower ball joint.

FMJ upper and lower control arms will not work, so leave them behind at the boneyard. I bought an 85 fifth ave front brake setup for my kids 69 cuda. Ran me $100 from the spindle out. I have a set of 74 upper control arms BBJ type. A piston rebuild kit is cheap as are brake pads, hardware, hoses etc.

Mount the spindles to where the calipers mount at the front, and the brake bleeders are pointing up. It makes routing the brake hoses easier, and a set of 74 A body disc brake hoses should be the right length.

I am using C body tie rod ends, and C body pitman and idler arm on my 67 cuda. Its using a 74 k frame. This gives my A body a faster steering ratio with stock box. Old TransAm championship racers trick. Wish i could find a manual steering C body pitman arm.

 

[Exner Rules!]

Hey no problem. Your 66 LCAs can be reused. You need to get A body disc brake lower ball joints, and 73-76 A body big ball joint upper control arms, and the grade 8 through bolts and nuts needed to bolt the FMJ dippy fifth ave spindle onto the lower ball joint..

Reason for buying the bolts is that When you buy the fmj brakes from the spindle out, the fmj spindle is through drilled just like a 73-76 A body is for the lower ball joint but its lower ball joints are threaded for bolts, and configured differently from an A body. Your drum brake through bolts will be too short for the disc brake spindle and disc brake lower ball joint.

FMJ upper and lower control arms will not work, so leave them behind at the boneyard. I bought an 85 fifth ave front brake setup for my kids 69 cuda. Ran me $100 from the spindle out. I have a set of 74 upper control arms BBJ type. A piston rebuild kit is cheap as are brake pads, hardware, hoses etc.

Mount the spindles to where the calipers mount at the front, and the brake bleeders are pointing up. It makes routing the brake hoses easier, and a set of 74 A body disc brake hoses should be the right length.

I am using C body tie rod ends, and C body pitman and idler arm on my 67 cuda. Its using a 74 k frame. This gives my A body a faster steering ratio with stock box. Old TransAm championship racers trick. Wish i could find a manual steering C body pitman arm.

Thanks for the low buck low down on that conversion! You got my copier cranking out some more precious info for the library. You need to moonlight for one of our Mopar mags as tech. editor! Ha! Ha! I like your fix for the quick ratio too! Have a glorified day!

 

[Moparmat2000]

Glad to help. This keeps it all mopar in case you need replacement parts since the FMJ bodies are still new enough you can get parts