BearKiller

One never knows just what dangers lie within a second-hand vehicle due solely to previous owners mis-guided methods of repair.

I finally took time between storms to partially over-haul the junky falls-in-the-floor Dodge fuse-block in the wife's truck.

I knew from previous examinations that it was in a mess; but, keeping her out of it long enough to even check the oil is nigh impossible.

If you have seen that commercial where the guy is up on the ladder and his wife drives away with the ladder hung to her vehicle, then you can understand my situation.


First on the agenda was to dig out one of those 500-in-a-box fuses that had melted/welded itself into the fuse-block.

This was a green 30-amp fuse where a 20-amp should be; and, although it was melted into a big green blob, it was still supplying current to the wind-shield-wipers and A/C clutch.

I could not save that fuse position, so I went into the back-side and pulled out the two skinny blue wires that the fuse was supposed to be protecting and spliced them into an in-line fuse-holder, splicing that into the same KEY-ON wire that originally fed the melted fuse; I installed the proper 20-amp fuse.

Surely that pitifully skinny little blue wire does not carry the entire current for the wipers, nor the other one support the A/C clutch; I bet they aren't as big as 20-AWG.

With this situation remedied, I went on to clean up some more of his mess.

I had to remove each of the "feed" wires from their terminals and re-insulate half-inch long naked places where someone had neatly stripped the insulation away for who only knows what reason, and then left it exposed.

I slid two layers of 3/8 heat-shrink over each terminal and shrunk it over the naked places.

Now this is where it gets scary.

There is a big fat RED/WHITE-STRIPE wire that is always HOT.

Right at the fuse-block, in amongst all those other naked wires, he had spliced (if you could call it that) a big fat about 8-AWG wire, with a big blob of solder on top of the connection, and left that all exposed.

This was a direct UN-FUSED connection.

I had absolutely no idea just what and where this cable went.

I got the flashlight and started following it; honestly, it went back and forth all over before it finally went out of sight up behind the ash-tray.

I turned on the very-nice expensive good-sounding radio/C-D-player and then clipped the big wire off at it's connection; the radio immediately went dead, so that mystery was solved.

Before crimp/soldering on a ring-terminal and connecting this wire to one of the auxilliary fuse-blocks, I thought I had better learn a little more about it.

Just above the ash-tray, I found a flat braided GROUND-strap with four or five naked GROUND-wires solder-dobbed onto the end of it, loosely hanging and un-insulated.

Also swinging around within half-an-inch of this GROUND mess was another naked splice where the wire in question was connected to two probably 12-AWG yellow wires.

I ain't no radio man, but isn't that some awfully big wire for a plain old after-market radio ??; all I have ever seen have little bitty wires.

At any instant, while driving merrily along, that un-fused naked HOT connection could have became entangled with that naked wad of GROUND wires and, at the least, melted one of the fuse-links in that mess under the hood, thus losing all of the HOT circuits in the fuse-block, providing that it wasn't one of the fuse-links that he had replaced with plain old lamp-cord wire; in which case, the truck probably would have burned.


I relate this lengthy parable so that others might poke around their own wiring and spot any similar situations before things get out of hand.

BearKiller

My ultimate plan of action in all of our Dodge fleet is to completely eliminate the factory fuse-block, along with it's terribly inconvenient position, and relocate all of the circuits to a more sensible location, with seperate fuse-blocks for HOT and relay-powered KEY-ON circuits, plus plenty of terminal-blocks for ease of trouble-shooting and future modifications.




One very peculiar situation I found in the fuse-block is a big, very fat, BLACK/RED-STRIPE wire, always HOT, that feeds only (as best I can tell) fuse position 15, which is "Radio and Clock Memory, Power Mirrors, Interior Lamps, Underhood Lamp.

What is so peculiar is here is this big fat HOT wire on one side of the fuse, and a little, very skinny, wire supplying all of those circuits.

Thunderhog

If I were to rewire from scratch, I think the fuse block would be behind the glove box.

I had a 69 Charger that I bought, and when I got it home I looked under the dash. I swear some Clown got a crimp on wire connecter set for Christmas and used every dang one of those suckers on that car! It was a horrible mess.

Ace

Chalk up another one for good preventative maintenance.

12valve@heart

I'm still waiting for the Jim Lane 1st Gen re-wiring kit to be offered. I'm sure that it will be a whole lot cleaner than the factory mess not to mention the mess that I have after adding an exhaust brake, trailer brake controller, driving lights, and a bunch of gauges.

Naked grounds don't bother me but naked hots are a different story. Glad you caught it before it caught your wife.

BearKiller

The guy retired from many years as a diesel mechanic for a big coal concern.

I have said it many times before; most, but not all, mechanics should NEVER be allowed to mess with wires.

It is rare indeed to find someone that makes their living as a mechanic that can also wire, or even uses proper wiring tools.

These guys will have one of those humongous Snap-On cabinets, plumb full of shiny wrenches of every description, and the only wiring tools they have are a dull pocket-knife and some old nasty black tape that has been fished out of the oil-drain one too many times.

Billut

Dang, that is a keen sense of observation there, pretty darn true though...

I'm pulling out the wires associated with the A518 to put in a NV4500, and sure enough I got under the dash to find 3 (three!) hot wires dangling, no caps, no tape, just hanging.

Waiting for Jim Lane's harness too! He should be taking orders by now: a little down payment to purchase parts and material, pay yourself labor, and presto you're in business!!!

ebteckx

No kidding!! I dont even wanna talk about how bad my fuse box was/still kinda is, and the only aftermarket anything that was ever installed on this truck was a trailer brake!!!!!