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Re: Lost Electrical Power
Meanmachine #766696 October 21st 2020 1:05 pm
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Originally Posted by Meanmachine
The Fusible Link is a thicker gauge red wire that comes off the positive battery terminal and connects into the electrical bulkhead on the firewall. The bulkheads were known to corrode on the inside where you can't see it. I had an electrical shop pull mine apart and clean the terminal connectors many years ago. I had a 74 Dodge that would lose all power when I hit a bump in the road or shut the door. Problem was the Fusible Link had corroded and the wire was partially broken inside the plastic casing. In my experience with the ballast resistor, the motor will still turn over, but not start. When the fusible link was bad, there was no power to anything on the van, as if the battery was totally unhooked.

That's exactly what this sounds like. I'll pull the bulkhead connectors, clean it & make sure it's not corroded. I also investigate the fusible link as well. I know the red one directly from the battery had a new wire directly spliced to the batter. It would come unhooked from the bulkhead & I'd lose all power. I soldered it together though & never had that problem again...but it's possible it's bad again.


1977 Dodge B100 318 POS
Re: Lost Electrical Power
CowboyVan #766700 October 21st 2020 5:04 pm
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Pulling that bulkhead connector can be an adventure. They used a thin foam almost like double sided tape as a seal between the flange of the engine compartment side and the firewall. To avoid snapping the flange, you may do well to use something like a paint scraper or putty knife to work up under the flange to break the grip of the seal as much as possible. I always end up prying up with screwdrivers or putty knives on either side, rocking them until the bulkhead connector begins to come out, then I reach for something bigger. In general, you don't want to pull on wires.

BTW, if you find any really messed up terminals, corroded or overheated, Napa still offers them. I have the part numbers at home if you need them. It's handy knowing they're available; it's possible to add your own additional circuits without drilling more holes through the firewall.


-It's been such a LONG TIME... BlueShift>> 1981 Dodge Ram B250 Custom Sportsman Maxi Van


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Re: Lost Electrical Power
doc yukon #766741 October 22nd 2020 10:56 am
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Originally Posted by doc yukon
I would look for a bad firewall connection where the main power wire goes through the firewall. My experance. Check the amp gauge if it has one.

If it has an amp gauge that's burned out or bad connection you can loose all power. Because all the power goes through it before it's sent out to the rest of the vehicle. A volt gauge will not have the same kind of problem.

1 member likes this: CowboyVan
Re: Lost Electrical Power
captainchrysler #767141 November 03rd 2020 7:00 pm
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Originally Posted by captainchrysler
Originally Posted by doc yukon
I would look for a bad firewall connection where the main power wire goes through the firewall. My experance. Check the amp gauge if it has one.

If it has an amp gauge that's burned out or bad connection you can loose all power. Because all the power goes through it before it's sent out to the rest of the vehicle. A volt gauge will not have the same kind of problem.

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! Checked the bulkhead connectors. Not great, corrosion, some burnt pieces but I was getting power on both sides of firewall now at least. That tells me the bulkhead connector needs replaced and / or bypassed completely. It's seen better days. But still not powering up.

Took instrument panel off, power comes on in process. Getting warmer! Amp gauge had power on both sides of the posts but was sizzling when I wiggled it. Cut it out completely & hardwired the 2 cables together. She's running like a champ now! (And by champ, I mean a 43 year POS that will probably explode some day going down the road. LOL)

Thank you all for your help. I think I'm slowly getting to understand this thing. It clearly sat for much longer than I was led to believe. Within 2 weeks of putting some miles on it I've had every gasket leak & other crap go wrong. Fortunately most of the parts are inexpensive & I can do it myself. I'll be back on the forums w/in a couple days for more help I'm sure.


1977 Dodge B100 318 POS
Re: Lost Electrical Power
Ram4ever #767142 November 03rd 2020 7:03 pm
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BTW, if you find any really messed up terminals, corroded or overheated, Napa still offers them. I have the part numbers at home if you need them. It's handy knowing they're available; it's possible to add your own additional circuits without drilling more holes through the firewall.[/quote]

I should redo the bulkhead connectors over winter. Would you recommend getting new connectors at NAPA or just hardwire & bypass altogether? I'm leaning towards new connectors as factory intended. (And mine wasn't glued in, it had some sticky goo that had run down in years ago, but had a wire clamp over the harness so you had to remove that first, then squeeze the connectors & they unplugged easy enough. I sprayed electrical cleaner in them. That may buy me some time at least).


1977 Dodge B100 318 POS
Re: Lost Electrical Power
CowboyVan #767181 November 05th 2020 11:57 am
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Their system was well enough engineered for the size of electrical loads at that time. It mostly worked pretty well. Their ammeter wasn't a great idea, nor was running headlights through those small bulkhead terminals; let's say they weren't rated very generously... especially for modern electrical loads.

For myself, if the circuit requires 10 gauge wire, I'd be inclined to install my own marine bulkhead connector as a feed through, and use modern high current connectors like Anderson Powerpoles, on the inside of the van. For the circuits which require less current, the original bulkhead connector terminals are likely fine with the contact cleaner you and used. (I use CAIG D-5, a cleaner with a proven track record in the electronics industry)

If there's any individual terminals with serious corrosion, they're easy enough to extract that it's not worth the gamble of having a circuit drop out on you. The original style terminals are only around $1 each at NAPA. It only takes a small jeweler's screwdriver or cheap blade-type terminal extractor to pop out individual terminals.


-It's been such a LONG TIME... BlueShift>> 1981 Dodge Ram B250 Custom Sportsman Maxi Van


[Linked Image]

It's what you learn after you know it all, that counts...

Are you living to work, or working to live?

[Linked Image]

Learning from my own mistakes is good, learning from yours would be much better! [Linked Image]
Re: Lost Electrical Power
CowboyVan #767225 November 07th 2020 1:46 am
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A while back I located all the Fusible links and relocated them to where I can easily see them to check/inspect, clamp a DC clamp ammeter around them.

The Headlamps, and the blower motor, make up a majority of the current which can pass through the bulkhead connector, and the wire gauge they used are are absolute minimum what they could get away with, and SAE gauge is 6 to 12% thinner than AWG as a result there is more resistance on teh wire nd the connectors and everything gets hotter and eventually the fuse starts blowing often or the fusible link and the burnt wires in teh bulkhead connector will keep causing issues.

If one uses relays for their headlamps, and then only uses the original wiring to trigger these relays, not only does more voltage reach the headlamps, making them brighter, but it takes a significant percentage of load off of the headlight switch, the dimmer switch, and the main fuse box, and some of the bulkhead connectors and the fusible links. The other signal lights, will also get more voltage and be brighter.


The Blower motor, well while mine is perfectly operable through the speed resistors and speed switch( not always the case...long story), I now instead use a PWM motor speed controller, to have infinite speed on the blower motor, and have it receive higher voltage and spin faster and waste less amperage as heat in the resistors, and take load off the bulkhead connector and the fusible links feeding it.
---

PWM motor speed controllers should advertise no less than 21kHZ. Less than this and the motor windings whine annoyingly at reduced speeds.

My newish VDO blower motor, over a very heavy 8 awg circuit, receives lots of voltage, and spinning faster allows it to draw more amperage. It draws about 15.5 amps max @ 14.7v, but changing the airflow outlets and blend door position, change the amperage the motor draws, fairly significantly. The PWM motor speed controller RaM4Ever found and declared was built like a tank, claimed 60 amps, but I think it is more like 40 continuous 60 surge.

Anyway the thing barely gets warm passing 15 amps continuously, and I can run it with the engine off and likely have 25% more potential airflowing through the vents at highest speed.

Good to have a lot of overhead.
The seller of this specific model no longer advertises it, or I'd link it. it was under 20$ though.
I think its a huge improvement in function over the 4 set speeds.

I meant to run a bunch of tests comparing the efficiency improvement between resistor pack and stock circuit and the PWm motor speed controller, but just never bothered to hook up the resistors again, even though it has a 45 amp anderson powerpole right there and takes about 15 seconds to swap which circuit that powers the blower motor

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