This car has been so modified that solving this is more a matter of good, basic circuit design. I pretty much ran the world from the old blue wire ignition ciruit under the hood by wiring the blue wire to new fuse blocks under the hood, and then feeding wires there for any circuits that need switched power. Things such as the ECU, the electric fans, and the fuel pump relay were powered in this way. I know this was not the greatest setup; it just kind of grew out of control. And then when the new dash was designed, it was easiest to just tap off this and bring it back in the cabin.

The new dashboard is all in, and all of the connecting plugs are hooked up. All the circuits powered from the battery 12volts are working fine as far as I have tested. The lights, the horn relay, and the cigarette lighter work. The dash lights come on when the lights are put on, and the high beam/low beam works well.

But only one of the switched 12 volt circuits seems to be functioning. This is the 12 volts that powers the heater/AC fan, although I have not plugged in the fan yet. Oddly enough, the rest of the switched circuits read 1.75 volts, just enough to make the turn signals come on, but only flash once, and then not again. I have no idea how 1.75 volts is getting through to this switched circuit. There must be some sort of feed back coming through to this circuit somehow. I suspect this is an old situation, because before the dash project was started, the engine did not always cut off when you turned the switch off. I had to let out the clutch to kill it. This did not seem to be too big a concern, but I knew something was not right. I actually thought maybe I was getting some residual DC from the alternator as it coasted after the IGN switch was turned off. Anyway, it was easier to just ignore it. Now that I have lost the primary feed, this 1.75 volts is all that is left, maybe.

All of the circuits that are not up to par are ones that used to be powered by the blue ignition, underhood wire, and now, somehow, I have severed that connection through my rewiring. I disconnected the bulkhead connector at one point, so there is a possibility that a failed connection, or a very poor one now exists. I have not checked that yet.


So the question now is, what is the safest and easiest way to get this back on line? There is a glass fuse on the fuse block that has a spare tab on it. This fuse is fed by a red wire with a white tracer on it. According to my FSM the accessories feed to the fuse block is black. I could come off of the spare tab, and put an inline fuse in there, and take that out to the original fuse block under the hood that feeds everything else. I could also bring battery power into the cabin, and switch this on and off with a rocker switch, thereby making the ignition switch for starter-motor-operation only. The problem with this plan in my mind is that I might then end up with parallel feeds somewhere, which means the fuses would not blow as fast in the even of a short somewhere. Or worse yet, I would be providing a path back to ground through another more delicate device of some kind.

I have two switched 12 v fuse blocks under the hood, which are now chained together. I could seperate them by running seperate. One could be fed by the spare blade on the fuse block, and the other could be brought in and switched with a rocker.

I really need some basic guidance here. It is about time to get this right. Any help would really bea appreciated.

Sam

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Sam , When it comes to electrical it's like oil and water to me. BUT I have found that if you go to the Painless wiring web site you may find a schematic that will suit your needs. I did this with a stock fuse box but removed lots of wires and swapped wires when I took my Dart off the street and made it just for racing.

OK, I found the mistake that caused the loss of voltage, and got it hooked up correctly. It started, and things all seemed to work OK. The only problem is that the error was caused by misreading the OEM diagram, and the OEM bulkhead connector schematic, and I ran the twelve volts to the intake air sensor, which would have, in turn put 12 volts to the ECU for the air intake temp pick up. I hope I did not fry something. I thought the wire I was running to the temp sensor was going to a gauge in the dash. Instead it went to the switched 12 volt source.

The problem is that Mopar turned the bulkhead connector diagrams various ways from page to page, and on the same page sometimes. I just got confused about which socket was which. I should never have tried to use the bulkhead connector at all.

I am going to post this on the EFI section and see if anyone thinks this fried something.

Sam

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