[DaSouthWon]

While on powertour I went through 2 alternators and 1 battery, still having trouble figuring out whats up with the car. It's a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T, 440ci, ralleye pkg.

Just had a painless wiring harness installed by a shop, but now its nothing but a pain.

After the second alternator in two days I was getting frustrated and started tracing the harness looking for problems. I started pulling the looming off and found several things that concerned me. All the connectors from the old harness were wired into the painless harness by twisting them together and putting heatshrink on them for insulation. No electrical tape anywhere. ***? Why not just crimp on new connectors to the painless harness? Is this normal, I would think not? I found where the heatshrink had split on one of the alternator field wires and grounded out to the alternator chassis. I also found the distributor wiring barely connected. I fixed both of those. Does it matter if the field wires get reversed?

The shop also relocated the battery to the trunk. There is no ground strap connected from the battery to the chassis. The first ground the battery gets is at the end of a 20' 2 gauge cable run from the trunk to the block. Is this normal?

All the gauges, except for the ammeter, quit working the day we left. However the dash lights would intermittently, dimly, come on and we could find no blown fuses.

I guess my questions are 1. What, if anything, is ok with what I considered problems? 2. Could the bare field wires shorting out cook the alternator and are the field wires fused? 3. Does anyone know where to get original or reproduction factory harness plugs? 4. The last alternator we put on was a 76 amp alternator from o'reileys, the original was a 40 amp. Can the factory harness handle this increase in amperage?

Got lots of pics from the tour at myspace.com/dasouthwon

Thanks for the help. Miss you Doc

[BJS racing]

I think I can help you with this. I am a Tech. from Painless. The best way for us to work through this would be for you to call me with everything you have going on here. My number at the office is (817)244-6212 ext. 1016. There are some things that we should talk about from what you are saying about the instalation of the harness. I am the Mopar guy here so I am quite familiar with the car and the way it gets wired up.


Jason Hamner

[Strictly Gravy]

I gotta say thats a hell of a good thing to do from the painless guys. Thumbs up for you guys.

I am in the process of rewiring my 72 powerwagon, so I dont think I can be much help, but if you need anything, let me know. Also, if you find a place with era specific factory harnesses, please let me know. Thanks

-Greg

[DaSouthWon]

I just got off the phone with Jason at Painless Wiring. I must say that this is a top-notch A+ company. Jason spent a great deal of time walking me through correcting the problems that the shop had created. Even though it wasn't their harness that created the problem. They wanted a satisfied customer, bottom line, even when they were justified in passing the buck if they wanted to. Thanks Jason, and painless definately gets a thumbs up in my book

[BJS racing]

Not a problem! Let me know when you get the package and when you guys are ready to get her straightened out. You know how to get ahold of me and when I'm here. I'll be more than happy to help out when ever your ready. And now I'm afraid to not help you. You might have me arrested!

Jason

[DaSouthWon]

lol, I don't combine work and cars. I really appreciate your help and am not near as afraid of tackling this problem now as I was before. Thanks for stepping up to the plate when the dude that got paid to do the job didn't.