Panama 58

Guys, here is what I plan to do. At the stater solenoid I plan to take the red 12 gauge wire, snip off the terminal and about 8" of the wire and solder in a 16 gauge fusible link with a 3/8" ring terminal and reinstall it onto the main power stud. Secondly, I plan to take the black 16 gauge wire (that is originally connected to the same ring terminal that the red one is), cut 8" off of it, solder on a 20 gauge fusible link and attach it's own 3'8" ring terminal and install it onto the main power stud next to the red 12 gauge wire. Of course I will also put a heavy duty shrink on each of the connections before I attach the ring terminals. I know there are others that I should consider, but I am taking John Hinkley's advice and starting with these two. The black wire runs to the ammeter.

I have seen where fusible links are sometimes installed in the middle of a longer run of wire within the harness like the red wire that runs to the horn relay, but with the wires terminating at the starter solenoid, it seems to make sense to put them there.
Is this the right way to approach this?

DansYellow66

I know 60s era Mopar starter relays on the firewall used a fusible link between terminals. Since GMs is down on the solenoid at the starter (I assume like a C2) then it seems it would function the same way.

But I'm an electrical dummy so hoping someone else will come along to weigh in on the question.

mrg

dplotkin

Panama, I think your plan is fine. Always fuse a circuit at or as close as possible to the line/load junction to protect as much conductor as possible, never bundle links together or as Frank warned in your other related thread, put them inside the car.

No one named Dan is a dummy here,Yes Mother Mopar used several links at starter relay and at firewall bulkhead connector.

Dan

Panama 58

John, you are right about the time spent to understand and do it right. My perseverance to learn and do it right stems from some issues I found in this original harness. The issue is I found that the black/pink wire that runs from the solenoid to the coil and then the coil to the ballast resistor incurred a melt down at some time. I first thought I would be able to expose the end of the wire at the solenoid, solder on a new ring terminal and be done. I then noticed that one of the wires at the coil had been cut and the end taped up. I knew this wasn't right so with a bit more investigation I also found a "bubba" supplied wire running from the R terminal running up the harness and then it was just zip tied to the firewall with an exposed wire end. Finally, the key to figuring it out was finding that they had replaced the original coil with a High energy Excell coil. By doing this they didn't need the extra juice and just bypassed the ballast altogether. I can only figure that the wire tied to the firewall had once been connected to the cut end of the second wire from the coil to complete the once full connection when they had the original coil installed. I began to unwrap the harness and found that the black/pink wire was toast all the way to the coil and then over to the ballast. I have replaced that entire two section black/pink wire(s) and will be taking my points distributor back to an original 087 coil. By doing this I figured that I might as well build in some protection while I have all of the open.

Complicated I know, but I want to get it right. As mentioned before, when it comes to the electrical systems on these cars, I know very little.......but taking the time to learn it and do it right....I hope.