Location: Florida: Pinellas County
Posts: 2,106
My VIN: 5003 Never placed Concourse
Club(s): (DCF)
I'd guess you've already found your problem - the bulkhead connector. I had nothing but problems with all of them, from the taillights to engine issues. I had to constantly clean the pins, etc. One of the best things I've done was remove / replacing them with a large weather pack. I already gave away the old bulkhead connector otherwise I'd offer it to you.
-----Dan B.
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 4,740
My VIN: 02613
Club(s): (DCF)
Good call on the Weatherpack connectors. After installing two on the radiator fans, I've had the urge to install Weatherpack connectors all over the car! They're easier to install than I thought they'd be, and the rubber seals give me some peace of mind in this high humidity climate.
3.0L, automatic, carbureted
Location: Ellensburg, WA
Posts: 190
My VIN: 5510
I'll give you a suggestion.I am a programmer, but for many years I dabbled in electrical engineering and have done circuit design and stuff, mostly for digital electronics, and I'm actually super surprised to see that nowhere on DMCTalk.org has anyone mentioned a megger.
"What the heck is a megger?"
A 'megger', or "Meg-Ohm-Meter" is kind of like a regular ohm meter that you might have built into a typical multimeter - it tells you whether there is an electrical circuit present. Except instead of a regular ohm meter that uses just a tiny small voltage to determine how many ohms of resistance are between two points, a megger uses hundreds or even thousands of volts. It would be like the difference in using a smoke machine to blow a little bit of air to check for a leak vs using your air compressor at 100psi. It's super useful in finding ground faults that don't normally appear, because it has enough voltage to jump small gaps, or through broken insulation (hence why they are also called "insulation resistance testers").
While meggers are typically quite expensive (the one from Fluke is about $500) - you can find them cheap on eBay or Amazon - here's one for $50: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-MegOh...604179&sr=8-17
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,004
My VIN: 03572
Those are just for finding insulation faults. If you use it on your car, you will probably blow out a lot of electronics.Originally Posted by CyberBill
I'll give you a suggestion.
"What the heck is a megger?"
A 'megger', or "Meg-Ohm-Meter" is kind of like a regular ohm meter that you might have built into a typical multimeter - it tells you whether there is an electrical circuit present. Except instead of a regular ohm meter that uses just a tiny small voltage to determine how many ohms of resistance are between two points, a megger uses hundreds or even thousands of volts. It would be like the difference in using a smoke machine to blow a little bit of air to check for a leak vs using your air compressor at 100psi. It's super useful in finding ground faults that don't normally appear, because it has enough voltage to jump small gaps, or through broken insulation (hence why they are also called "insulation resistance testers").
While meggers are typically quite expensive (the one from Fluke is about $500) - you can find them cheap on eBay or Amazon - here's one for $50: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-MegOh...604179&sr=8-17
Posts: 446
+2 The megger test voltages of 250, 500, or 1000 volts can reek havoc on our car's diodes, capacitors, LED bulbs, ECU, Audio electronics, ignition control, digital clock, alternator regulator, etc.
Location: Florida: Pinellas County
Posts: 2,106
My VIN: 5003 Never placed Concourse
Club(s): (DCF)
I really hate the original style connectors used on the car. What I did was purchase a ton of 2, 3, 4 & 6 pin weather pack connector kits on Amazon and set them aside. Any time I had/have to work on anything with an original connector, I'd cut it out and put in the weather pack so currently my car has a lot of replaced connectors. For the bulkhead connectors, they're all gone and I got a 22 pin weather pack again on Amazon. I no longer have a lot of wiring going through that part of the engine compartment since I am EFI so the 22 pin was plenty for me; I'd imagine without K-jet you'd also be fine with the 22 pin one as well but anyone reading this with original setup would probably need two 22-pin connectors to handle all the wires and then figure out how to divide everything up. As long as you crimp everything correctly and the pin size you pick to install isn't undersized for the electrical load of whatever you're connecting, you shouldn't have to revisit or worry about the connector being corroded in the future. I started changing the connectors 5 years ago and haven't had a single issue or failure since.
-----Dan B.
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 4,740
My VIN: 02613
Club(s): (DCF)
Same here. I bought a whole box of them and whenever I work on a circuit, if there's a connector to replace I replace it.
The weather here is slightly cooler since the storm passed (heat indices in the 90s instead of 100s) so I think I'll finally start working on the "bulkhead connector delete" project in my Covid-induced spare time.
3.0L, automatic, carbureted
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 4,740
My VIN: 02613
Club(s): (DCF)
Autumn has arrived and working on the rear of the car I think the taillight harness is toast. The previous owner laid it on top of the coolant expansion tank. I have ordered new wire to make a new harness. I am also thinking about different grounding options. Is the rear lights harness really grounded through the bulkhead connection and then inside the car? Seems it would be easier to ground it at the frame. I need to double check and see whether the flasher module switches positive or ground. If it switches positive, I may just ground the rear lights harness at the frame. There are two solid potential ground points back there.
3.0L, automatic, carbureted
Location: Leonardtown, MD
Posts: 9,004
My VIN: 03572
The blinkers and rear lights switch the 12 volts so grounding to the frame should work fine.
Location: Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 4,740
My VIN: 02613
Club(s): (DCF)
Thank you, Dave! You just saved me a lot of poking around with my meter.
3.0L, automatic, carbureted
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Dave M vin 03572