Here's the second mystery electrical box under the hood of my '73 Duster

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timk225

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For Part 2 of our "What the hell is this" series, this as yet unidentified aluminum box is bolted to the firewall of my '73 Duster. It has a manifold vacuum line going to it, and white power wires to several small relays near the battery, and I have no idea what this thing is supposed to do.

Look at the components and soldering. As a former electronics tech years before I got into I.T. / Data Center work, this has got to be the most incompetent amateur hour soldering and component placement job I have ever seen. A 5th grader could do better than this!

It looks to me like some sort of do-it-yourself kit, to build and install.

Notice the blue / grey twisted pair of wires below the aluminum box. They come across the firewall and just hang down here, attached to a square piece of metal, like an induction coil / transformer coil. But they don't go anywhere else! They go to the coil, wrap around it about 6 times, on one side, and that's it. Just hanging down by the transmission dipstick, not connected to anything.

aluminum 1.jpg


aluminum 2.jpg


aluminum 3.jpg


relays 1.jpg
 
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The last picture is of relays of some type, trace the wires and see what they power.
 
That looks like a sixth grade science fair project gone askew.
I do not believe that is MaMoPar.
After market cruise maybe?
 
For Part 2 of our "What the hell is this" series, this as yet unidentified aluminum box is bolted to the firewall of my '73 Duster. It has a manifold vacuum line going to it, and white power wires to several small relays near the battery, and I have no idea what this thing is supposed to do.

Look at the components and soldering. As a former electronics tech years before I got into I.T. / Data Center work, this has got to be the most incompetent amateur hour soldering and component placement job I have ever seen. A 5th grader could do better than this!

It looks to me like some sort of do-it-yourself kit, to build and install.

Notice the blue / grey twisted pair of wires below the aluminum box. They come across the firewall and just hang down here, attached to a square piece of metal, like an induction coil / transformer coil. But they don't go anywhere else! They go to the coil, wrap around it about 6 times, on one side, and that's it. Just hanging down by the transmission dipstick, not connected to anything.

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THe relays are probably for the extra headlights you mentioned. The box full of electronics? A short wave radio may be! LMFAO
 
I could tell you, but then I"d have to ki.......................

Start's with "B", ends with "B", and has oooooommmmm in between
 
Was the guy you bought The Mystery Machine from named Shaggy and had a dog….?
 
I figured out what the mystery aluminum box was. It was part of the add on cruise control system. My handyman and I worked on the car yesterday for a few hours, and had a good game of "What does this wire do?" going for a few hours. He is half my size, so he got the job of crawling under the dashboard and up under the car. This box had wires coming from it, going to the cruise control switch that had been installed on the end of the turn signal rod. It has a hose going to manifold vaccum, into a vaccum switch looking component in the box. The part with a round white end, and gold colored tape on it. It had a pair of wires running down past the transmission, to a sensor and weight zip tied onto the driveshaft for a speed indicator. And other twisted pairs of wires going to the main cruise control box.

The soldering job on the circuit boards in this box was so bad, and the whole system looked so hacked together, that I doubt if the cruise control system ever worked properly, and if it did, I certainly wouldn't trust it. Mystery solved.
 
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