no start- elecrtical short some where in dash ?

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22dog22

22dog22

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69 cuda, did MAD electrical rewire 2 years ago, no electrical problems, other then not all the gauges worked correctly, fast forward this past winter took out gauges and replaced with VOD,did not get time to check out system to make sure all work, this past week finally had some time, hooked up battery no smoke or any sign of problem ,dome lite worked, got in car to try to start it , but no power, then noticed that the dome lite was out, I know the battery is fully charged have had a battery tender on it, started checking for power with test lite, found no power on either side of the fire wall connector nor the new wire used in the MAD rewire, I have the power coming thu a 16 gauge fuseable link, feed by a 20amp fuse , I have a power tap under the hood that is feed right from the starter relay , found this 20 amp fuse was blown, replaced fuse with 20amp, was able to crank the car 1 time then it blew again as I said did not have any problems till new gauges install. as part of the new gauges the speedometer does not use the cable but is wired with a hall effect sender now in the trans, is it possible that since these gauges use the full 12 volts and the hall effect sender pulling to many amps ?? of is there a short now somewhere in the dash ??
 
No gauges pull that much. Fraction of an amp. Since you have made changes, sorry, I don't know. What is this 20A fuse feeding, that blew?
 
the 20amp fuse is feeding the 16 gauge fuseable link wire that feeds the power for the Mad wiring going into the car. do you think the 20 amp is under powered since the 16 gauge fuseable link did not melt ??
 
No need for 20A fuse in series link, it will always blow first. I am sure accumulative loads will be greater than that. But that is not likely the only problem.

Since you were working on dash, hope you did not connect black ammeter wire to ground.
 
no I did not connect the black ammeter wire to ground I took out the amp meter and have a voltage gauge in place of it. also had no problem like this for 2 years before I installed the gauges. the funny thing you would think one of the fuses in the fuse block would blow and not the main one for the whole car since a lot are lower amps. !
 
We have no idea about the gauge wiring you have done. Might be best for trouble shooting to cut power to gauges. See if that gets past starting and other issues.
 
22dog22 said:
no I did not connect the black ammeter wire to ground I took out the amp meter and have a voltage gauge in place of it. also had no problem like this for 2 years before I installed the gauges. the funny thing you would think one of the fuses in the fuse block would blow and not the main one for the whole car since a lot are lower amps. !
Click to expand...

You still have not explained very well "what you have done." If you indeed have 20 in the main supply/ charging line somewhere, that is about 1/3 of what it should be. The original system supported "about" a 50 A alternator without modifications. The 65A option did some mods "dealer" or factory that essentially bypassed the bulkhead at least partially
 
as I said I did the Mad wiring by pass which called for a 16 gauge fuseable link supplying power to the factory welded splice connection which removes the factory amp gauge
 
See post #8. Some depends on length, it should be about 9". It also depends on ambient temperature and how long overload is present. Post #8 is likely based on experience, and results vary.
 
A fuse link has nothing to do with "the usual" thoughts on wire size rating. As I told you earlier, these cars from the factory, supported up to 50-55A or so alternators, "allegedly." In other words the factory link was not expected to blow with something of that order
 
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