Hopefully a quick question.

I am pulling apart my 73 Duster and found the multi connector from the ignition switch to the harness is burnt at the red ignition wire and the plastic connector is burnt and turned to dust when I pulled it apart.

Looks like the guy's at the factory left a little bare wire on the ignition wire and over the years it arced and burnt.

Can I just break away the plastic connector, fix the bare wire and then plug all the wires back into each other without the plastic connector. I would electrical tape up each wire separately then tape them all together.

Would the wires get too hot for the electrical tape?

Thanks in advance
Brent

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Arizona Duster in Canada

I've seen similar problems over the years; what happens is a little corrosion and resistance builds up makeing a poor connection, generating heat, speeding up corrosion, and you get thermal runaway and the connector melts. I've never seen the factory use bare wire - the insulation probably just melted off.

I strongly suggest you NOT just splice it together for anything than a emergency repair to just get home. The ignition switch carries ~20A and so ought to be considered a high current connection.

Almost all Mopars for many, nany years used the same connectors, so they should be easy to find at any junkyard - probably <1" of wire was damaged, so if you have enough slack you can crimp new pins (or reuse very clean old ones if your very careful) onto the existing wires, then the pins just snap into the plastic carriers. You'll need the right tool to relase the pins w/o damaging the pins or the housings.

It is important that the pins be held solidly in place; if they're loose, you'll get a poor connection and heat again. While you're down there, I'd check *all* your connections for corrosion too - especially the bulkhead connector, fusebox, headlight switch and blower switch.

Alternatively, you can use relays to move the loads off the ignition switch, so it'd be left carrying only a small (~50mA) load.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll fix up the wires then add a relay so the ignition switch doesn't melt again.

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Arizona Duster in Canada