Hello everyone. I have not checked in for a few years, wanted to get your help with this issue. I moved from Houston to Reno last week, and I drove the 63 convertible. Two hours away from Reno, on the 395 in the east Sierras, just after passing the 8100 foot pass, as I was slowing through Bridgeport, I started to smell smoke. So I pulled over in front of the lovely court house, in the shade, turned off the ignition, and removed the keys. Jumped out, grabbing the fire extinguisher, opened the hood, and saw the wires smoking. That's when I realized that the engine was still running. As I panicked and tried to figure out how to shut the engine off, the engine finally shut off, but then the connectors at the firewall caught on fire. I immediatetly put that out with the extinguisher. No real damage to anything, other than the wires. At least as far as I could tell. One shot of the extinguisher put it out.

It looks like the hot wire all the way from the altenator, through into the dash, alt gauge, and on to the starter melted away. And I'm sure that plenty of other wires were effected. I had it towed to the nearest shop (in Walker CA), and the mechanic there is an older gentlemen and has worked on our slants before, so I feel comfortable with him. It's too far away to go get it and tow it to Reno.

The car had never run better. I did quite a bit of work on it the last few years, and got plenty of help from you all. I was averaging 23 MPG, running 70MPH on the trip, and that is with it FULLY loaded with home stuff from Houston. Ran like a dream, until the fire......

So, what do you all think caused it? Where can I get a new harness? It will have to be both an engine and a dash, more than likely. Any help appreciated. Oh, and earlier in the day, the alt gauge started jumping around, clicking, and then it would settle out. Intermitently. Years ago, it would click and flicker back and forth, but that went away once I reconnected the ground wire from the firewall to the trans. This was not quite the same, as it would jump from nuetral to all the way to D, then back to nuetral. then back to C. Seems like a loose wire, or maybe the alternator?

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63 Dart GT Convertible

You can get a new engine wiring harness from Evans Wiring; you'll have to contact them and specifically request a 6-cylinder '63 A-body harness. Have them add a fusible link; most '63s didn't come equipped -- hence fire. Or, if you'd rather upgrade from a fuselink to a faster-acting, more easily replaced circuit protection device, have Evans make you a new harness without a fuselink and add your own main fuse; see here.

New dashboard harnesses are made only by M&H and sold only through Year One. A '63 Valiant item is not in the catalogue, but the '64 Valiant item, part number HU298A, will fit with (very) minimal adaptation required, if any.

You may want to look at upgrading the ammeter or converting it (plain or fancy, but no excuse for doing it sloppily and don't rely on MadElectrical's half-baked solutions) to a voltmeter so all the charging current isn't running in two directions through the firewall and dashboard. More info on request.

Ammeter misbehaviour could be faulty alternator, faulty voltage regulator, faulty wiring, faulty ammeter.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks for responding Dan. I called Evans, and he said that they don't make harnesses for A-bodies. He said that he could make one if I sent him the old one. Any other suppliers?

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63 Dart GT Convertible

Funny…he's made two for me in recent memory. Those were my '71 and my '73 Darts, though, so later/more popular applications.
Go ahead and do so -- or post a wanted ad for another used harness and send him that.
Other than M&H? No.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I have seen a Mopar alternator short out internally, but while it sparked it didn't seem to be in danger of catching fire.

I interpreted your description to mean that the wire to the alt's BAT terminal had badly overheated - that only suggests that way too much current flowed into the alternator (an internal short) or out (failed regulator made the alt go to max charging?).

Either way, I'd strongly suggest you inspect inside & outside and test both your regulator and alternator before you use them with your new harness - most likely one of them caused your problem.

My best guess is that an insulator broke near the BAT temrinal or one of the 3 upper diodes shorted to ground. Good luck.

Newer (my '85) ammeters used a low current setup that relied on the ratio of the resistance in a (fusible link?) to the resistance in the ammeter. Only a small portion of the charging current went through the firewall and through the meter. As long as you're getting a new harness, you may want to look at upgrading.

Chrysler passenger cars shifted to the external-shunt ammeter in '71 except A-bodies which didn't get it til their last year in '76. Trucks even later than that. The external-shunt units (which by the way have nothing to do with the fuselink) aren't as problem-prone, but also don't work and aren't worth the considerable effort to switch to. Better to look at a non-crap-looking voltmeter conversion; start here and here.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

"...the '64 Valiant item, part number HU298A, will fit with (very) minimal adaptation required ..."

The only difference is that the heater motor wire is under the dash in the '64 and under the hood on the '63.

The harness is otherwise identical. You just need to add a wire to the bulkhead connector for the heater motor.

I've done this on my '63 Darts with great success. Excellent harness.

--Walt Jackson

Great news everyone. My Dart is up and running again!

I called Bill Evans again, and he was able to make me a new engine harness after I sent him the old one. He did an excellent job, and it looks great. It fit right in perfectly, and everything matched exactly. I called and talked with Bill a few times, and he did a great job.

Under the dash, it turns out that hot black and red wires were fried, along with the ammeter. They also fried a couple of the other wires that were touching, but not too bad. I was able to replace the hot wires, and re-tape the damaged wires without too much effort. There was an interesting factory 5-way splice on the black side, that I had to remake. I didn't have a soldering gun, so I used connectors, but it it is solid, but takes up a bit more room.

Luckily, I had an instrument panel squiraled away for years now, and was able to use the ammeter from that panel. Mine was completely fried.

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63 Dart GT Convertible

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63 Dart GT Convertible

Also, forgot to add that I got a NOS alternator from SSD. Perfect fit, swapped out easily, no issues. Thanks Dan! Anyone want an older bad alternator, that could probably be refurbished without too much problem?

As always, everyone one here is a great help. Glad that I'm back up and running. Anyone coming through Reno, stop by.

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63 Dart GT Convertible

Whoah nellie, you certainly did have a fire!

Did Evans add a fuselink for you?

Glad the alternator worked out well.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

No! I forgot to tell him! Can you repost the link in your first post above regarding the main fuse? Thanks Dan.

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63 Dart GT Convertible

From the intended link:

OK. Your '63 was not factory-equipped with a fusible link, which is a crude and inexpensive form of main-circuit protection introduced late in 1964. There are threads on this going on here and here and here .

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.