Electrical Gurus

[foxtrot]

Toook a while to get to it but found that the aluminum solid wide from the trunk to the fuse box was the problem. I cleaned up the connection for the guage and that helped but once in a while it would mess up and then stopped working this week. The gauge was pegged at past full so that means it's not getting a signal. I found a store with 18 gauge pink wire put a new wire from the gauge to the pink wire in the trunk on the side of the connector where is has copper strand wire and the gauge is working properly now. That does it with the aluminum wire which will be replaced this winder with new copper wire. I have to find the clips for the connectors so if someone has a source for those please let me know...🙂

Sorry for the stupid question - what's the deal with the AL wiring? I thought that all of the gbody wiring was CU? In my mind, AL wiring stinks. I can remember back some time ago hearing about all kinds of issues with Al wiring in the homes in my area. Issues cause from oxidation, I think.. Glad that you found/fixed your issue - always cool and satisfying to fix an issue you are hunting for.

 

[pontiacgp]

Sorry for the stupid question - what's the deal with the AL wiring? I thought that all of the gbody wiring was CU? In my mind, AL wiring stinks. I can remember back some time ago hearing about all kinds of issues with Al wiring in the homes in my area. Issues cause from oxidation, I think.. Glad that you found/fixed your issue - always cool and satisfying to fix an issue you are hunting for.

Your question isn't stupid. There is a connector on the left side of the fuse box that is the harness for the rear lights and fuel sender. The wires are solid aluminum and a thin cover. It appears that someone previous to me attached the trailer wires with the quick connection and over time that severed the aluminum wires. The trailer wires were gone and the quick connects were also removed before I got the car but that is the only thing I can think of. I tried different methods to repair the severed wires but the wire with a butt connection would break over time and you can't solder aluminum. You can't tap into the solid aluminum wire and it corrodes faster than a cooper wire. With a copper wire it's easy enough to remove a bad section of wire and replace it. My GP is a n 86 and my last G bodies which were an 84 and 85 both had the aluminum harness for the rear. In the 84 the brown wire which feeds the rears lights corroded at the fuse box and I had a b!tch of a time fixing that. After the connector in the trunk the wires are copper strands. I'm not complaining about the solid aluminum wire, my car is 30 years old which decades longer than GM though this car would still here.

 

[foxtrot]

Your question isn't stupid. There is a connector on the left side of the fuse box that is the harness for the rear lights and fuel sender. The wires are solid aluminum and a thin cover. It appears that someone previous to me attached the trailer wires with the quick connection and over time that severed the aluminum wires. The trailer wires were gone and the quick connects were also removed before I got the car but that is the only thing I can think of. I tried different methods to repair the severed wires but the wire with a butt connection would break over time and you can't solder aluminum. You can't tap into the solid aluminum wire and it corrodes faster than a cooper wire. With a copper wire it's easy enough to remove a bad section of wire and replace it. My GP is a n 86 and my last G bodies which were an 84 and 85 both had the aluminum harness for the rear. In the 84 the brown wire which feeds the rears lights corroded at the fuse box and I had a b!tch of a time fixing that. After the connector in the trunk the wires are copper strands. I'm not complaining about the solid aluminum wire, my car is 30 years old which decades longer than GM though this car would still here.

I learn something new everyday! You would think that I would know everything there is to know about gbodys after owning a few over the past 25 years! I guess the reason I don't know everything gbody is because I'm a tinkerer with many different things being more of a generalist, oh well.

Also that's the truth about the gbody being 30 years old now and having age related issues. The good thing is that a gbody is inexpensive to keep running for 30 years compared to newer cars. The newer cars may provided us with 150k miles of trouble-free driving but when something goes wrong, it's an expensive repair.

 

[pontiacgp]

I learn something new everyday! You would think that I would know everything there is to know about gbodys after owning a few over the past 25 years! I guess the reason I don't know everything gbody is because I'm a tinkerer with many different things being more of a generalist, oh well.

Also that's the truth about the gbody being 30 years old now and having age related issues. The good thing is that a gbody is inexpensive to keep running for 30 years compared to newer cars. The newer cars may provided us with 150k miles of trouble-free driving but when something goes wrong, it's an expensive repair.

That is what is great about this forum and these cars, there is always something someone knows that I don't and others find ingenious ways around problems or upgrades with these G bodies which makes these car fun to work with. . You can't do that with newer cars.