Electricity... dash/tach/bulkhead/interlock

[jbaha]

Hey! Sharing my experience with troublesome electrical wiring on my 74 chally.

At the beginning i just wanted to eliminate the interlock system. Folowing all the wires led me to the bulkhead and.. it was well fried, the dimmer too (seems the previous owner had a little fire in there) .

I decided to delete entirely the interlock system (too many wires) and upgrading the bulkhead. I think now that a better solution would be too just solder all the wires and no connector. I ran directly the ignition and start wires directly through the firewall.

The interlock system removal was quite easy, just follow the wires and cut or reroute what is necessary.

Did the ammeter to voltmeter conversion using the madelectrical bypass. I'm using a maxi fuse for the direct feed to the instrument.

The previous owner did some really bad connections between wires (the big gauge wire for the ammeter was  cut twice and reassemble with kind of a cap?  it was weird)

After all of that I started up all was good till I bolted the steering column up and a smoke came from the blinker linkage  (the only place I didn't see cause I hadn't any steering wheel puller I'm waiting for it now!!)

Here's some pics

[dodj]

Interesting!
I've never seen smoke coming from the turn signal arm......Hope it's simple.

[jbaha]

Found the problem ! 

Well it was the buzzer switch... there was lots of metal shaving. the indicator switch was changed by the previous owner but ihe left some of the old plastic components in there too...

For the buzzer switch, it was jammed, surely by some metal shavings... causing a short.

Now I can drive it! 

[Brads70]

Looks like the bearing on the shaft to the housing is missing also? 

[anlauto]

Looks like the bearing on the shaft to the housing is missing also? 

No the bearing is in the first section that holds the signal switch. (not shown in the pictures)