Battery Relocation, Vintage Air, Hotwire Harness

[rebelyell]

I'm keeping this thread separate from my regular one in an attempt to understand how the original wiring works and how to wire in the new Hotwire Hemi harness and vintage air with dakota digital gauge conversion from standard. I don't understand how it all works together and I don't want to run redundant wires. I think I have read enough to understand how they work separately, but putting them all together is giving me a headache.

The basic wiring as I'm understanding it:
Battery - 200A Circuit Breaker mounted in trunk - starter. Starter to alternator.

I don't know how to get power to the rest of the car. Hotwire says I need to run a cable from the battery post to interior fuse block. I don't know what that means. Is this the factory fuse block that's powered off the old ammeter circuit at the welded splice? Is the solid wire going to the starter supposed to make a pit stop in the interior at a distribution post or do I need to run two wires from the battery?

If it is supposed to go from the battery to an interior distribution post, how do I then connect the fuse block to the distribution post? Pull the black ammeter wire and connect that? Because the red wire to the bulkhead connector is going away. Really most of what's there is going away except for the wiper harness and headlight harness.



And for the Vintage Air their instructions say to use a 30A breaker wired straight from the battery or starter. Since the battery is in the truck, I'd attach their connector to the starter. So that positive cable going to the box then has a 200A breaker at the battery and another 30A breaker coming off the starter. But they say that two white wires need to go directly to the negative battery post. I guess I run them with the positive cable coming out of the trunk? Is there a better way to do that?

Tell me what's not right. Will that work? This is easily the most complicated part of the whole thing for me and will likely cause me to burn it all down and walk away or hack it up and have it never run right. I want to avoid both of those.

[anlauto]

I'm not saying this is right, I'm saying this is how I'm doing it...third car now...
I purchased this from Amazon and mounted it behind the dash....I have the battery in the trunk (not truck, that would take a real long cable    )  https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08K78ZV2J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My POS battery goes directly to this junction, NEG directly to the frame. Also to this junction is the main cable from the GEN III Hemi wiring kit, which then feeds the starter and the supply control box (fuses/fuel/fans etc...)

Also on the smaller connections I took the black wire from the factory Amp Gauge, ran it through the fuseable link that was under the hood and straight to this junction.

The Vintage Air, same thing...through their relay right to this junction

Dakota Digital Dash I powered up using wires from the original dash harness...Factory clock wire for instance is constant power, great source for the new dash....etc...

I run a few other things to that junction, but of course only things you want constant power and not keyed power.

[anlauto]

Here the Vintage Air roughed in on a 70 Charger I'm building right now I use nutserts with a little sealer to attach everything to the inner cowl

[rebelyell]

I'm not saying this is right, I'm saying this is how I'm doing it...third car now...
I purchased this from Amazon and mounted it behind the dash....I have the battery in the trunk (not truck, that would take a real long cable    )  https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08K78ZV2J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My POS battery goes directly to this junction, NEG directly to the frame. Also to this junction is the main cable from the GEN III Hemi wiring kit, which then feeds the starter and the supply control box (fuses/fuel/fans etc...)

Also on the smaller connections I took the black wire from the factory Amp Gauge, ran it through the fuseable link that was under the hood and straight to this junction.

The Vintage Air, same thing...through their relay right to this junction

Dakota Digital Dash I powered up using wires from the original dash harness...Factory clock wire for instance is constant power, great source for the new dash....etc...

I run a few other things to that junction, but of course only things you want constant power and not keyed power.

I laughed pretty hard at the truck comment realizing what I did haha.

I think I'm set on most of it, then. Do you have a breaker at the battery? And what do you mean by ran the black amp gauge wire through a fusible link? I don't see where a F/L is on a black wire that powers the welded splice. Can I not just remove the wire from the amp gauge and hook it to this terminal?

Did you run the white Vintage Air wires to the - battery?

[anlauto]

I laughed pretty hard at the truck comment realizing what I did haha.

I think I'm set on most of it, then. Do you have a breaker at the battery? And what do you mean by ran the black amp gauge wire through a fusible link? I don't see where a F/L is on a black wire that powers the welded splice. Can I not just remove the wire from the amp gauge and hook it to this terminal?

Did you run the white Vintage Air wires to the - battery?

Under the hood on a stock original car there is a short blue fusible wire that hooks the main interior power to the starter relay. (see below)

I removed the black wire from the AMP gauge, extended it and crimped on a connection so I could use that same fusible link now inside the car, just for a bit of insurance. Yes you can ignore it and just hook the black wire up directly.

I welded ground studs just about everywhere on the car, at the back on the frame  for the main battery cable...this makes the whole car a good ground. Up front I welded three studs on the firewall to mount the new gas pedal....three to mount the computer etc...I ran the Vintage Air ground wires to the gas pedal studs

[rebelyell]

That clears a lot of it up. I don't feel as overwhelmed, ha. Thank you!

How did you manage to squeeze the PCM behind the unit? Is there any room for insulation?

[anlauto]

That clears a lot of it up. I don't feel as overwhelmed, ha. Thank you!

How did you manage to squeeze the PCM behind the unit? Is there any room for insulation?

With this B Body pictured I can still get my fist between the PCM and the Vintage Air unit, with the ability to plug in the harnesses no problem, on an E Body it was a little tighter and I had to hook up the wires before putting the AC unit in place.
I don't use the factory insulation, only Dyna-mat

DISCLAIMER: I've spent 35 years doing OE restorations. I'm really new to this modified stuff, I'm enjoying it very much, there's no rules, BUT there's also a hundred ways to skin a cat...so don't think I'm on here saying "this is how it's done"....I'm just saying that these ideas have worked for me and I'm learning different things with each new car I do.

[rebelyell]

It never even crossed my mind to use dynamat instead of the factory fiberglass insulation. I've got to rip out the dash to replace the defrost vents so I might as well replace that insulation too.


Totally understand. That's the exact kind of experience I was looking to pull from.

[anlauto]

Dyna-mat also has a thicker Dyna-pad I think it's called that you could use on the firewall

[rebelyell]

Well, I just bought that too. Didn't even know I needed it. Amazon had it on sale.

[Filthy Filbert]

Dakota gauges...

Can you guys offer any insight on how easy they are to use?  Do they come with any instructions on how to connect them to PCMs to communicate RPM, Oil pressure, water temp, etc?   

I intend to use Holley EFI on my gen 3 hemi, and would be nice to use the dakota dash for simplicity of wiring.   If I have to run the dash to individual sensors, then I might as well just use autometer or restored original gauges.

[rebelyell]

You have to install the DD water temp and oil pressure senders. You end up running two sets for PCM and gages. Tach comes from the Hotwire harness. They all plug into one control box for the gauges. I'm using the GPS speedometer and it's a single wire to the control box. Most everything else comes from the existing dash wires.

https://www.dakotadigital.com/pdf/RTX_manual_main.pdf

That tells you all the features and how to hook it up.

[Filthy Filbert]

Oh, ok.   Somewhere I thought I read that someone was integrating the PCM to talk to the dash panel via a communication link, similar to modern can-bus systems.    This makes it look like the gauge is completely stand-alone with no computer communication options

[Dmod1974]

I don't know about the Holley setup, but I do not have any hardwired sensors other than Vehicle Speed on mine. DD has a BIM-01-2 box that pulls the other sensor messages off of the OBD2 CAN bus.

[anlauto]

Oh, ok.   Somewhere I thought I read that someone was integrating the PCM to talk to the dash panel via a communication link, similar to modern can-bus systems.    This makes it look like the gauge is completely stand-alone with no computer communication options

Does the engine wiring harness you plan to use have an ECM diagnostic port ? I know the harness you buy from Mopar does.

IF SO....simply purchase the BIM-01-2 Box from Dakota Digital and plug your dash into that ECM port,. That gives you RPM, water, oil etc...no adding sensors to the engine.
Most modern transmissions have VSS which you can wire right to the dash as well to get the speedometer working