[Chrysler300] a cause of 300 wiring harness shorts/burnups?

[christopher beilby <thelastbestgenius@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

As some have already said/hinted, in the 300C, there is indeed a heavy/thick main power wire that passes through an open loop in the back of the dash ammeter, which apparently was still much the same in some later year 300s, according to other member's reply to the 'in car/300' wiring harness meltdown suffered by a member recently.
 
I have had two instances in my 300Cs where the main wiring harness from the engine bay to the dash cluster has self destructed - burnt up, and the causes, although different, but the same, may provide help as to what happened with our Member's 300 harness fire/short.
 
My first 300C instance where the main ammeter loop wire fried the harness from power source to dash, was the ignition tumbler came apart internally as I turned the key (I forget just how - I remember more it happened just after I had painstakingly rebuilt the harness with exact correct color wires after a previous owner had put in all black/wrong wires - like why couldn't the lock fall apart 'just before' I rewired it !!!!!), and allowed the loose power wire part of the ignition wire/terminal to touch the body/ground/dash sheetmetal.
The second instance, this time in my driver 300C, was my stupidity (as distinct from the earlier 'act of god' !), as I had left free the battery vertical round anchor rod that usually goes onto to the battery hold down - it fell backwards as charged over a rough rail line, and in another freak (act of god, or act of Mopar - you decide ?!), it is the exact 100% perfect length (yes the exact perfect to fractions of nothingness/inches) to not only touch, but stay on the power terminal/lug of the voltage regulator, and in effect provide a total dead short - which again somehow burns out the heavy red wire that runs to/through the dash ammeter.
In both cases, the amount of white smoke is truly amazing/terrifying.  But the good news is, if you are lucky/quick, and have left one battery end/lead onto your battery just loose enough so if is secure enough to start, but if twisted by hand, it comes up off the taper all battery posts have, then you may have only burnt your ammeter heavy wire, and not ruined all the other wires taped in harness with it?! 
 
Other similar 300 year owners may have had other 'wiring harness frying events/visitations', but what I am suggesting is that the most common 'common element' cause of '300 wire frying harnesses' may be that somehow there has been a power wire dead short to frame/body - whether that can/occurs with a faulty alternator as some have juist suggested as cause, I leave to those more 'electrically knowledgeable/inclined'.
 
In both my cases, by having a battery cable end free enough to wrench/twist off, my battery was not flattened, and in the rail crossing incident case, I hot wired the ignition coil from the nearby battery, and then used a screwdriver to bridge the also nearby needed contacts to crank the engine, and drove home - so if the battery is not flat in this latest later 300 case, maybe this also points to a frame/body dead short burning out the harness through ammeter?
 
And a quick further final on this topic.
A friend of mine asked could I help him start a 68 Mustang that had been in it's grave for maybe 20 years, asked if needed, if it didn;t fire straight off, could I pump the carb as it not connected.  He then put a battery in it, headed to the drivers door to crank it, and just as he did, huge clouds of white smoke rose - I grabbed the lead off the battery, and saw the red lead he had connected to usual positive/red battery terminal was in fact the earth lead that usually goes to motor/negative, as he said 'did I do that - what did I do !!!!?  Anyone who has put the leads arse about onto the battery of a car with an alternator is going to be up for some bucks/$$$ redoing their harness, plus alternator will now not charge.  So here is another trap to avoid - never use red color battery lead for any earth/negative battery connection (always use black for negative lead), plus always check any battery lead you are about to connect to negative of battery that it indeed does go to earth/motor/frame if it a car you not familar with - that is unless it is an early vintage car that has positive earth, or a 50s/60s 'english', like my 58 Austin Healey, or early E Type Jags - that have positive earth wiring systems.
 
More than enough said, sorry if I bored those who know/knew all this already,
 
Christopher
ps happy 4th of July American Celebrations - here in Australia this time of year, virtually no car events or much else on in winter, except footy
 
 
_________________________________________________________________
Your Future Starts Here. Dream it? Then be it! Find it at www.seek.com.au
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau%2F%3Ftracking%3Dsk%3Ahet%3Ask%3Anine%3A0%3Ahot%3Atext&_t=764565661&_r=OCT07_endtext_Future&_m=EXT

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


------------------------------------

To send a message to this group, send an email to:
Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm

For archives go to http://www.forwardlook.net/300-archive/Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:Chrysler300-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    mailto:Chrysler300-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/