[73LeMans]

I've always dealt with a slow crank/hot start electrical issues with this car. To get by, I either fixed it just enough, or bypassed it when possible. (Think alligator clips) Its been ongoing since the car was stock and driven to high school as well through all stages in the decades since. The issue was no doubt changing (along with the car) and that made it difficult to narrow down. Its also no coincidence that electricity is my weakest skill here, and that's saying something, because my welding is friggin terrible. The root cause however, was likely to have been a myriad of factors over time. Time to solve ohm. (It gets better)

Since I was going through all the systems for this rebuild, I wanted to rectify this. Figuring, but not really knowing, the 48 year old wiring in the column to be the main culprit, (nothing else seemed to work and this was common to most of the issues) I decided I would no longer start the car from the column. I was also tired of multiple switches all over the place (fuel, fans, dumps etc) and wanted to consolidate. This is the route I chose. All the cool guys on Street Outlaws have something similar, so I had to get it:



This would do no good if i didn't first start with good size cable for the heavy loads. I had done so in the past (so I thought), but in reality only the starter cable from the remote solenoid to the starter was duly rated for its load. As the car evolved to require a cutoff switch and remote charging lugs, lesser gauge wiring was introduced into the system, likely a result of dealing with time constraints and taking whatever Summit or local NAPAs had on hand. Regardless why, a hodgepodge of various gauge was in play. I was revolted. (nailed it) For my chance to correct this, all of the heavy duty work for starting/charging/grounding had to be decently sized. This should do it, don't joule think? (I kill me)



All lugs were to be heavy duty. All ends were be soldered and shrink wrapped. You know, the basics of good wiring.




This effort also meant the small auxiliary fuse panel I used for high powered items for the previous 20 years bought from a stereo place, (top of this photo) had to go. And finally, I would incorporate some quality relays for the high draw components. (If ohm being honest, fuel pump and fan were directly wired prior - bad, I know). Here was the mock up for the new board -



Here is the "current" board in action. (I can do this all night) The new fuse panel is from Blue Sea products. Its a Split Bus Fuse Block that allows one side to be hot all the time and the other to be key on powered. Wicked joule. The whole panel is mounted on the interior firewall above the passenger foot well.



Not bad for a battery from 2006 and sitting for the past 5 years. Didn't take too much of a charge to get there, and it held. I was "shocked". (This is some of my best stuff folks) Gotta love Optima.



Too bad I melted it a few months later when I forget to disconnect the charger one night. It Hertz to look.



Tip#4 - Don't use a 30 year old dumb, non AGM battery charger on high for 12 hours straight on an AGM battery. Pretty embarrassed about this one. I may not know electricity, but I know better than to do this.

I actually only noticed the meltdown when the top of the battery box showed signs of corrosion. Hard to believe those were brand new terminals. Nasty stuff those battery thingys.