71 B-Body, thoughts on overheating electrical terminal?

Hi all,

I'm in the process of reinstalling my dash, and happened to notice that one of the terminals that connects to the headlight switch appears to have overheated sometime in the past.

In the first pic, looking over the top of the dash, it's the terminal at the top left.

I only have very basic electrical skills/knowledge. Has anyone seen this before? Any thoughts on what could have caused it? Am I safe to put this terminal back on, or is there something I should be looking for? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

Roger

too much current flowing thru that connection (dead short or too high of draw downstream on the device end) and or a loose terminal male/female fit. I would get a new female one NAPA 725145 99 cents & before you insert it into the bakelite trial fit it in your hand on the male one there in the bakelite for a snug fit (lightly bend the curved edges as (if) needed). Some kopperkoat (sp) or similar conductivity paste wouldn't hurt. Make sure you do a good solder/crimp on the terminal to the wire & pull the lock tab out a bit from "flush" so it locks in place with a resounding snap as you pull the wire/terminal backwards into the bakelite holder. EDIT after looking at the pic again you may have to lengthen the wire on one side to make the male/female connection away from that severley damaged area. No big deal, with a good crimp/good soldering/good tight "fit" of the brass terminals together you will be fine on that part anyhow IF there is NO excessive draw but I am leaning toward just the bad terminal interface being the issue (loose/poor connection there where it overheated).

Sorry, I'm not an electrical expert either but I would suggest tracing that circuit to see if there are any other hints of a past problem. A factory service manual with wiring diagrams would really help you out. I definitely wouldn't put that back together as is.

Mike.

Thanks, guys. I will try both those things.

That s a very common problem on Mopars. The headlights are probably the second highest amperage draw in the electrical system, aside from the starter itself. The blower motors draw a lot of amps, especially when the motor starts to age.

I would replace the terminal with a new one and if you are not doing a show car restoration rewire the headlights to use relays or LED bulbs to cut down on the current draw through the switch. There is plenty of room in the front end of 3rd gen charger to hide relays if you want to keep it stock looking.

Do the relays for the headlights, it makes a huge difference in the brightness of the headlights. I would also replace that connection on the switch. If its not a restoration, you can cut the connector away from that terminal and just add a new female spade to the wire. You will have to push it on individually to make the connection. Gene

Is the ground reinforcement wire installed?

If that connection looks like that also check the dimmer switch on the floor too, those tend to get the worse of things.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I ended up cutting the corner off the connector block, and crimping and soldering a new male terminal onto the affected wire. Before re-installing the block, I put some dilectric grease on all connections.

I also think I may have figured out what happened. I noticed the male stud on the headlight switch was bent slightly rearward, so I suspect instead of the female connector fitting snugly down onto the male end, it may have missed the stud, and slid down in front of it instead(?). Hopefully, this will take care of it.

Roger