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Thread: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

  1. #1
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Things are coming along nicely. Having access to CNC sheet metal cutting and press brake capability really makes things like this possible. For the circuit layout/distribution I just sat down with the Eaton technical drawing and the chrysler service manual and figured out where to route things. For fuse sizing I did a few things of which all I fully disclaim:
    -Proceed at your risk-

    The J body (and G body) cars on the last few years of their production came with a PDC. Circuitry wise there really is not much difference between a G/J body and something like the P body (or the A body) for the basic circuits. The P body is probably the most simplified of the later K based cars because we have no BCM or BUS system to contend with. Everything is more or less 'point to point' on where it goes.

    Study the service manual and see the breakdown of how Chrysler did it with fusible links (P body) or with real fuses (J body). For the most part those were almost a one to one conversion. Where it got a little more involved is not every circuit has the same distribution branch out. For those I did some rough load calculations and swayed to the side of caution. My particular P body is rather plain on the options so that also was factored in.

    As a secondary check I also have a 2002 Ram 1500. The PDC on that truck is super detailed and very broken down. The a/c clutch is called out @ 10 amps, a/c condenser fan (similar fan motor as the shadow) is 20 amps, the fuel pump is 15 amps ect. The estimates I came up with were more or less the same as those so I went with them

    It also helps for comparison that it uses the same mini style fuses as the Eaton unit I am using. One factor that I am keeping in mind is the amperage limitation of any one circuit is 30 amps because of the metri-pack 280 terminals. On a few circuits I will be running them at 30 amps... a little uncertain but they do rate it for that.

    For the alternator feed I am using a 100 amp MIDI fuse and the battery + feed going into the PDC will also have a 100 amp MIDI fuse inline somewhere.

    As a final closing note on the PDC I am using. It switches on the negative/return side of the relay coil, the positive side of the coil is powered off of the same fused portion of the circuit that is the incoming power. For the OEM circuits that are controlled that way it (should) work seamlessly. For the circuits that are switching via a power + signal like the starter relay and in my case the low and high headlight circuits that are using the original power feed as the signal for switching the relay that becomes a problem. I am keeping the add on fuse block I did earlier this year for the headlights and putting the starter relay into that.

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    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  2. #2
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    ASD relay 20 amp
    Fuel pump relay 15 amp
    A/C clutch relay 10 amp
    Fan relay 20 amp

    Individual circuits

    A2-30 amp
    IOD-10 amp
    A1-20 amp

    A3-30 amp
    Hazard flasher-20 amp
    A14-10 amp

    The original A14 circuit to the SBEC pin 3 (battery voltage) was spliced off of the fuel and ASD relays. For simplicity I opted to make it its own standalone circuit.
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    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  3. #3
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Very nice writeup thank you
    Regards,
    Miles

    DD '87 Sundance T1, SLH with rear disks
    '87 CSX #432 2.5 CB TII, SLH

  4. #4
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Slight revision of plans. Looking closer at the amperage limits of the ISO 280 ultra-micro relay being @ 20 amps in the normally open mode. Not really sure what the starter solenoid actually draws when its going but I do not want to find out the hard way. For that circuit I will be going back to a conventional big cube relay mounted on the inner fender. Fed from its own dedicated fused power supply.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  5. #5

    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Man that looks great for a DIY, excellent work!!!!
    [SIZE="3"] [B]Jon Trotter[/B][/SIZE] [B]1985[/B] Dodge Shelby Charger, Currently decommissioned [B]1987[/B] Shelby GLHS, #937 [B]1987[/B] Shelby Lancer, #628 [QUOTE=Reeves;587010]I can be ready. Please send pics of wife. _____DodgeZ add comments here______[/QUOTE]

  6. #6
    Rhymes with tortoise. Turbo Mopar Staff cordes's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    That looks awesome. I really need to do something like this.

  7. #7
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Remy battery informed me two of the terminal lugs I wanted are OOS for two weeks. Wanted to get the bulk of the wiring conversion done over the next few days and then only have the positive cable to remake. Since this has hit a stoppage I decided to paint the pieces and do some testing on circuit loads. 7.5 amps seems be enough for the a/c clutch and 15 amps is enough for the radiator fan so far.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  8. #8
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Since I am on hold for ~2 weeks~ I decided to make this full on legit and ordered some color coded wire for the big circuits where things may come up short. Rhode Island Wiring Service was the source. I know how much the prices were on their website, no idea what they were today and how much the shipping will cost. Guess I'll find out when the box arrives.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  9. #9
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Color coded wire came in from R-I Wire and Delcity. Started prepping some circuits that can be done off the car. Next two days are supposed to be good wiring weather. Bright and early tomorrow AM it starts, no going back once I start cutting things apart.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  10. #10
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Good luck sir
    Regards,
    Miles

    DD '87 Sundance T1, SLH with rear disks
    '87 CSX #432 2.5 CB TII, SLH

  11. #11
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    80% done. Overall it is better than before but still not as clean as I was intending it to be. Without doing a total strip and redo from scratch there is just too much stuff coming together and then splitting apart going 5 different directions to make a clean transition. It is still chaos but organized chaos. I'll do some pictures tomorrow.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  12. #12

    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    That has been my struggle with redoing the interior harness. Too many wires converging, there isn't a simple way to route wiring without it having some bit of congestion. Looking forward to the pics!
    [SIZE="3"] [B]Jon Trotter[/B][/SIZE] [B]1985[/B] Dodge Shelby Charger, Currently decommissioned [B]1987[/B] Shelby GLHS, #937 [B]1987[/B] Shelby Lancer, #628 [QUOTE=Reeves;587010]I can be ready. Please send pics of wife. _____DodgeZ add comments here______[/QUOTE]

  13. #13
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Quote Originally Posted by minigts View Post
    That has been my struggle with redoing the interior harness. Too many wires converging, there isn't a simple way to route wiring without it having some bit of congestion. Looking forward to the pics!
    One thing I did intend to do but decided against was replacing some of the wiring from the 60 way. On a nice 90* day I would not be hesistant to open up the 60 way and de-pin a few circuits to help clean things up. This time of year its just too cold and that connector is brittle when you start prying things apart.. ask me how I know that
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  14. #14
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation



    ~break~
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    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  15. #15
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

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    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  16. #16

    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Man that's a clean setup! Parts for the larger gauge wire in your OP links?
    [SIZE="3"] [B]Jon Trotter[/B][/SIZE] [B]1985[/B] Dodge Shelby Charger, Currently decommissioned [B]1987[/B] Shelby GLHS, #937 [B]1987[/B] Shelby Lancer, #628 [QUOTE=Reeves;587010]I can be ready. Please send pics of wife. _____DodgeZ add comments here______[/QUOTE]

  17. #17
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Quote Originally Posted by minigts View Post
    Man that's a clean setup! Parts for the larger gauge wire in your OP links?
    For the color tracer striped wire I got everything from Rhode Island wire service. https://riwire.com/ Click on the 'supplies' link and scroll down to see their offerings. They are very old school, no computer anything. Gotta call them and tell them what you want. Price list on their site was still valid from my invoice.

    Regular solid color/one color wire I used the cross-linked wire from https://delcity.net/ For smaller quantities they are cheapest by far. "free shipping" and find a coupon code for a little more off.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  18. #18
    Basic Vendor (MSD, Hawk, etc) Turbo Mopar Contributor rbryant's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Looks nice. This is a nice solution to get rid of the fusible links!

    The Neon PDC is another alternative but it still requires custom mounting. The Neon PDC is easy enough to find and the wire colors 99% match.

    The Neon PDC doesn't have a radiator relay because it used a solid state fan relay IIRC but there was an empty relay slot to use (I had two Neon PDCs so I could take wires from the second one to add extra connections).

    -Rich

  19. #19
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    A few weeks ago I was checking out a 95 Wrangler and it had a nice compact PDC. I would have really liked to find something that fit between the strut tower and the elbow of the SBEC case like the OEM units. For the most part the OEM style PDC's are bottom fed and that helps the cleaner appearance and keeping it compact.

    The ultimate goal/non negotiable point of all of this was absolutely no reusing of old wire/terminals. splicing old, stiff, crusty wires together really sucks. Even a few of the wires going into this I wanted to rip out and replace with new wire that was not all hardened and aged but time just did not allow it.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

  20. #20
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff 135sohc's Avatar
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    Re: Aftermarket power distribution center installation

    Got a shipping number finally from remy-battery. Front engine harness is reconstructed, will most likely regret it but I decided to go retro on the finishing and broke out the high temp tape to wrap up a portion of it. Probably going to become a sticky mess in no time but I'll fight that when it comes time to screw with it again (which I hope is never again).

    For splicing wires I have almost always used the open barrel style crimp sleeves like these. They work great but finding a crimper for the larger size has proven to be difficult. By now I have most of the Rostra/Oeitker crimp tool lineup in my collection but none of them really worked well for the bigger size crimp bands. So I found this one and decided to give it try. Never heard of the 'Hero' electric company but the BL-255 looks promising.
    1994 Shadow Sedan. 2.2 N/A, A568 400,000 miles. "the science experiment"
    1987 Shelby CSX #418. Long term rebuild and restore ?

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