By Mike
Dailey
I
recently rebuilt my steering column and while I had it apart,
I
discovered a loose terminal on the
ignition switch and the power lead to the ignition ballast was hanging loose
where it connects to the terminal strip above the column.
This area is one of the last remaining areas of the car that I hadn’t
inspected and rebuilt. It
was a
very good thing I took it apart!
My
car has the resistive ignition wire used on the early Panteras replaced with a
ceramic ballast resister and
a stranded
copper wire running to the terminal strip
above the steering column. When I pulled the column down to disconnect the
terminal strip the ignition wire was connected only by
two wire strands.
Apparently whoever added the wire didn’t realize that trying to put
two large wires in the same terminal was not a good idea.
My solution was Y the two wires into one heavy wire using a crimp and
solder terminal so the large single wire would fit properly into the terminal
strip.
These connectors are a gold plated metal tube and comes with a heavy
plastic sleeve that slides over it when you are done soldering.
I always tape over them
as well. While I was working on
the terminal I took each wire out, inspected the connector, re-twisted the
wire ends and reinstalled them so they had a good mechanical connection.
View of the terminal block with the Y connection before connecting it to the terminal strip.
After
connecting all the wires in the terminal strip and before bolting the column
back in place I did a power test and discovered there was no power when I
turned the key on. The power
connections on the switch are soldered to the terminals and have a plastic
cover riveted over them. I
found that the power output lead on the ignition switch was unsoldered from
the terminal and was being held
loosely in place by the cover.
The
switch
end
of the old wire after removing from
the switch.
My
solution was to drill out the bottom of the cover, clean the metal terminal
and solder in a new wire. Before soldering the wire I heavily tined it with
solder and tined the terminal area below the cover.
To solder it, I inserted
the wire into the terminal and held it down with
the edge of an X-Acto blade while
I
heated the wire end with a soldering gun.
The heat transferred through the wire to the terminal and I was able to
get good solder flow without overheating the terminal
board.
The plastic cover gives the wire good mechanical support to reduce strain on the solder joint. View of the completed repair.
