Walter Clark
Enthusiast
When I decided to install a Dakota Digital coolant fan controller in my 1994 Viper, one of the things I did was pull the 50-pin bulkhead connector at the passenger side footwell to see if it was feasible to use a couple of the unused locations to route wires into the cabin (it wasnt). The first thing I noticed upon disconnecting the connector and pulling the rubber boot back was the gray power wire for the fans had massively overheated, burning away half an inch of insulation from the wire and turning about 2 inches of insulation brown. Then I noticed that the female connection on the bulkhead part of the connector was partially eroded away, badly blackened and the socket that holds the connector had been melted and distorted. I dont know when this might have happend, but it is pretty clear it was caused by a poor connection, causing a high resistance in the connection itself, and a lot of heating of the pins and wire on the fan side of the connection. Since I dont have access to the type pins used in this connector, replacing them wasnt an option so I elected to cut the fan power wire on both sides of the bulkhead connector and splice in a 12ga stranded wire thru a grommeted hole in the bulkhead to restore the power.
Maybe a coincidence or maybe related is the fact that the coolant fan low speed relay stopped working a few weeks back and the problem was overheated contacts that fatigued the copper alloy contact actuating arm such that it would not apply proper tension to the contacts when energized.
Anyway, I recommend that you pull the 50-pin connector on your gen 1 and inspect the contacts. Perhaps apply some spray De-Oxit to all of them before reassembly. This might also apply to other plugs and connections in the car since they are all getting well up there in years and contact quality may have deteriorated on any number of them.
Maybe a coincidence or maybe related is the fact that the coolant fan low speed relay stopped working a few weeks back and the problem was overheated contacts that fatigued the copper alloy contact actuating arm such that it would not apply proper tension to the contacts when energized.
Anyway, I recommend that you pull the 50-pin connector on your gen 1 and inspect the contacts. Perhaps apply some spray De-Oxit to all of them before reassembly. This might also apply to other plugs and connections in the car since they are all getting well up there in years and contact quality may have deteriorated on any number of them.
