74 Bronco engine fire / harness help?

Broncoblood · Oct 7, 2019

engine fire took out my harness on my December 1973 Bronco.

everything on the Duraspark side and the regulator side is ok but the center wires going to the temp & oil sending unit are fried and the wires going to the electronic ignition distributor are fried.

I know they make aftermarket pig tail for the sending units but I need whatever pigtail goes from the firewall to the to distributor? The wires under the dash are all fine and even sticking out of the firewall into engine just above the driver side valve cover are ok but just after that grommet it turns into a melted blob and I cant even tell what goes there?

My Bronco is a 12/73 year model, I have heard that the Durasparks differ? my Durspark wires are 7 instead of 6 and go Red/Orng/Wht/Purp/LiteBlue/Blk/Green.

If anybody has the original pig tails that I need or maybe know of somebody that can make some original style that would be cool? Or maybe I need a larger portion of the harness??

A pic of a late 73 or 74 Bronco engine harness in that area would be helpful too?

needsmoarturbo · Oct 7, 2019

https://shop.broncograveyard.com/Motor-Harness-1973-74/productinfo/18012/

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/prf-30812

I think you need the above 2 harnesses?

jckkys · Oct 7, 2019

'73s had point ignitions. Yours must have been upgraded to Duraspark. Painless and Amer. Auto Wire make Duraspark harnesses. That's most of what you need.

DirtDonk · Oct 7, 2019

He's got a '74. Just mentions 12/73 build and is a '74 model year and they did have Dura Spark at least in CA.
I forget which module they used (red maybe?), but that probably won't matter as only the Blue module harness is typically available. Which is fine, since Ford went to that version for all models at some point just a few years after anyway.

Can we see a pic of yours Broncoblood? Just to see how it's laid out under the hood and jog some memories of what goes where on

If you can't find just the right setup for yours though, I would think it would be easy to create your own using Weatherpack connectors or similar.

Good luck! Sorry to hear about the fire.
Do you know what caused it?

Paul

Skytrooper15 · Oct 7, 2019

Chiltons manual shows seven wires for the 1975 model and only six wires for the 76 and 77 so it looks like it might be either 76 or 77 wiring harness for the module side of the wiring harness.Does your Bronco have a dura-spark module 1?You can tell by looking at where the wires go into the strain relief and see what color it is.77 should be green and I think that is the only color they make on the module anymore.On the 1975 module the resistor wire goes back into the module which is the run position on the ignition switch.

73azbronco · Oct 7, 2019

My 73 was stock with duraspark, Texas truck.

Broncoblood · Oct 7, 2019

I appreciate the help.
Yes it is a December 1973 so a 74 model even though my title says 73.
I do not think anything was ever changed under the hood, it appears to be all original but now burnt. I did clean it so we can see what we are looking at. My Duraspark does have 7 wires going into the plug.
what is the best way to post some pictures to you guys so you can see what I am looking at?

DirtDonk · Oct 8, 2019

If you don't use an online image hosting site like SuperMotors, PhotoBucket or the others, you can upload images to your "garage" or "gallery" locations for free, or for 12 bucks a year you can become a contributor and upload directly to the forum from your device.

If you think you're going to be using the forum a lot and pictures will be a part of it, the 12 bucks is well worth it to many of us (you can see the yellow "contributor" below their usernames and in fact in a pinch you could e-mail the images to one of us and we can post them directly. Or just start with the garage and see how it goes from there.

Paul

DirtDonk · Oct 8, 2019

73azbronco said:
My 73 was stock with duraspark, Texas truck.

Cool. Maybe I was thinking about the Dura Spark II with the big cap was first seen in '74 then?
Dunno, but I know '73 was quite the year for transitions in the Bronco world.

Paul

Rustytruck · Oct 8, 2019

My June 1974 california edition has black strain relieve on the module. It was small diameter cap high dialetric blue cap and blue rotor with supression wires. The wiring is all wrapped in plastic wire tape no split loom so not easy to follow wire colors. There are several wiring combinations through 74 to 77 depending on the modue wire strain relief colors. There were also aftermarket modules that rearrange wires using less pins in the connectors. So you have to watch out for that too.

DirtDonk · Oct 8, 2019

I think we had a Black module at the swap meet this weekend. Was surprised to see two modules of the odd colors. One Red one Black if I remember.
In case you ever need a spare and are having a hard time finding one, keep that one in mind.

Paul

Broncoblood · Oct 8, 2019

https://classicbroncos.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/37036/limit/recent

Broncoblood · Oct 8, 2019

I believe with that link above you can view my burnt engine harness, the good wire and the bad wires, the colors, the count and where I am talking about?
The coil wires just were hooked up normal with eyelets not that plastic 1/2 horseshoe, is that correct?
The wiring going down to the alternator is fried and the wiring going to to the distributor and all the way back to the almost the grommet coming out of the firewall.
I plan to buy the sending unit aftermarket but look original but I would like the other burnt ones to either be original or have them made to look pretty original?
do my pics help?

toddz69 · Oct 8, 2019

DirtDonk said:
Cool. Maybe I was thinking about the Dura Spark II with the big cap was first seen in '74 then?
Dunno, but I know '73 was quite the year for transitions in the Bronco world.

Paul

Big cap didn't come until '77.

Todd Z.

toddz69 · Oct 8, 2019

Broncoblood said:
I believe with that link above you can view my burnt engine harness, the good wire and the bad wires, the colors, the count and where I am talking about?
The coil wires just were hooked up normal with eyelets not that plastic 1/2 horseshoe, is that correct?
The wiring going down to the alternator is fried and the wiring going to to the distributor and all the way back to the almost the grommet coming out of the firewall.
I plan to buy the sending unit aftermarket but look original but I would like the other burnt ones to either be original or have them made to look pretty original?
do my pics help?

Yeah, the horseshoe connector for the coil didn't come along until they went to the big cap in '77, I believe.

Todd Z.

DirtDonk · Oct 8, 2019

Thanks Todd. Just when I think I've got a handle on the Dura Spark stuff, I find out it's all a vicious rumor! Smoke and mirrors even (no pun intended Broncoblood!)
I think my almost-New-Year's resolution will be to find that Dura Spark shop manual from Ford that I've talked about over the years. Read it once, then put it away for future use. Cleverly hidden of course.

And your fire sure had it's way with the wiring didn't it? Bummer for sure.
But hey, it'll buff out.

Paul

Broncoblood · Oct 8, 2019

thank you Todd.
yes I would like to see some pics of the exact harnesses that I have lost so I can do an accurate search and or have some custom original look ones made? I do have Dana n Melissa at the Hut looking for me as well.
were you able to view my photos from this link? - https://classicbroncos.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/37036/limit/recent

DirtDonk · Oct 9, 2019

Yep, we can see the pics. What a mess!
Are you sure there is enough on the body side of the harness to utilize with any new engine harness stuff?
Did the alternator harness melt down too?

Distributor harness is part of the trigger module, and can be purchased separately or with a new distributor.
The alternator harness looks like it's still available at least for '73 models. You might be able to make it work, or you might not. If yours used the "Dura Spark" connector style instead of the flat style then you're kind of out of luck I think. Other than used donor. Which might not be out of line actually, what with all the new harnesses being installed these days. Maybe check out the classifieds here and post up a "parts wanted" story for your stuff.

The engine bay harness looks to still be available for yours too (I think you said that already) so there's that at least.
A new ignition harness is available too, but just for the Blue module which is more desirable anyway.

So "most" of it's doable, but you might have to punt on a couple of details.

Paul

jckkys · Oct 9, 2019

Just to be clear, Duraspark came out in 1976 and even then they called Breakerless even tho all the parts are Duraspark including the module. 1974s had a different wiring harness and module DY157 unique to the '74s. The '75s also had a unique module DY166 and the same wiring harness as the '74s. Neither of these modules is available from Ford and the harness is not being made. The '76-'86 Duraspark II is still being made by Ford. So I would recommend using a Duraspark II harness and module. The module is here;https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ignition-C...569664&hash=item3b3a50b009:g:sesAAOSwb39dmmi8. The only module unique to Cal. is the '77-'79 Duraspark I with module DY-204. Read this thread off Pantera Int.https://pantera.infopop.cc/topic/duraspark-vs-msd-distributor. I still recommend Broncoblood get the DurasparkII harness and module. There was a lot of bad info here after my first post.

Skytrooper15 · Oct 9, 2019

Hope these come out good enough to help

74 Bronco engine fire / harness help?

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