Servicing armored cable on ignition switch?

This pertains to a 1950 Dodge Wayfarer sedan. There is an armored cable running from the ignition switch through the firewall, carrying the wire for the coil. As might be expected, the insulation is in lousy shape and the wire is in danger of shorting out--I've been insulating it with "liquid tape," a bit of shrink tubing, etc., but this is probably only a stopgap and this should be rewired.

So, can the armored cable be removed from the ignition switch to replace this wire? Or is there another work-around for fixing this?

Thanks for any help anyone can give me on this!

I'm surprised your '50 Dodge still has an armored cable... I had a '48 Dodge, and still have a '48 NewYorker, and thought they'd done away with the armored cable along with the firewall-mounted coil after WW II...

At any rate, it should be possible to remove the armored cable from the switch, and also at the coil-end, and using a new plastic-insulated wire of appropriate size ( should probably be #14 or #12), solder the stripped-end of the new wire to the old wire, then pull the old wire from the opposite end of the armor, using the old wire to pull the new through.

Then you can cut the wire to legnth and make your terminations... if lugs have to go on, I would advise soldering them - don't rely on a crimp alone !

My '41 De Soto still has the armored cable, but the coil is on the firewall, and the end under the dash has a metal cap, secured by about four fold-over metal tabs; once you release the tabs, you slide the cap & armor back enough to remove the terminal screw from the primary connection on the coil.

I wouldn't say it makes it theft-proof, but it does really slow-down anyone trying to hot-wire the car ( unless they brought their own coil!)...

Good luck !

This armored cable setup is a bit different from the early ones that terminate directly at the coil: the armor comes through a grommet in the firewall, ends about four inches from the firewall, and then the plain wire continues on to a terminal on the horn relay that serves as collecting point from which a wire heads into the harness, and thence to the coil. So the whole thing seems like a useless exercise: the only thing it would stop is someone hotwiring to the coil from INSIDE the car, working under the dash! Under the hood, the perpetrator is home free.

Anyway, I'll try getting the key switch far enough down out of its hole in the dash to see how the armored cable is secured. If it's attached in the manner you suggest, it shouldn't be too hard to get the thing apart and rewire. I was envisioning it being cast in place, or something like that--I'll hope for the best.

Many thanks.

--Michael Sawdey

Mike,

I wonder if the ignition switch in your car was replaced with a unit from an older car...

Does the ignition key work in the door locks too ? (If not, I would suspect the switch has been changed).

Speaking purely from my own personal experience with '47 Windsor, '48 New Yorker, '48 Dodge, '50 Chrysler: none of these had armor on the ignition switch / wire... Ibelieve Chrysler Corp abandoned the armor along with the "Lock-switch" coils after '42...

There used to be an armor-wrapped wire (single conductor) that was once used used for wiring tailights and such, where the wiring had to run under the chassis of the vehicle; I think this was in use prior to WW II, occasionally run across spools of it here and there in old sheds and garages... perhaps someone used some of this to replace a coil wire?

Good luck with your Wayfarer !

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I don't think this is a replacement, Frank. The door and ignition keys are in fact the same. Also, the grommet setup at the firewall definitely looks like an "original equipment" situation. Back in the '60s I owned an 1951 Plymouth, and I'm trying to remember if there was anything like this on that one--I don't think there was.

The wiring diagram for the D33 (Wayfarer) and D34 (everything else in 1950) in the old shop manual appears to show some kind of casing around this wire, so I have the feeling that in 1950, at least, and at least on Dodges, they were still armoring this cable. Maybe there was a pile of armor sleeves left in the warehouse...who knows. As I observed earlier, I can't see how this setup would deter a thief, since it is not locked into the ignition coil, as on the earlier models.

I haven't had a chance to get under the dash and try to figure out how this thing goes together (or, more to the point, how it/if it comes apart), but I'll report what I find when I do.

Thanks--I'm enjoying resurrecting the Wayfarer. This one last ran in 1988 and then was mostly a mouse hotel, but it only has 51,000 miles on it and the engine proved to be in fine shape. Of course the last tinkerer had managed to mess up some critical items: spark plug wires mixed up, distributor in 180 degrees off, coil wires swapped, wire to points broken, and the carburetor was in a box on the front seat, minus a few key items. Once that was all sorted out (and the gas tank replaced--filled solid with goo), the old fella started right up and ran smoothly, didn't even smoke. Zeder, Breer, and Skelton did their work well...

Regards,

--Michael Sawdey

i have a 49 New Yorker that also has this cable running all the way to the horn area.

All 1949-52 Mopar cars use the armored cable type ignition switch. To replace the wire in one of these switches you need to un-crimp the die cast ignition switch housing to release it from the backside black bakelite which the wire is soldered to inside. A tedious delicate repair but can be done if much care is taken to do it.

Bob

What is the purpose of this armored cable and can it be done away with and just run a regular insulated wire?

I will answer my own question. It was to prevent someone from hot wiring the car from under the dash. Yes it can be done away with in a new switch the wire that connects to "Ign" will take the place of this armored cable wire.