stupid question - checking electrical

[70Tom]

OK, so I'm making my first foray into the seemingly-not fun area of automotive electrical systems.

I have my dash completely out of the car. I have repainted everything, put in a new wiper switch and washer switch. NOS ashtray assembly will be installed. I have completely cleaned up the wiring harness, removing it of 47 years of grime, dust, mouse piss and crap (that was not fun). I removed crappy old assembly tape. The harness is actually in nice shape.

I have reattached most everything (there's a few stray wires that give me pause, but hopefully I'll get those figured out--if not I'll ask here! haha), and just have the re-build by Gary Tayman radio to wire to the harness and re-route the stupid map reading light (which requires me to remove the speedo face yet again (I think this is the 4th or 5th time during assembly). I have replaced all bulbs with new ones.

After that, it dawned on me that it might be a really, really, really good idea to test everything to make sure it works prior to reinstalling the dash. I have never done this before. So my stupid question is, what do I need to do so? I've never used an electrical tester. Is it pretty self-explanatory in regards to what readings I am looking for to determine things are working?

Thanks for the help. Here's a couple pics.

 

[Big_John]

You can check the gauges by powering up the dash and using a resistor across the connections. 23 ohms gives you about half reading. Idiot lights can be checked by grounding out the sender wire.

 

[70Tom]

With what do I power up the dash?

 

[Big_John]

12 volt car battery is always a good choice.

 

[70Tom]

So is there a lead from the electrical tester that would hook to the battery, and then use the tester to check the various lights, etc? Sorry for the rudimentary questions. I've just never done this before.

 

[saylor]

lol lets get from A to B heh

@Tom what Mr BigJohn is saying, is , put the battery back in and hit the key.

but - does all this crap go back to the fuse block as proper yet?

is the fuse block connected to the harness etc?

if you are not there yet, you could get a 12v power supply and test components.

try not to die -

- saylor

 

[Big_John]

So is there a lead from the electrical tester that would hook to the battery, and then use the tester to check the various lights, etc? Sorry for the rudimentary questions. I've just never done this before.

What kind of "tester" are you talking about?

 

[70Tom]

lol lets get from A to B heh

@Tom what Mr BigJohn is saying, is , put the battery back in and hit the key.

but - does all this crap go back to the fuse block as proper yet?

is the fuse block connected to the harness etc?

if you are not there yet, you could get a 12v power supply and test components.

try not to die -

- saylor

OK, that makes sense now that you expected me to put the dash back in the car. I stated in my original post that it seemed like a good idea to try and test things prior to it being put back in the car. If you think it isn't worth it trying to test things prior to the dash being reinstalled, then so be it. At that point, I install everything and I power it up and hope it all works. Most things worked prior to me taking it apart. There's just a couple of things that need testing.

 

[saylor]

after taking a leak and reflecting on my above post ^^ ...

if you DO put the batty back on, and you still have loose wires about, make damn sure all your hot wires are taped up at the ends so they dont ground to anything.

 

[70Tom]

after taking a leak and reflecting on my above post ^^ ...

if you DO put the batty back on, and you still have loose wires about, make damn sure all your hot wires are taped up at the ends so they dont ground to anything.

Yes, that much I do know. Will do.

 

[Big_John]

 

[CanCritter]

lube vent doors and or cables before reinstalling

 

[saylor]

@Tom i cant tell the situation from your pic. if you are all wired up all the way back to the bulkhead, throw a batty on there up front. but i dont see an ignition switch, so im thinking you have some wiring yet to do.

if you want to test an individual run/wire/path/device - you could use a 12v power supply out of a PC, or go to radio shack and get a bench power supply, or from amazon or what. get one that has adjustable voltage output. frys or somewhere has em.

for a small device like a light or something, you may find a 9v battery gives you enough to blink a light.

 

[Davea Lux]

Since it looks like you are going to install most of the dash components as a unit, run a continuity test with your shiny new multi-meter on the blower switch. If any of the positions are open, carefully take apart the blower switch and clean the contacts. Run a leak down test on any vacuum motors you may have (take a length of clean vacuum tubing and hook it to each vacuum motor. Blow into it, if the motor will not hold light pressure, it is dead and needs to be replaced. This is also a good time to replace all of the under dash vacuum hoses. If I have one this far apart, I usually also replace the vacuum switch in the heater control as well. They are not noted for their longevity. Since the dash is already apart, this would be a really good time to check the heater core for leaks, also, if the under dash was full of mouse piss etc, odds are that the heater/AC box is full of that stuff. If the gauges and speedo worked when you took them out, the should still be ok, same with the radio. If you vehicle has a dash mounted speaker, this is a great time to check the cone for tears or holes. Unless you vehicle has every available option, the will always be some unused connectors.

Dave

 

[Wollfen]

Hey Tom, the other guys have basically got everything covered. I would like to suggest that you consider putting the AC box in before you put the dash in. It would save you a whole lot of work later.

 

[65sporty]

If you have a wiring diagram showing all the wire positions in the bulkhead connector you can make your connections there to do your testing. Be sure to ground the dash. The guy's made a lot of good suggestions above. Good luck

 

[C-440-300]

One hand has the wine glass, the other has the DVM meter...