Sudden death

[ascari]

Here's an update: After cutting out the "creative" wiring, returning to factory spec and splicing in a proper fusible link I cannot get the car to fail again no matter how hard I try.

OK, I probably should be happy about that, but it makes me a little nervous: I'm the kind of person who likes to know what caused a problem in the first place so that I can remedy it correctly. After all, something caused the failure and my guess is that it also has happened in the past, since somebody took it upon themselves to mess with the wiring.

Anyway: Upon examination I found that some previous owner(s) had already done the ampere meter bypass and a bulkhead fix, so it seems that wasn't the problem after all. No other obvious signs of the "red wire" overheating. Does anybody have other suggestions regarding other common points of failure on these cars? I thought I'd looked everywhere, but I clearly missed something.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Here's an update: After cutting out the "creative" wiring, returning to factory spec and splicing in a proper fusible link I cannot get the car to fail again no matter how hard I try.

OK, I probably should be happy about that, but it makes me a little nervous: I'm the kind of person who likes to know what caused a problem in the first place so that I can remedy it correctly. After all, something caused the failure and my guess is that it also has happened in the past, since somebody took it upon themselves to mess with the wiring.

Anyway: Upon examination I found that some previous owner(s) had already done the ampere meter bypass and a bulkhead fix, so it seems that wasn't the problem after all. No other obvious signs of the "red wire" overheating. Does anybody have other suggestions regarding other common points of failure on these cars? I thought I'd looked everywhere, but I clearly missed something.

The cause of your hopefully former woes likely hid in the hacked wiring you removed. Rejoice in having restored sanity to your harness. Did you clean up your fuse block and bulkhead connections? Those two sources account for sudden failures. I have a loose fuse clip in Mathilda which required attention 2-4 times annually. I'd just press down on the end of the fuse, re-seating it, and my running lights would be good again.

 

[ascari]

Thanks Gerald - I will check out the fuse block. If all looks good I will smile, keep my fingers crossed and enjoy the driving season.

 

[Camshaft]

Never fails to amaze me as to the detail of the advice given on this forum. Thanks all! And to those who are wondering but did not want to ask, here is the definition of canonical! Thanks Gerald! C Shaft