[joeypoconos]

I’ve been busy with family business so had to put a temporary hold on “A” trouble shooting. Back in the garage so here’s an update.

Parts arrived from Snyder’s. Terminal box and grommet, bulbs, safety fuse mount set, positive and negative battery cable & strap and two blade aluminum fan (has nothing to do with electrical issues).

1. Had battery tested – no problems found
2. Headlights have repro sockets. As per Les Andrews book, soldered ground wires to bulb sockets and grounded them to headlight buckets.
3. Installed safety fuse mount set.
4. Removed hood, drained cooling system, loosened hoses, pulled radiator out of way
5. With belt disconnected ran a “motor” test on the generator. Generator ‘motors’ as it should. Installed fan blade, buttoned everything up, and adjusted fan belt for ½ inch play. At this point, cooling system remains drained.
6. Removed old damaged terminal box from firewall. The darned thing fell apart in the process.
7. Removed cylinder head bolt holding ignition cable to head, removed distributor from engine, unscrewed distributor from ignition cable. Slid new terminal box, grommet and ignition cable hold down clamp onto ignition cable.
8. Closely inspected all wiring to/from terminal box. Visually, wiring appears to be good, however, at this stage of the game it can’t hurt to replace with new wiring. Order has been placed. In the interim, re-installed existing wiring to new terminal box. Insured metal conduit, holding the cut-out to terminal box wires, was clear of terminal box post. Re-installed all parts.
9. Filled cooling system.
10. Installed new battery cables and fired her up. Started on 2nd turn of the engine.


Checked voltage readings as follows:
With car off 6.2 volts at all points in system except armature side of cut-out which reads 0 (normal). Amp gauge reads 0.

With car at idle: 6.3 volts at all points except the + side of coil (red wire) which reads 5 volts. Amp gauge reads +1 with lights off -10 with lights on.

With car at high idle:
8 volts at starter
8.2 volts at fuse
8.2 volts other side of fuse
8.8 at cutout battery side
9.5 at cutout armature side
9 at both terminal box posts
9 at coil negative side (black wire)
7 at coil positive side (red wire)
Amp gauge reads +4 with lights off -10 with lights on.


With idle adjusted higher:
8.8 at starter and fuse (both sides)
9 at cutout battery side
9.8 at cutout armature side
9 both terminal box posts
9 coil negative side
7 coil positive side
Amp gauge reads +4 with lights off -10 with lights on.

With car back to normal idle:
6.2 volts everywhere except 4.2 volts at coil positive side,
Amp gauge reads +4 with lights off -10 with lights on.


Turned on the lights, backed her out of the garage and went for a long drive. Amp gauge at -10, turned off lights amp gauge went to +4. Turned high beams on for remainder of journey (switching between high, low and cowl lights while applying brakes etc). No fluctuations of amp gauge. No burnt out bulbs. Car ran great.
Don’t know how to interpret the low voltage reading at the plus side of the coil other than to assume 1) it's normal, or, 2)there’s a problem with the wiring at the terminal box post or 3)???? Also, still have no idea what's causing the voltage to fluctuate.