Electrical questions for Ms. FrankenVicky

[Lefty W.]

Working out some electrical issues, for which I could not yet find answers. The car came to me thusly:

cover removed from the cut-out; the relay seemingly did not work; the headlight and horn wires were removed from the cut-out and taped off; the tail-light did not work; the ammeter was pegged at zero; only the dome light worked

I have replaced the cut-out with a solid-state unit, having hooked up the headlight and horn wires, both now work, but the ammeter only shows a drain when lights are on or horn is sounded. It does not budge to the right of "zero."

My questions are as follows:

1. If the ammeter shows a drain but not a charge, do I suspect the ammeter or the generator?

2. The horn sounds when I move the light switch in either direction. Do I look for a bad horn button, short in the horn rod wire, or both?

3. The headlights are two-bulb. My understanding is that cars with cowl lights (such as this one) only have one-bulb headlights. Is this correct?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for all of the questions at once.

[Milton]

Loosen the fan belt so the generator spins freely. Take a hot lead from the battery cable/starter and touch it to the front of the cutout. The generator should rotate (motor) if it is functioning. Also check the setting of the third brush.

Normally cars with cowl lamps would not have the parking light socket in the headlight.

[Gary WA]

Have you removed the wiring/bail at the end of steering box to see if wiring is ok and also put together the right way? I have two bulb plus cowl lights. the light switch is one click right is low beam 5pm,two clicks high beam 4o'clock position six oclock is off and to the left one click should be cowl lights.

[Lefty W.]

Originally Posted by Milton

Normally cars with cowl lamps would not have the parking light socket in the headlight.

Full disclosure: the car has sealed beams in it, but they are two bulb, and the headlight shells are stamped "two bulb."

Originally Posted by Gary WA

Have you removed the wiring/bail at the end of steering box to see if wiring is ok and also put together the right way? I have two bulb plus cowl lights. the light switch is one click right is low beam 5pm,two clicks high beam 4o'clock position six oclock is off and to the left one click should be cowl lights.

I have removed the bail/lightswitch at the end of the steering box and have looked at the wiring harness. I don't really know what I'm looking for, but the wiring has obviously been redone at some point. The wire colors are different than those on the available wiring diagrams. My light switch works the same as yours - cowl lights at 7:00, low beam at 5:00, high beam at 4:00 - except my horn also sounds when turning the switch.

Seems like most of the major parts shops only sell two versions of the wiring harness - one bulb (with cowl lights) or two bulb (without cowl lights).

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Lefty W.

Working out some electrical issues, for which I could not yet find answers. The car came to me thusly:

cover removed from the cut-out; the relay seemingly did not work; the headlight and horn wires were removed from the cut-out and taped off; the tail-light did not work; the ammeter was pegged at zero; only the dome light worked

I have replaced the cut-out with a solid-state unit, having hooked up the headlight and horn wires, both now work, but the ammeter only shows a drain when lights are on or horn is sounded. It does not budge to the right of "zero."

My questions are as follows:

1. If the ammeter shows a drain but not a charge, do I suspect the ammeter or the generator?

Reverse the wires on the ampmeter and see if the needle swings the other way, if yes the meter is good.

2. The horn sounds when I move the light switch in either direction. Do I look for a bad horn button, short in the horn rod wire, or both?

Both as it could be either.

3. The headlights are two-bulb. My understanding is that cars with cowl lights (such as this one) only have one-bulb headlights. Is this correct?

Yes that is correct, the original cars had a second bulb to act as parking lights and no cowl lights. All cars did have a hi and low setting. Some owners wire the cowl lights as turn signals and leave the second bulb as the original parking lights.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for all of the questions at once.

Ask away we are here to help and learn!

[Tom Wesenberg]

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1. If the ammeter shows a drain but not a charge, do I suspect the ammeter or the generator?

I would suspect the generator. With the engine running jump across the 2 cutout terminals and see if you now have output. Is so, then the cutout needs to be repaired. If you still show no charge, then the generator may need repair.

2. The horn sounds when I move the light switch in either direction. Do I look for a bad horn button, short in the horn rod wire, or both?

Remove the light switch at the bottom of the steering and look for some wires touching, or very close to touching, the horn contact in the center. If that's OK, then you might have a wire running through the horn rod that has bad insulation.

3. The headlights are two-bulb. My understanding is that cars with cowl lights (such as this one) only have one-bulb headlights. Is this correct?

Someone added cowl lights and didn't change the headlights, or someone used the wrong headlights on a car with cowl lights. As Mike said, the cowl lights now could be used for turn signals.

[Ray in La Mesa]

Horn sounding while turning the steering wheel means there is a short at the bottom end of the horn rod. On the black plastic base plate of the headlight wiring harness in the center is the stand up spring contact for the horn rod. This is passes through the brass rotating switch plate that makes contact on the black plastic plate and presses against the end of the horn rod. This stand off spring is touching the hole in the brass rotating plate and grounding the horn. I place a piece of shrink tubing around the length of the spring contact, leaving the end uncovered, so it will not contact the brass rotating plate. On some of the repro switches the hole in the brass rotating plate is smaller.