Been doing some improvements on my 67' L79 with A/C over the past few weeks (new carpet, new heater core, new correct carb Holley List-3810 etc..) and coming together nicely.

Aside from the above work, one additional 'upgrade' performed was the installation of a refurbished correct/dated starter motor (1107320) I purchased off Ebay. The old starter worked fine, but due to my neuroticism and too much time on my hands, I wanted to replace to a correct part #. Note: All the work was performed at the same time, so the car was sitting throughout.

When it was time to start her up, that's where things started going haywire where the wires at the horn relay (1) fusible link wire and (2) power wire holding the 30A fuse for A/C both burned out. I originally attributed the issue to a possible loose connection on the 30A fuse line and the 2 wires touched.

After repairing the wires, I started her back up, then smelled something burning inside the cabin which turned out to be another overload at the radio's push-in co-ax type of wire connector. I then attributed this me possibly damaging the wire during install of the heater core and carpet.

After repairing the radio wire, and turn on the heater fan to test out the new core, the blower fan is not operating (going to look at the fuse after I cool down). Got disgusted, disconnected the battery and went to bed to ponder what the heck was going on.

In talking to previous 2 owners along with my own ownership history, collectively, we have never had electrical issues in the past 13 years in total ownership.

Seems too strange and coincidental that issues are cropping up now and never had problems before.
Could these repeated electrical issues be associated to the installation of a refurbished starter motor?

 

Sounds to me like you got the battery hooked up backwards. Either at the battery or the starter. Definitely something miswired. There should never be any voltage on the coax cable on the radio. That’s an antenna. Make sure you have the black positive cable (large post) from the battery to the starter solenoid connected there and not ground. .

 

Also, there are two small black wires at the starter. One grounds the heater and w'/w motors to the mounting screw for the starter. The other goes directly from the battery gauge to the same post on the battery as the large battery cable. Make sure the wire feeding up to the heater motor case housing is the one you have under the mounting bolt for the starter. I don't think it would melt the fusible link, but it WOULD put 12v directly to ground via the battery gauge connection in the dash if you switched those two wires. Happens a lot since GM chose in two cases to connect black wires to a positive source. The two on the starter solenoid (one from the battery positive post and one for one side of the battery gauge) and the (in second case) one from the other side of the battery gauge to the horn relay red wires. Black was a bad choice for those battery gauge wires, but they were used in all C2's that way.

 

I would agree with that black wire that goes to the bottom bolt of your starter. Sounds like it is connected to your positive. I have seen that many times. It is the ground for your blower and for your wiper motor.

 

Thanks fellas, will be doing more troubleshooting on the points you noted.

I understand the black blower wire you describe, but would incorrect wiring grounding at the starter cause the radio and horn relay wire issues too?

 

If you connected the wrong black wire to the starter solenoid, it would put 12 V on every ground in the car. It could screw up anything electrical

 

Many thanks for your expertise and knowledge!