Just got a 76 Stingray couple days ago and started digging into the dash problems it has. So first thing I saw when I tore into the dash was a set of wires going to a big heat sink under the passenger panel. Picture attached. what does this go to and/or if it effects anything major.



2nd question trying to determine a short in my gauges. my tach and the center gauges do not work and have a blown 10a gauges fuse which i tried to replace and still blew it. i opened up the dash and detached each gauge and took ohm reading to ground and all show shorts. but not having any wiring diagrams i cant tell if there is anything else in the path. didn't see any exposed wires or such.

Thats about it, today going to t/s the power windows since they dont move and not sure if these are tied in same fuse. no other fuse is blown in the panel.

 

First, do yourself a favor and purchase an AIG (assembly instruction manual) from any of the Corvette venders and you will save yourself a lot of frustration.
Second, I believe the heat sink is your radio's amp.
Welcome to the forum.

 

Final audio output for the radio. GM calls it a convector assembly. Your tunes will not work without it.



Good advice concerning purchasing the AIM.

 

Thanks for the advise but didn't need the blunt "do yourself a favor". I bought a Haynes thinking it would cause my T/A had all schematics but this book was quite moot on this area with little info except here pink wire going into cluster panel then out. I did search and pretty much came up with most pictures so pixelated I couldn't read them so I asked. Got any ideas where I could get one, Google not showing much for C3 Corvette shop manual.

As for the amp, did have tunes but still had original speakers and stereo which are so decayed and blown lol. Just saw the wire bundle laying there when I pulled the panel off. Had a clean cut so it wasn't torn off.

 

Malibu wasn't being blunt and meant no disrespect when he suggested you get an AIM for your year Corvette. The AIM is just about the most valuable tool you can get for your car because every nut and bolt and diagram and wiring schematic for your car is in that AIM. You can see the diagram posted by Mike above is posted from his digital PDF copy of an AIM. I have bought an AIM for every year Corvette I have ever owned and I can honestly say that is the first piece of advice I give to new Corvette owners. Get an AIM. The Haynes manuals are horrible at best, same with Chiltons. So, do yourself a favor and get an AIM. Willcox, a forum vendor here, sells them in PDF and binder form. Well worth the money.

 

The AIM is also available from any of the aftermarket dealers. Best book for knowledge and the forum here is pretty much open to any questions you might have. Research and the search section of this forum is another means of finding out what you might need to know. There is a post pretty much about anything you might need to know. Always look there first, if you can't find it there than just ask. Good luck with your new to you 76 and have fun.

 

I've searched the forum and didn't get answer. I found the AIM on amazon for 20 from a Corvette dealer. So that's coming but I saw post here for requesting the wiring diagrams and I got them but during my t/s of my power windows I found that the coil in my relay was not engaging and found it was tied into the gauges fuse which keeps blowing. But the wiring diagrams didn't have power windows listed so I'm thinking there's more than the gauges, tach and power windows attached to this line cause all these unhooked still shows short. I'm still digging through my dash to find this short.

Edit: all the wiring I've found so far is stock, nothing after market or bypassed by previous owners, still in the taped up sleeve.

 

Congratulations on your 76 Corvette!!! The Fun begins!!!

(I got a classic white 76)

AIM is great to have as mentioned above. Another useful one is the 76 Factory Service manual from Heim. I think I got 5? books in the order for the 76 from Heim; service manual, 76 supplement, overhaul manual, 76 supplement and electrical wiring diagrams. A little pricey at maybe $80+, but well worth it.

My clock kept blowing the fuse in my 76, finally disconnected the original clock and solved the problem. The clocks are a real invention in these cars. Sprayed it with WD40 and the sucker started working again. But did not hook it up again, it was still drawing too many amps.

I think your power windows are on another fuse circuit. On my 76 one PW worked, the other did not, found out the switch on the center console was bad, these switches must be a marginal design for the amps, suggest you pull them out and check. The AIM will show you this, but there is a 3/8 socket mystery screw you need to remove from inside the center storage compartment to get the center console out. Other obvious screws are on the side.

The tach problem I would guess is separate, I installed a new tach board and filter and it worked great. Wilcox has a great tech writeup on this. To get to the tach board, you need to take the driver dash out. Couple different approaches on this. I prefer taking the steering column out and then the driver dash. Suggest you do not try to squeeze the driver dash out by itself without removing anything, as it can crack. Note the original tach board design is none too good and a lot fail as I understand it.

Lots of super smart people willing to help on this forum.

Hope my experiences help, good luck and hope you enjoy the 76 Corvette!

 

Yeah I ordered AIM off amazon be here in few days. Never tried the clock, all the wiring diagrams didn't point to this so never tried it. So gotta give this a try. I know tach is related to the blown fuse so I fix this I fix everything that I would think will work, won't know till I get past blown fuse on these. Yeah I didn't try and take it out, didn't move much so my saying "if it doesn't go don't force it" but it moved about an nice which was enough to reach my hand behind the connector and disconnect the pink wire and tested for a short and of course it did. Just put it back together and fixed other things.

Yeah I know there's help, I have 3rd Gen trans am and got help on their forums also for electrical things. I pretty much have alot of interior work since previous owner(s) tried tearing center console out and broke it to pieces, so only top cloth holding together and parking break cover I duck taped it for now to hold the window switches. Body is in great shape with little scratches and dings, and headlight bracket busted so it sank and ruined the corner but a simple sanding and touch up paint should fix this since I have now fixed the light, now can't get hood to align up good . Line it up good then tighten last bolts and shifts to the passenger side every time. Had to take it off to fix headlight brackets easier. I know it is cause the minor arch in center of hood is off center from one on bumper. I even lined it up perfect with the marks left by the brackets/screws and still off center, but I got enough paitenance and will eventually get it lined back up. Other than that there is seriously no major damage to any of the fiberglass.

I got about 2000 in parts lined up to replace and get her interior beauty to show again. Yeah I'll enjoy her, always wanted one and now I have one, my girl found it for me.

 

Thank you so much mercury, unplugged clock and no short on the line anymore. Started car up and all my gauges work now, even the tach. Looking at wire, it was orange and everything was telling me pink so I didn't consider it.

 

No disrespect, Tiger, but purchase the AIM as suggested. When it arrives, sit down and thumb through it, then see if you haven't done yourself a favor.

I'm betting your Haynes has probaby not lived up to your expectations.

All the Corvette aftermarket providers carry AIMs and chassis service manuals. If an owner's manual did not come with your car, order one. Lots of value information in the owner's manual.

 

Free wiring diagram

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...or-anyone.html

 

Seriously how many more times will I be told to buy a AIM. Look back few posts I said I have bought one on amazon and be here in few days. I'm not new to car restoration but just new to something this old and learned something new about the AIM. The Haynes did live up to some but the wiring since it was quite moot in this area. Sadly I even got the free wiring diagrams and didn't see the clock and/or the power windows listed on this fuse, didn't even list the power window circuit. So its not like I haven't done my research to figure it out.

So yes clock fixed the problem I was having with gauges, as I said never thought of it since everything I was finding/reading said only pink wires, so I used my multimeter and ohmed out each line to see if what didn't work went to this fuse. The clock had orange wire and nothing I found had anything to do with this fuse that was different color than pink.

If you want to provide some helpful information then do so. If your just coming to add to your post count to tell me to buy an AIM then read and see I have one coming.

 

Dang Tiger!! Where just here trying to congratulate you on your new vette and suggesting means of rebuilding ease such as getting all the valuable information that is known to corvette owners which happens to be the AIM.
To further the aid in helping you with any problems you my encounter, it's very helpfull to the responder in a thread you post to be able to go into your profile and read more infomation about you such as the area you are from (State,City,Town) and a little more indepth detail options about your car. I see you've been a member for over a year. Just a suggestion.

 

Sorry if its little rude but that's pretty much all I been told to do. I took the 1st reply and bought one, now I'm waiting for it to come in so I can read it and learn new things. As for profile yeah been here over year mainly asking questions about c4s or c5s but instead got a c3. Haven't had time to take pix since today is first day that hasn't snowed since I bought the car so updating profile with picture and its location.

 

If you are going to ask questions on this Forum, you are going to get answers. No answers presented here in this thread were insulting or inflamatory...except in your view of things.

The Haynes manual is mediocre, at best, for what it is intended to do. And, if you have both the AIM and the Chevrolet Chassis Service Manual [which, IMO are indispensible if you DIY the work on your car], the Haynes manual is a total waste of money. But, like most of us, we also bought one of those. Live and learn.

You have either had some bad experiences on other Forums, or you just need to grow some thicker skin. So far, people have tried to help you. If you continue being antagonistic, no one else will want to do so.

 

Sorry but 1 guy said buy the AIM and then many others said same thing. Which each of my replies saying I bought the AIM waiting for it to come in. In reference the Haynes I learned on this car yeah that's true. My T/A worked fine and my truck too but didn't think it would be waste for the vette, not total waste as has some other info. My T/A Haynes wasn't accurate but had enough info to point me in right direction, this book was literally dead end and even drawings emailed to me/searched for didn't list clock on the same path. Granted the AIM may have shown me this but given 2 most important gauges didn't work (fuel, temp) had to get these at least working ASAP.

I searched for Every book suggested here and beyond the AIM I found them in PDF files and got them and started reading them. Due to the snow, salt on roads and bad weather I have plenty of time to read all these books.

No it isn't bad experience, this is my 1st, my 3rd Gen forum never did this.

 

I recently had my whole interior apart, dash and all, so I feel your pain.

Outside of that, just as an observation, it seemed as if the expression "Do yourself a favor" kinda irked you, and then it was the continued suggestion to buy the AIM.

All the members on this forum genuinely mean well. I'm sure at some point while on other forums you have seen people answer questions whereas they missed a piece of advice already given by another member. We are all human, we occasionally lack perfection.

With that said, enjoy your new Corvette...there will be plenty of silly things about it that will test your patience...and we will be here to help

 

Trust me my patience is being tested now, can't get the hood to line up at all, can get it with things not fully tight but once I tighten everything it shifts every time. I'll get it eventually.

 

Glad to hear my clock experience helped you out!

On the body lines, another thing I learned here was that you gotta remember, the tolerances for body panel, doors, hood fit up was pretty loose as the Corvettes in the seventies were for the masses, just look at the sales numbers compared to today.

So, I do not have the tolerances in front of me, but the hood is likely only going to be so good unless it was wrecked or repaired or something. I quit playing with mine, and decided that is likely how it looked when it came out of St Louis.