Hello my fellow Vette enthusiasts!!

Just bought a '79 Vette to complement my 70 Goat - must say completely different ride but very, very enjoyable- never had a Vette or can remember being in one and I am 50. At least I can now say I experienced it and am happy to say it!!
Bunch of electrical issues that I see are quite common for C3 vettes as I have perused your forums - with my car I can tell they are going to be tough to figure out because it looks like the previous owner has tried without luck. Here they are:
1. Horn does not work - nor the dash lights - I have read these are both in the same circuit that runes to the Hazard fuse. I have jumped power directly to the horns and they work. The fuse is good and there is power out of the fuse box. I then took out the horn relay which is hooked int the three prongs (orange power - black -neg and green neutral) I took the relay out and jumped the lead with no success. I then checked for power from the relay wires and there was none. I ran a jump ffrom the fuse (which had power) directly to the orange wire on the horn relay and other than some clicking I heard around the instrument panel nothing happened - ie no horn. I am running out of ideas - any suggestions?? I do not like driving with no dashboard lights or horn!!
2. Anyone know where I can get some seat tracks - the post attached to the track on driver seat is broken and they have wedged a piece of pot metal in there- keeps the seat secure but cannot adjust it.
3. They put those bubble lights in rear- I want to get originals with the bulb holders- I live up the street from Desert Salvage - the one on TV- and they are a little expensive for my pocketbook.

Any help on the electrical in particular would be helpful.

Thanks!!

 

Could be a bad ground somewhere in your dash circuitry but you're on the right track. You need a diagram. A fellow forum member by the name of turnedport 78 has a website hosted by this forum and has posted the 78 wiring schematics. It shows the component locatins, electrical schematic and descriptions of how it works. 1978 and 79 are basically the same. do a search for tunedport78 or electrical issues and see if you can track his site down.

Major Corvette swap meets have these all the time. Otherwise your best bet is ebay or search for vendors who part out Corvettes. CorvetteMac on ebay always seems to have C3 parts and Rik's Corvettes may be able to help.

Same as #2

 

http://www.corvetteforum.net/c3/tune...l/index6.shtml

jump power from fuse to green wire on relay socket, horn should blow

 

You are right - it does blow!! OK so I have a short somewhere - I have some electrical eptitude but do not have a clue on how to find it - could I splice a jump to the green wire or directly to the relay?? Do you think this will also solve the dash light issue to??


Dan

 

Thank you I will follow up on this.

 

the dash lights are on a 6 amp fuse, check it first, you do know that the instrument lamps can be dimmed by rotating the light switch handle.
you can plug the horn relay back into the socket and try grounding the black wire in the socket to test the relay itself. all the horn button really does it ground the relay through that black wire.

 

I did not know that the dash lights are on a different fuse - I will check that- On the horn relay how do I ground the black wire with the relay in the socket?

 

In my case the horn wasn't hooked up in the nose and when i found that and did only the A note horn worked so replaced the C note and now both do. With a 76 I have had various electical issues but most center around repairs done in cramped spaces and over the years various wires have bent, broken, come off tabs so check all of the attachment points. One to the tach actually was attached but broken inside the part where it attaches to the tach...easily fixed but devilish to find. The wire kept coming off the hot water engine sensor...until I pulled the female tab off, stripped the wire end, put a new tab on, crimped it and am careful with my hands. Check all the fuses first as you are doing. A lot of it is just cleaning up little things like this. One time a guy got in as a passenger and so dinged things up he pulled the wire out of the underdash passenger interior courtesy light. That was hard to fix as I had to get the whole thing out once I traced power to it and from it. It wasn't the bulb but the wire into the fixture and some adjustment and refastening took care of it. In my car's case there is almost 37 years of maintenance and use on it and bending wires is part of the deal. I never did get the cig. lighter to work so took it out and put a switch in it's place since me nor anyone in the car ever smokes anyway.

Lance

 

Yes - I think your description matches my car-I look at the fuse box and see various jumper wires and a whole slew of dangling unconnected wires which I have no idea are about - it is clear that some previous owner spent alot of time down there and I am afraid that if I try to rework some of what has been done to fix what needs to be done I may end up worse off. I would still like to at least have the horn and the interior lights up and running - from what I can tell I have no power coming in to the horn relay - touching a jumper to the green wire on the relay does blow the horn - There is no fuse which identifies it as the horn fuse but people tell me it is the stop hazard fuse which also controls the interior lights- that would make sense since neither are working - but the fuse is good. My courtesy lights do not work - they dangle down also unconnected from their proper placewith a bunch of other wires which I am guessing are not to important.
So I am left with trying to trace down the power problem to the Horn Relay - which involves wires wrapped in bundles going back behind the dash somewhere - I am scrathing my head at this point and thinking of taking it into an auto electrician - It just bothers me when I cannot figure something out and I am running out of ideas.