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I tried to turn on my parking lights in the fog today (because there's no chance the headlights are gonna open!); the **** and rod came completely out of the dash and the motor shut off; there was no power to anything. I put it back in, the power was restored and the **** now appears to be solidly reconnected into the switch. SIMPLE QUESTION: What the hell happened??
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
THey shouldnt be related at all but all I can think is that the switch shorted to ground on the inside and you killed the power to the coil. Could be a good theft deterent. THats the first I ever read of that happening. If Ernie was around we could ask him.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
Did a quick search and there should be an internal circuit breaker inside the switch itself. It is self resetting so you must have shorted something out when you pulled the **** out, and while you were inserting it the rod it reset.
Maybe your coil is run through a wire that is coming off the hot side of that switch...
Thanks, RR. That seems logical, but: Is the mechanism that holds the rod in so worn that a wrong twist releases it? And why is the system set up so all the power is killed when the rod isn't in place?
Last edited by mh_merc; Mar 27, 2022 at 09:55 AM.
Reason: adding Thanks"
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
It shouldnt pop pout but how long have YOU owned this car and who was the previous owner. If you havent looked at your power supply to your coil in the past, there could be all sorts of Bubba hiding in there that you dont know about. I still find a few things here and there that the previous owner has touched. Thank fully there isnt much left that he screwed with, but thats been with me replacing and fixing every thing in the car. I found a section of my fiber optics that he cut, then tried to splice with those blue wire clips that are for splicing a line into an existing one last year.....
I've had it for about a year; it hasn't missed a beat until yesterday. The previous owner did thousands of dollars of work on the car, documented with two binders of receipts. The engine bay looks pretty proper - no real signs of "Bubbaness" that I can see. If there are any more hiccups, I'll definitely have it looked into. Thanks for the insights!
Last edited by mh_merc; Mar 27, 2022 at 06:15 PM.
Reason: typo
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
THose coil wires arent stock. If you can get a color coded wire diagram you should be able to trace those out and see where they go. Theres some on ebay or the vendors might have them that the wires are actually color on the chart so you can follow them easily. Dr Rebuild has some nice wire harness identifiers but they arent a diagram. Very ehlpful though tracing wires and identifying them by the connectors. THey shouldnt be coming through the grommet unwrapped and individual like that.
Looks really nice otherwise. I had speaker wire coming from the alternator though the fire wall into the wiper switch. It made some nice smoke when I turned them on. Yours is in much nicer shape.
'69 headlight switch question
