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Background: My grandfather's '82 I inherited when he passed away has had several hands on it. At some point he had a local shop do a CFI to Carb swap. Manual fuel pump installed in the process instead of a pressure reg. I'm trying to ID the green/orange wire connectconby the wire nut in the photo. Having trouble tracing it as it goes in the the body. Green side was was originally connected to the positive battery terminal, but last time I cranked the car it and the positive cable shorted and melted the terminal. All suggestions and info welcome. I'm nothing close to a mechanic, but I'm determined to learn and make this passion project work! Thanks in advance!
I really can't see much but those battery cable ends cause more trouble than they solve. I note that the green wire is connected to a black wire via a wire nut. Almost all if not all black wires on our c3s are ground wires. I would carefully trace that wire or leave it off for now until you can trace it. Good luck on your new project and keep us up to date.
I really can't see much but those battery cable ends cause more trouble than they solve. I note that the green wire is connected to a black wire via a wire nut. Almost all if not all black wires on our c3s are ground wires. I would carefully trace that wire or leave it off for now until you can trace it. Good luck on your new project and keep us up to date.
so that "black wire" connected to the green wire with a wire nut is actually red, but dirty as all get out. If you look close to where it enters the body you can see the color more clearly. I think it's a hot wire to something because it is red and coming off the positive battery terminal. Also think it's related to the CFI>Carb swap just not sure how.
Hi OP, welcome to the wonderful world of C3s, and thanks for working to save this one. You'll find lots of help on here, and I'm not a wiring expert. But this I do know from experience: Hooking up wires that 'aren't supposed to be there', directly to the battery, and you don't know where they go, is a recipe for disaster. My suggestion would be to do a search on this forum and find the electrical diagram for your car, study it, and see what else you find. Unless the '82 is different, there should be 2 cables in that box - ground, and power. The only other wires I would consider having in that box, and I do in mine, are hookups for my battery tender. Other, more knowledgeable forum members will surely give you better direction. Best, Paul
Yeah that is a mess, and no way would I hook power up to that-(FIRE), it's start over time.... Get a wiring diagram so you know what should be there. Trace that green wire and find out where it goes and what it does, and that should tell you why it's even there.
The orange wire used to power your electric fuel pump which I gather is no longer used.
There is no positive wire for the battery that I can see...?
The Red charge wire from the Alternator should run into the compartment on the right side, I'm (guessing) that black wire spliced with the wire nut is the charge wire.... there is a fuseable link in the original red wire that blows and again, a guess, but I think they might have spliced that black wire to the red one after the link melted. Mine had five splices in it...unbelievable...
The green wire is pure bubba and I have no clue..
Not sure why there appears to be two ground wires on the left side.. I'm wondering if the one without the end on it goes all the way to the starter...and is not a ground at all...another guess..
Bottom line, no guessing with electric, figure what you have and don't have, then make it happen using good stuff. Even the wiring that bubba did not mess with is 40 years old so you need to be doubly sure everything is right..
60
Last edited by 1860army; Mar 15, 2023 at 04:18 AM.
I would start by tracing those rouge wires back to their source, when dealing with the unknown while troubleshooting wires it's best to use a 9V battery.
Yeah that is a mess, and no way would I hook power up to that-(FIRE), it's start over time.... Get a wiring diagram so you know what should be there. Trace that green wire and find out where it goes and what it does, and that should tell you why it's even there.
The orange wire used to power your electric fuel pump which I gather is no longer used.
There is no positive wire for the battery that I can see...?
The Red charge wire from the Alternator should run into the compartment on the right side, I'm (guessing) that black wire spliced with the wire nut is the charge wire.... there is a fuseable link in the original red wire that blows and again, a guess, but I think they might have spliced that black wire to the red one after the link melted. Mine had five splices in it...unbelievable...
The green wire is pure bubba and I have no clue..
Not sure why there appears to be two ground wires on the left side.. I'm wondering if the one without the end on it goes all the way to the starter...and is not a ground at all...another guess..
Bottom line, no guessing with electric, figure what you have and don't have, then make it happen using good stuff. Even the wiring that bubba did not mess with is 40 years old so you need to be doubly sure everything is right..
60
I really appreciate the detailed response. I think you might be right about a few things and now I have some direction. Here's my follow up:
The small gauge orange wire in the bottom of the compartment has an inline fuse as described by other posts so I'm positive you're right it is for the old electric FP.
The black wire pictured is the positive battery wire. At some point someone swapped the battery to top post connection. When they did, they didn't use red/black terminals. The Neg terminal and cable are out of frame.
If you're right ,and based on it being a red wire coming in to the compartment from the right I think you are, then bubba had the charge wire connected by a wire nut to the green wire which was jammed in to the terminal with the positive battery cable.
For clarification before the short and melted terminal the set up was red(charge wire) -> green wire (via wire nut) -> battery terminal w/ battery cable. After looking at the true wiring diagram you linked (1982 isn't specifically included in my mechanics book), it looks like bubba probably used the green wire + wire nut to make up the distance needed to connect the charge wire to the positive terminal once the battery config was swapped to top post. No idea why it was swapped to top post in the first place.
Will have to reevaluate the ground wires mentioned.
Like I said, I am not very mechanically or electrically inclined, but anyone can learn anything with enough time and dedication. This one is gonna be trial by fire I guess (no pun intended). Again, thanks to everyone for the help, pointing out the obvious troubleshoots I didn't even consider, and stressing the gravity of electrical issues. I'm sure you'll hear more dumb questions from me in the future.
-Sullivan
Last edited by Shsullivan; Mar 15, 2023 at 11:15 AM.
Reason: Reviewed wiring diagram and clarified
I'm sure you'll here more dumb questions from me in the future.-Sullivan
Hey Sullivan, you're not asking dumb questions, and we don't care it you do. One of the joys of the hobby is learning from each other, and sharing stuff we figure out. That's how we all get better working on these beautiful, and 'interesting', C3s. Lots of really good people on this forum who are willing to help. Your case will be a great example of how to determine what's wrong, and how to fix. It will help all of us. Thanks, Paul
Not to be a smart-aleck but you could leave it disconnected and see what doesn't work.
Worse yet, everything might still work! I will never understand what type of person would think this type of repair is ok.
I used to do final assembly repair in the auto plants. I have seen people in the factories do similar repairs just to get them out of the building.
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Help Explain This Bubbafication
