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81 Corvette / Turn on headlights and gauges go to the left. Took to auto electrician he kept for two days and couldn't find the problem. Before I took to him put in a new alternator. So if anyone has any ideas please let me know. Also all of a sudden a wire that looks like a battery wire is sticking up in the battery compartment. I tried to stick down and when it touched some metal it sparked.. Grounding wire??? Help !!! and thank you.
I would look at the printed circuit board on the back of the gauges. The wiring socket tabs will get loose and short out, or some of the circuits may be burned or open.
If the wire in the battery box is red or if it is sticking up on the side of the positive cable, it's the accessory wire which should be connected to the positive cable/battery terminal. The spark you got is due to the wire being hot/positive. Is there not a small terminal/connection post near the positive side of the batttery inside the battery box?
Sounds like you definately have some grounding issues + more. Mine were all sorts of crazy when I first got the car. With pulling the dash apart a couple of times and tracing all the wires and using about 3 miles of electrical tape ( really do need to replace the entire wire harness eventually ) I finnaly got mine working decent. I had to add about 3 more grounds to my dash board before it all worked like it is suppose to.
Thank you all very much for the replys... Now I have some looking to do.. By the way.. How much do you think it would cost to have the whole car rewired??? LOL..