Stuck on side of the road right now!
11-17-2016, 09:49 AM
#21
So? what did it end up being?
Share with us what the problem was? Not just curious; it'd be good to know in case it happened to others.
Soooo... I'm stuck in a parking lot about an hour from home. The car starts, but the engine and entire electrical system cuts out when I turn on the headlights. Everything stays dead for about 10 minutes and then power comes back. When the car is running, I can turn the driving lights on, but not the headlights. The car immediately dies. Luckily I have a buddy with me, but I'd rather not call a tow truck and it's already dark. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
11-17-2016, 03:14 PM
#22
Intermediate
The root cause in my case was a wire to wire short in the forward lighting harness. It apparently happened when a rebuilt steering box got wrangled into position (bundled wires got mashed up against fender well). When I turned the lights on the for the very first time after that, some of the wires shorted inside the bundle. That caused one or more fusible links to melt. That killed the power from the fuse box & rearward as it's supposed to in an under hood dead short situation. Instead of replacing fusible links and cobbling together insulation on 44 year wires, I decided to just replace the entire forward lighting harness and the engine harness. Wired it up, fired the car, and all the lights work correctly. It was quite an endeavor but not all that bad in retrospect. All the help from members on the forum was invaluable & I'd otherwise have never gotten it right the first time.
Unlike Carriljc, I could not start the car as one or more fuse links were fried. Whatever the case with this weird "turn the lights on / engine dies" situation I'd highly recommend to do that with the hood open and a fire extinguisher near by. I'm wondering if there's a fusible link that was replaced with hard wire and that's why it's not blowing out on what apparently is a dead short. You might consider to pull one of the headlight plugs off and measure voltage when you turn on the headlights and the engine dies. The fact the engine dies is a big concern though so I don't think it's something easy like a bad light switch.
Unlike Carriljc, I could not start the car as one or more fuse links were fried. Whatever the case with this weird "turn the lights on / engine dies" situation I'd highly recommend to do that with the hood open and a fire extinguisher near by. I'm wondering if there's a fusible link that was replaced with hard wire and that's why it's not blowing out on what apparently is a dead short. You might consider to pull one of the headlight plugs off and measure voltage when you turn on the headlights and the engine dies. The fact the engine dies is a big concern though so I don't think it's something easy like a bad light switch.
Last edited by saunderscx; 11-17-2016 at 03:24 PM.
11-17-2016, 03:51 PM
#23
Drifting
Electrical problems can always use a little humor:
ELECTRICAL THEORY BY JOSEPH LUCAS
Electricity is characterized as the transmission of negative ions by retention of a visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". We know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of an electrical circuit, it stops working.
The function of a wiring harness is to conduct the smoke from one device to another. When the wiring springs a leak and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterward.
For example, if one places a copper bar across the terminals of a battery, prodigious quantities of smoke are liberated and the battery shortly ceases to function. In addition, if one observes smoke escaping from an electrical component such as a Lucas voltage regulator, it will also be observed that the component no longer functions. The logic is elementary and inescapable!
In conclusion, the basic concept of transmission of electrical energy in the form of smoke provides a logical explanation of the mysteries of electrical components especially British units manufactured by Joseph Lucas, Ltd.
ELECTRICAL THEORY BY JOSEPH LUCAS
Electricity is characterized as the transmission of negative ions by retention of a visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". We know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of an electrical circuit, it stops working.
The function of a wiring harness is to conduct the smoke from one device to another. When the wiring springs a leak and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterward.
For example, if one places a copper bar across the terminals of a battery, prodigious quantities of smoke are liberated and the battery shortly ceases to function. In addition, if one observes smoke escaping from an electrical component such as a Lucas voltage regulator, it will also be observed that the component no longer functions. The logic is elementary and inescapable!
In conclusion, the basic concept of transmission of electrical energy in the form of smoke provides a logical explanation of the mysteries of electrical components especially British units manufactured by Joseph Lucas, Ltd.
11-17-2016, 08:34 PM
#25
Just a shot in the dark here, but if you have an aftermarket electronic distributor, follow the 12V power wire from the starter up to the firewall. On my car there is a white ceramic looking block there. Two terminations. If either connector is loose or corroded your engine will shut down (looses spark).
I found mine to be corroded a bit & loose. The car would start and run normally, but then out of the blue BAM, the engine would die....especially scary when you're rolling down the highway. If I waited 10 min it would start back up. Finally I traced the problem to the HEI power wire on this terminal block located on the firewall.
The fact if I would wait a bit and the car would start right back up really puzzled me, but it turned out to just be a loose wire. I cleaned the tab style connector with a piece of sand paper, then crimped the connector slightly with pliers so it would make a tight fit when popped on the tab extending from this block on the firewall. Problem solved & never saw the issue again.
I found mine to be corroded a bit & loose. The car would start and run normally, but then out of the blue BAM, the engine would die....especially scary when you're rolling down the highway. If I waited 10 min it would start back up. Finally I traced the problem to the HEI power wire on this terminal block located on the firewall.
The fact if I would wait a bit and the car would start right back up really puzzled me, but it turned out to just be a loose wire. I cleaned the tab style connector with a piece of sand paper, then crimped the connector slightly with pliers so it would make a tight fit when popped on the tab extending from this block on the firewall. Problem solved & never saw the issue again.