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Good for you. I don't like working behind there too much either. While you got it off check your wires for any suspect problems. Check flexibility as well to make sure they are not getting brittle. Any wires close to it that may have been damaged. Check the ground behind there aw well cause it could have carried some current
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
I would check for a short on the male side of the line that plugged into that wire. It looks like the male plug is supposed to have an insulator between it and the gauge housing and it looks like it may have shrunk over the years and is letting that arm touch the housing.
Glad you found the bad wire, hopefully the cause will present itself as easy as well. Best part, no fire and the car survived!!!
I would check for a short on the male side of the line that plugged into that wire. It looks like the male plug is supposed to have an insulator between it and the gauge housing and it looks like it may have shrunk over the years and is letting that arm touch the housing.
Glad you found the bad wire, hopefully the cause will present itself as easy as well. Best part, no fire and the car survived!!!
RR- I'm still trying to figure what shorted out. There is a black flat piece of plastic that insulates the connectors on the back of the ammeter. I was expecting to find it cracked, but it looks ok. The plug is melted slightly, but I believe that was after the fact. I forget what is inside the back cover of the gauge housing. I'm waiting for my new gauge to get here before I open that up. Hope I find something obvious so I do not fry the ammeter or melt another wire. It's puzzling, since the wiring harness and the ammeter were both new and the plug comes attached to the harness, so you cannot hook it up backward.
2025 c3 ('74-'82) of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
2019 C3 of Year Finalist (appearance mods)
Originally Posted by ronarndt
Does anyone have a close-up photo of the back of the ammeter in the 68 Vette? I have a photo from when I took everything apart, but another other photo shows what looks like a small copper flat strip going around the porcelain insulating strip from top side to bottom on one terminal.
Peterbuilt- thanks. This is perfect! I was certain I took a photo like this when I had the dash apart and when I replaced all of the gauges, but can not find it. All I found was a photo with all of the wires and plugs still attached, but no labels on anything. I'm going to print a hard copy and put it in my AIM.
Peterbuilt- thanks. This is perfect! I was certain I took a photo like this when I had the dash apart and when I replaced all of the gauges, but can not find it. All I found was a photo with all of the wires and plugs still attached, but no labels on anything. I'm going to print a hard copy and put it in my AIM.
I have everything wired back up and everything works. I had to completely eliminate the black/white stripe wire due to almost all of the insulation melted off. Could not find 16 ga black/white stripe wire anywhere, so I have blue with the ends labeled for correct color for future reference. The cause of the short was my mistake installing the new ammeter two years ago. The gauge came with the insulation strip, washers and nuts on the back already in place. Correct installation requires removing the washers and nuts, installing the gauge in the dash housing, adding the second insulation strip and male plug contacts and finally replacing the washers and nuts. I left the first washers and nuts in place, installed the gauge, added the second insulation strip and finally finished with the plug male contacts and the left-over nuts and washers from the old gauge. This effectively grounded out the gauge. It also apparently melted the 20 ga fusible link so the ammeter did not work. I drove it this way for over a year and finally it seems the gauge shifted enough to make a really strong dead short and melted the other 14 ga fusible link. A really dumb mistake that used up two $70 gauges and cost about 4 hours and an additional $40 to fix. I feel like bubba.
2020 Corvette of the Year Finalist (performance mods)
2019 C3 of Year Winner (performance mods)
2016 C3 of Year Finalist
Bubba would have just left it or duct taped the wire and left it. Good job on figuring it out and fixing it correctly. Its nice when everything works lilke it should
