Probably should have said "Barely Averted Disaster..."

Picked up our '73 L48 Auto from the exhaust shop on Sunday. I installed the 2.5" ramshorn manifolds, he installed everything from there back. Got the pipes from Corvette Central all the bends were in the correct places, I could have done it all myself, but CC only offers a 2" to 2.5" front pipe and a 2.5" to 2" Magnaflow muffler for the '73 model. I asked why there isn't a full 2.5" and the tech said they haven't gotten around to it. ?
Anyway the shop replaced the front 2" section with 2.5" and bent and welded up the Magnaflows and exhaust tips, turned out really good and sounds great!

And here's the problem...

After a 20 minute test drive, I noticed the steering was getting harder and harder to turn to the left. Looked under hood on the side of the road, but didn't see anything wrong with the power steering components and continued home. Just as I made a zig-zag to pull into the driveway the steering got really hard and the car died. It cranks, but doesn't start.

Dig around more later and discover that 3 or 4 wires and two vacuum hoses have completely wrapped around the steering column underneath the brake booster/master cylinder. 3 of the wires have been stripped with large sections completely bare and 2 have pulled loose from where they were attached. 5 fuses are blown, though one of those may have been that way to begin with.

I've run two new lengths of wire, one was ground from the alternator, the other from the horn relay to the a/c heater fan relay. The third I just figured out supplies the coil directly from the Ignition connector on the fuse panel. (I have a feeling this was a mod that Bubba made, as are many things on this car.) The fuse associated with the IGN connector is blown, but what stumps me is that right now with nothing attached to it, it goes straight to ground, as in no resistance when multi-meter lead is attached battery negative post. And if I touch the positive post, it reads full battery voltage. How can this be right? Am I overlooking something there?

The ground/negative wire from the alternator has me stumped. It and the ground wire from the points eliminator were connected to a female spade connector that pulled off of somewhere and I don't know where. There is male spade connector on the windshield wiper motor that is within reach of wire's end and there are number of dead end wires that I have no idea what they go to, but not worried about that right now.

If anyone can help even a little, it would REALLY be appreciated!

 

Some pictures might help.

 

So how did all this get wrapped around the steering shaft?

 

You need a wiring schematic for your car.....member "papwana" has free pdf wiring diagrams....just post in his thread.
Does the IGN have power when you turn the key on? If not, and it is shorted to ground like it sounds.....then you have trace and check every other thing on this circuit.
Sounds like you have quite the mess there for wiring and you like to sort it out before you have real problem......
Also.....zip ties are your friends.....

Jebby

 

I wish I knew for sure. I drove it home about five miles, only felt a slight bit of resistance in the steering, but didn't think anything of it. Took it for another short drive and it just kept getting tighter and tighter, until I went to make the sharp turn pulling into the driveway.

Best I can tell, I knocked loose a wire loose when installing the new manifold and when driving it swung into the rag joint , and it just kept wrapping itself tighter and tighter and pulling anything attached to it with it. Since I installed the manifold, I don't think the exhaust shop guy even looked in from the top, he did everything he had to do on his lift.

 

Yes, I already have the schematic and have started studying them. The problem is that "Bubba" owned this car at some point and there are at least four or five dead end wires along the firewall in the engine bay, two just in the area of where my mystery wires are located.
Amazingly it wasn't that big of a deal. once I got it unwrapped, most everything fell right where it was supposed to be or could be easily traced.
I am just trying to figure out where the black ground wire from the alternator might have attached. (In another bubba move, this wire was wound around the lead from the alternator and 'securely' wrapped with electrical tape!)
I'll dig into why the IGN terminal on the fuse block would acting like it's grounded, hopefully I don't have to try to trace everything. That could be the real nightmare in this scenario!
UPDATE: I checked the IGN terminal on the fuse block and once the key is turned on it shows +12.6v like I was hoping it would. So that's all good. Hopefully this PM I can try to start the car.
Thanks!

 

Go to lectric limited's website and price out the engine harness. You can buy it alone and it will be the crrect length and have the correct ends. You may be able to afford it. The lights have their own harness

 

https://www.lectriclimited.com/vehic...ke/21/model/65

$304 you can probably reuse the pigtails they mention

 

I would get that light harness too.....clean everything up.......
I just did the Engine harness on a 72'......everything was the perfect length and the right colors......took me about 3 hours all together because I am ****.....and getting older

Jebby