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Old 10-14-2018, 03:34 PM
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DorianC3
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Default Bubba puzzler

What was he trying to accomplish?

This is the harness to the rear lights. He tapped the brown wire (at least I think it’s brown) and connected it to the LPS spade on the fuse panel. Brown wire is power for lights.

Why ? what am I missing?



Old 10-14-2018, 04:25 PM
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croaker
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🤪Hot wire for radio

Last edited by croaker; 10-14-2018 at 04:26 PM.
Old 10-14-2018, 05:22 PM
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stevedinino
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Just a guess, but the LPS terminal is the instrument panel light circuit... if Bubba was popping parking lamp fuses, maybe he tried to power the parking lights from there?
Old 10-14-2018, 07:30 PM
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Richard454
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Originally Posted by stevedinino
Just a guess, but the LPS terminal is the instrument panel light circuit... if Bubba was popping parking lamp fuses, maybe he tried to power the parking lights from there?
I'm thinking he used the parking lights to power the instrument lights.

I bet you don't have any instrument lights now!!!

Richard
Old 10-14-2018, 08:36 PM
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CA-Legal-Vette
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Originally Posted by croaker
🤪Hot wire for radio
Maybe not hot, but the “night” circuit for the radio?
Old 10-14-2018, 09:25 PM
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DorianC3
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There’s no telling if my instrument lights stopped working; my dash is completely removed. I knew there was some odd wiring work going on under the dash and wanted to go through it carefully.

The OEM harness looks in reasonable shape, but it had a few layers of Bubba added on to it.

From memory, I for sure have instrument lights. I just don’t recall if they are dimable. I don’t think they were.

is spade supposed to be vacant in OEM configuration? If not, where does it connect to?

Thanks!!


DC3
Old 10-14-2018, 09:26 PM
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Speaking of, the radio was very poorly wired... of course.

How does radio relate to this ?


Old 10-14-2018, 11:40 PM
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CanadaGrant
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Originally Posted by Richard454
I'm thinking he used the parking lights to power the instrument lights.

I bet you don't have any instrument lights now!!!

Richard
I wonder if the dimmer function in the light switch burned out resulting in no instrument lighting so he took a more "direct approach" rather than replacing the switch..

Last edited by CanadaGrant; 10-14-2018 at 11:44 PM.
Old 10-14-2018, 11:57 PM
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Originally Posted by DorianC3
There’s no telling if my instrument lights stopped working; my dash is completely removed. I knew there was some odd wiring work going on under the dash and wanted to go through it carefully.

The OEM harness looks in reasonable shape, but it had a few layers of Bubba added on to it.

From memory, I for sure have instrument lights. I just don’t recall if they are dimable. I don’t think they were.

is spade supposed to be vacant in OEM configuration? If not, where does it connect to?

Thanks!!


DC3
Yep- nothing connected to it.

Originally Posted by DorianC3
Speaking of, the radio was very poorly wired... of course.

How does radio relate to this ?
I'm guessing sarcasm...

Originally Posted by CanadaGrant
I wonder if the dimmer function in the light switch burned out resulting in no instrument lighting so he took a more "direct approach" rather than replacing the switch..
Definitely a really DIRECT approach...branching off a 20A circuit to feed a 5A one...without a fuse... What could possibly go wrong???
Old 10-15-2018, 02:05 AM
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DorianC3
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So let me get this straight. That spade (typically vacant) is used as an additional feed for instrument lighting... It is variable as from light switch potentiometer.

The feed to the actual instrument lights goes from the light switch vatirator, to the rear of the fuse panel, through a small glass tube fuse (presumably called “INST LPS”). After going through the fuse, varied power then goes both to that spade (as an auxiliary) and behind to feed instrument lights...

Bubba bypassed the fuse probably because the wrong-sized, not-fully-seated fuse was not reliable.

my guess is... he had the wrong fuse in there (too big to fit)




if that is the case, I’ll bet that fuse, not fully seated, was unreliable and he did this reverse workaround.

Last edited by DorianC3; 10-15-2018 at 02:22 AM.
Old 10-15-2018, 09:55 AM
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Great Bubba forensics!!!


WOW- what a long way around -instead of just getting the right size fuse!!!!
Old 10-19-2018, 09:47 PM
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Originally Posted by DorianC3
So let me get this straight. That spade (typically vacant) is used as an additional feed for instrument lighting... It is variable as from light switch potentiometer.

The feed to the actual instrument lights goes from the light switch vatirator, to the rear of the fuse panel, through a small glass tube fuse (presumably called “INST LPS”). After going through the fuse, varied power then goes both to that spade (as an auxiliary) and behind to feed instrument lights...

Bubba bypassed the fuse probably because the wrong-sized, not-fully-seated fuse was not reliable.

my guess is... he had the wrong fuse in there (too big to fit)




if that is the case, I’ll bet that fuse, not fully seated, was unreliable and he did this reverse workaround.
The level of corrosion and dirt in that fuse box is just unacceptable. You might just want to replace the wiring harnesses and be done with it. The fuse box comes with it.
Old 10-20-2018, 01:08 AM
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Seeing that fuse block I'd second getting a new harness. I've tried to fix things like that in the past and it's just not worth it. You can get it patched up and working, but it will just start to cause headaches again in the near future.
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Old 10-20-2018, 02:06 AM
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Hmmmmmm - I def need to consider this. Especially now that everything is apart.

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