1930 Erskine Lighting Fuse??????????

[Guest wilsonsk]

I was having issues with one of my headlights flickering, then I lost all lighting, dome light, dash lights, tail light, stop light and head/parking lights. I am guessing there is a fuse in there somewhere, any idea where?

I have plenty of juice for starting and ignition, and it is charging just fine.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[rbk]

The fuses on that car may be in a small box on the end of the steering column.

See if the wires go there.

Bob

[Guest stude8]

Can't confirm how the Erskine was wired but my 1930 President 8 had no fuses, It did have a breaker relay called the "Buzzer" installed between the Ammeter load side and the steering column lighting switch power source wire so that in the event of any short in the lighting system the extra current drain would pull enough amperage through the breaker relay coil and "Open" the contact in series with the power from generator to ammeter and eventually the lights.

When this happens the moment the relay opens the circuit current flow stops and the relay snaps back closed again and if the short still exists (probably does like if a wire is shorted in one of the lights) the relay opens again. This opening and closing makes a mechanical sound under the dash where the relay is located [attached to the cigar lighter next to ammeter] that is like a loud door bell Buzzer so you get the warning something is wrong.

Now if the breaker relay contact is corroded or dirty to the point power is interrupted all your lights will fail from lack of power.

Something even simpler could be a broken wire from the ammeter, breaker relay or at the lighting switch assembly would cut off the power to the light switch. Check all the wire ends where they are inserted in the ring or spade lugs. Originally they had rubber sleeving slid over the connector to prevent vibration from shaking the stranded wire leads but that rubber likely turned hard and fell off 40 or 50 years ago and with vibration all the wire strands may have broken off finally opening the circuit connection. Reconnecting and soldering the connection and installation of modern "Shrink Tubing" will correct the problem.

Stude8

[Guest wilsonsk]

this sounds promising, I didn't hear any buzzing but i suppose it may not be working normally after 80 years. i had already type the information below before i checked you post but the fact that my lighting function came back suggests that a breaker of some sort was at w9ork. When the lights stopped working, everything else behaved normally, good charging from the generator, horn worked and the charge meter dropped like it should from the draw of the horn. I had an interesting thing happen yesterday, I hadn't been out to the garage for a week or so and I went out to start it up and let it run a bit, the battery was dead. None of my lights had been working the last couple of times I had driven it, including the dome light, tail lamp, stop lamp, dash lights, all of them. I hooked up the battery charger and the dome light came on and all of my other lights now work again. I don't know if there is a breaker some where that took a long time to reset or what. i suspect chafing in the driver's side conduit for the headlamp as the root cause of the trouble, but not sure about the month long vacation the lighting system took. I have one more tidbit of information, when I drove it home the last time (about 50 miles), somewhere along the way the system stopped charging, wasn't discharging, but wasn't charging. I checked and the dome light was on, I don't think the head lights were on though, even with them on it still charged at 5 amps or so going 30 mph before all of this started. The next time I looked it was charging like normal without the lights on and the dome light had stopped working.