Never saw this problem before

[Restorer32]

Working on a 1948 Chev. Car wouldn't run and there was obviously a short somewhere since the battery sparked when connected. After a lot of checking and head scratching we discovered that the firewall mounted coil was actually shorting out internally to its case and thus to the body of the car causing a dead short. Just one of a million or so ways a car can bedevil a person I guess but it was a new one for us.

[Bhigdog]

I just spent the better part of a day scratching my butt trying to figure out why my 57 Buick left directional and both brake lites would not work. Nothing in the schematic made sense to cause that. Seems the brake lite switch went bad and the tail lite bulb was not making good contact both at the same time. Double failures are a b*tch.............Bob

[huptoy]

In June I was in SW IND on a Hupmobile car tour. Tuesday evening we had high winds and a tornado watch. It actually passed 30 miles south of us. Wednesday, we traveled by school bus due to an abundance of gravel roads. In the afternoon we had a 2 inch down burst in less than 2 hours. We actually had 3 3/4 inches in 48 hours. Thursday morning the 31 would not start and everything under the hood was soaked. After everything was wiped down and dried, it had no spark at the plugs. Problem was identified that the insolation on the condenser wire was warn off due to rubbing against the dist. cap. The fix was to add electrical tape around the wire. The problem didn't surface as long as it was dry. Of course, I had run the battery down but it started with a 40 foot push from 4 men. For the record, I didn't find the problem or suggest the fix, this was done by knowledgeable people. The fix only took 30 minutes and I would never found it. After a day or so, it would have dried out and started on it's own.

[trimacar]

A friend and I were moving two cars to a mall show, I was following him, and driving a 1947 Buick that I'd helped him acquire. It started drizzling rain, so I turned on the windshield wipers. With every sweep of the blades, the horn would honk.....honk...honk...honk....

My friend pulled over to the side of the road ahead of me, I did too, and he got out...why are you honking at me? I'm not, I said, your car is......

Seems the ground wire for the horn was right in the path of the wiper mechanism under the dash, and the mechanism had worn a hole in the wire, thus grounding the horn on each pass! (the horn being one of the few things on a car that has hot power to it all the time, and is activated by grounding the other connection)....

[61polara]

I was visiting a friend who was trying to start his Springfield Rolls. Every time he hit the starter button the horn blew softly. Told him it sounded like a electrical feedback problem. We checked the fuses and one was blown. Replace it and everything was fine again.