old-tank Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 After pulling the '58 out of the garage and washing the top and underside, I went to drive it around the block before putting her back in the garage. When I hit the curb at the end of the driveway, the car quit. Now I have no power anywhere. Battery shows 12.5 volts. 12.5 volts at the starter. I have no lights, no crank, nothing. It's acting like a dead short. I've checked all the visible wiring, body harness, dash wiring, etc and I don't see anything that could possibly be shorting out.This is the car that had the entire wiring harness "professionally" replaced, including most switches and gauges attached. I checked the coil wire, starter wiring, generator wiring, etc.I've got an inclined driveway, so I've given up for the night and called AAA to come put it in the garage for me. At this point I'm thinking voltage regulator or ignition switch. Would either of those cause a complete loss of power to the entire car, lights, ignition, etc?HELP!Electrical is a weakness of mine, so please be thorough in any explanation or ideas. I've got to work all day tomorrow, so it will likely be Monday before I get a change to do much more troubleshooting.Fixed!!!I did all the checking and rechecking that everyone had suggested and Brian had done...found no power at the ignition switch. I thought that maybe there was a big splice inside the wire harness that was bad. I then pulled the headlight switch harness and checked power there. YES I had power at the red wire. WHY are the headlights not working if I have power at the switch? I checked the order of the wires going to the switch in the 58 chassis manual, and AHA. The red wire was installed in the wrong slot. Since this car does not have a power antenna, there is no wire going to the switch in that port. I put the wire where the chassis said it belonged, and voila! We have a running car again. Now, there are several other wiring issues at hand. The trunk light was not working, and the connection was broken at the socket. I soldered a new wire on, and it's good. Two problems down, 100 left Glad it is fixed, but I still don't understand how it was running, stopped running when it should not have run in the first place :confused::confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smartin Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I agree...still wondering wtf was going on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhclark Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 I worked on it for days. I told Adam it would take him 15 minutes to figure out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Hopefully, he is smart (Smartin) enough to bill you for more than 15 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhclark Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 Hopefully, he is smart (Smartin) enough to bill you for more than 15 minutes.What? With all this free advertising? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smartin Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I already gigged him for a Valentine's Day weekend in Cincinnati Minor clarification - it took me an hour to find it. Half of that was taking the top of the dash pad apart and getting my hands in there far enough to test voltage on the ignition switch. I studied the wiring diagram for several minutes trying to figure out what should have voltage at all times, and not, etc. I didn't mention that Snow White will be getting new seats, headliner, detail, ....hmmm. I should probably make a new thread for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 (edited) I already gigged him for a Valentine's Day weekend in Cincinnati Minor clarification - it took me an hour to find it. Half of that was taking the top of the dash pad apart and getting my hands in there far enough to test voltage on the ignition switch. I studied the wiring diagram for several minutes trying to figure out what should have voltage at all times, and not, etc. I didn't mention that Snow White will be getting new seats, headliner, detail, ....hmmm. I should probably make a new thread for this.Paragraph one:Valentine's Day in Cincinnati is not a prize Paragraph two:Wiring diagram read in five minutes? Well done, my friend.Paragraph three:Yep. Edited February 17, 2015 by buick5563 Alterating my wordsmithing (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I worked on it for days. I told Adam it would take him 15 minutes to figure out!That's it! You did something to it!New rate plan for Adam:$40/hr if you leave it.$50/hr if you watch.$60/hr if you help.$70/hr if you already 'worked on it'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buick5563 Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Smart A$$ comments deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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