Electrical woes....what am I missing?

[Summershandy]

Been tinkering on the car over the winter. Wanted to do some work on the clock. Charged up the battery and hooked it up. Clock doesn't work but it did before. Under hood light works and horn works. All fuses are good. Went to turn on the headlights and no lights work. Everything worked when I parked it last fall. The instrument cluster is removed. The temp gauge is gone getting fixed. Don't want to turn the key because of the gauge wires being disconnected. Why won't the headlights or brake lights turn on? I didn't do any work to the switch or the wiring. I have a wiring diagram but this field has always been my weakest link. 

[Summershandy]

No headlights, parking lights, instrument lights, hood ornament, tail lights, brake lights and clock. 

Wiring and connections look good, clean and tight including the 2 fuses on the firewall. 

 I'm going to re-install the instrument bezel tomorrow and hook up the gauges. 

I can then test a few more things with the ignition on.   

[hchris]

3 hours ago, Summershandy said:

Been tinkering on the car over the winter. Wanted to do some work on the clock. Charged up the battery and hooked it up. Clock doesn't work but it did before. Under hood light works and horn works. All fuses are good. Went to turn on the headlights and no lights work. Everything worked when I parked it last fall. The instrument cluster is removed. The temp gauge is gone getting fixed. Don't want to turn the key because of the gauge wires being disconnected. Why won't the headlights or brake lights turn on? I didn't do any work to the switch or the wiring. I have a wiring diagram but this field has always been my weakest link. 

 

Is there a relay in the headlight circuit ? perhaps its quit.

 

Assume you have a wiring circuit, pretty hard to troubleshoot without one.

[Bloo]

Does your gauge cluster have an ammeter that is not connected? If so, current has to flow through that to get from the battery to almost anything else.

Edited April 7, 2019 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Summershandy]

1 minute ago, Bloo said:

Do you have an ammeter that is not connected?

 

No connections like that have been touched. I know the ammeter you're speaking of from the schematic. I keep looking and looking at the drawing and trying to figure it out. I also suck at a multimeter but I do have one. It's like no power is going to the headlight switch or the fuse panel for the clock. Stumped on the brake lights too with the hydraulic switch not getting power. 

 

1 hour ago, hchris said:

Is there a relay in the headlight circuit ? perhaps its quit.

 

I don't believe so but what do I know? Doesn't seem like it. Here's a shot of the electrical for all it's worth. 

 

 

[Summershandy]

[Bloo]

Ok starting at the battery, there is a cable to the starter. From the starter it continues on a small wire to the ammeter (and also the horn relay and the cigarette lighter).

 

The terminal on the other side of the ammeter splits off and powers everything else (and also connects to the charging system via the voltage regulator).

 

If the ammeter gauge is not in the car, the wires that are supposed to connect to it would have to be shorted together for anything to work. (Except the horn and the cigarette lighter, those should work no matter what with the battery in.)

 

If the ammeter is in the car, it would be a good place to start testing. Make sure there is battery voltage on both sides.

 

With the ignition switch not in, not much is going to work. I am not familiar enough with the 54 to know which stuff needs the key. I would expect at least the brakelights and the headlights to work without it.

 

 

[Summershandy]

I hear ya Bloo and agree....thanks for double checking the schematic for me. I'll try my best tomorrow. 

[Summershandy]

Time to show my ignorance.....not knowing what an ammeter was, I googled it and found a picture of my "battery gauge". NOW I get it. 

Connected the 2 wires that would hook up to the gauge and the clock started ticking. Of course everything else works too. Thanks Bloo, I just couldn't get it in my head but I did learn just that much more this weekend. ~Mark~

[Bloo]

Glad you got it working!

[Summershandy]

I put the cluster back together (less the temp gauge) and gauges work as they did also. I really was hoping my temp gauge would have been done before summer but I was informed it could take several months. Precious cruising time would be lost. I'll just run my aftermarket one for the time being and leave the gauge glass empty until its rebuild is done.