jerryacheson Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 I took my dash and steering column apart this winter to restore the interior on my 62 Electra. It's back together with a few problems:1. Tranny won't hold in park.2. Right turn signal won't cancel.3. No power to the drivers seat motor.I haven't traced anything for the motor. I'm more concerned about what I've done to the steering column. What are your ideas? <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFella Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 Not sure about #1 and #2 but #3 could very well be no ground to the seat. If they are anything like the one on my 70 electra they ground through the chasis via the mounting bolts to the floor and frame. If they are not tight or there is something in between like carpet or liner it will not ground correctly and as such not work! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerryacheson Posted July 12, 2003 Author Share Posted July 12, 2003 Interesting!I was looking for a ground and didn't think I saw one. Are you saying that the motor grounds through its body through the seat to the floor pan? If that't the case, I'd bet my POR15 is getting in the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted July 12, 2003 Share Posted July 12, 2003 I suspect the transmission situation could be a linkage adjustment or similar.The turn signal not cancelling might be the little flat wound springs in the turn signal switch--depending on which style of turn signal swith might be on the car. It's the little springs that make the clicking sound as you turn the wheel and also hit the other part of the steering column to cancel them. Might be the adjustment of the Bowden cable if it's that style too, rather than the integral design where everything is at the top of the column. Probably minor situations that a good service manual might help with.There are many systems on the vehicle where only one wire makes it work (as with a dome light switch, a/c compressor clutch, or blower motor), for example, as the switch grounds and completes the circuit to make the system function, but in a reversible situation (as a window or seat motor or electric lock actuator) there probably should be two wires going to the item with the ground for the circuit located somewhere else. Might even ground through a circuit breaker too.Just some thoughts . . .NTX5467 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFella Posted July 13, 2003 Share Posted July 13, 2003 When I redid my floor with por15 the seat did not work until the seat chasis was "grounded" to the floor through the seat bolts. There was a ground wire and we checked it but the system would not run the seat until it was grounded to the chasis...same with the AM/FM radio I just installed from a 69 electra...there was a ground wire but it was also grounded through the frame to the chasis. This must be a safety feature on the early electrical?? Dunno, I just know until you get a good ground (at least on my car) it will not work. I don't remember if we scraped a little away under the seat mounts or if just backing the seat bolts in and out then tightening them down did it...hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Those earlier Delco radios need to have their chassis' grounded in order to work right, but that is normally taken care of in the mountings attachments. With no ground or a poor ground, the sound can be distorted too. Perhaps that's another function of the back brace other than to just steady the radio in the structure? You'll probably notice that the rear speakers are also "self-grounding" with only one wire going to them. To use a regular speaker back there, just be sure to get a small battery to check the phasing of the replacement speaker (i.e., which terminal you put the + battery lead to get the voice coil to move downard or use the wider one instead of the more narrow one) and then hook the single wire to that terminal and build a wire to go from the other terminal to a speaker mounting bolt to complete the circuit. Those single wire factory rear speakers as somewhat common on GM cars and possibly were a cost cutting result that might have saved $1.00 or so per vehicle in production cost.On the power seat and such, all that needs to happen is to reverse the current flow through the motor, even if it grounds at the point of attachment.Enjoy!NTX5467 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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