1973 Custom Cruiser

Now if you had the white-lettering on the inside, it could be exciting...

PITA aren't they? Are they steel or synthetic (PVC), like many?

 

the short to my same lights was just ahead of the driver's door behind the kick panel where the hood release is

 

The inner fenders are plastic of some type. I had to push/bend them this way and that to get the bolt holes to line up. I couldn't imagine trying to do it if they were made of metal!

 

I hope it's that easy. I didn't see any problems when I had that all apart when I was putting in the new carpet. I'm hoping this short-circuit detector will show me where the short is, and, more importantly, it will be easy to get at to fix. I don't need it to be behind a fender somewhere!

 

Can you be more specific on this as it might help me? How, exactly, was the wire shorted? I looked closely at the wires passing through that channel from the front to the rear of the car, and they're encased in a rubber hose as they go under the carpet. As they come out of that hose forward of the front door and go to their various places in the wiring harnesses, I didn't see anywhere where one could expect a short to develop. What was the specific cause of the short in your case?

 

according to my mechanic he did not spend time finding the short, he re-ran a wire from just ahead of the gas tank up past the 2 sill panels and up to the headlight switch

 

Interesting. That's the brute-force approach, and probably a great deal faster. But it also means that you don't really know that the short was in the front by the kick panel? Or did he say he knew it was in that area but didn't want to bother trying to isolate the exact location? Otherwise, all you really know is that it was somewhere between the front wiring harness and the rear of the car, correct? Do you, by chance, know how he isolated the short to that segment of the wiring? Did he use a short-detector? Thanks for the info.

 

sorry he was not very chatty, and it was a year ago so he may not remember - he had to do a similar repair on the 88 A/C blower, and the dashes are the same and he gets them confused sometimes, I didn't want to push it (the wagon is there now )

I understand your questions but I was just glad that he gets it working - I can live with the summary usually

 

No problem. Just hoping to get any insights or ideas I can. It will certainly be a feeling of triumph when (and if!) I get the short fixed.

 

Sorry for the loss of the photos in this thread. Had to clear some server space, so photos will have to go after a while. Maybe I should just upload thumbnails.


For those following this thread, I did finally fix the short that was preventing the taillights, side-marker lights, license plate light, parking lights, and dash lights from working. There was a short, and I finally determined it to be somewhere in the rear of the car by disconnecting the rear wiring harness from where the wiring from the front attaches to it.

Then it was just a matter of examining the wiring to each of the rear lights. I found a pinched wire in one of the taillight housings, but this wasn't the problem because un-pinching it didn't fix it. I finally just disassembled and then reassembled each fixture, and I THINK the problem was a bad short in one of the side-marker lights. But, to be honest, I'm not 100% sure. This problem was fixed by more or less just taking the system apart and putting it back together again, sort of like the way a lot of household appliances get fixed. You take something like the toaster or bathroom light fixture apart, put it back together again, and it starts working. You don't really know what you did, but you did something.

In the case of the car, the side marker lights in the rear ground through a wire that attaches to the body of the car via a screw through a lug. The taillights, on the other hand, ground through the housing of the light socket. When I undid and redid one of the side-marker light grounds, things started working. I would think that this would make that light not work, rather than cause a short, but sometimes when a ground isn't present that should be, things try to ground in some other way. Who knows. All I know is that, for the first time since at least 2005, you can pull on the headlight switch for this car, and not just the headlights go on, but ALL the lights that are supposed to go on go on!

 

Persistence wins again! Congrats! You probably solved this one for 100's more.

 

Jaunty, I sure have enjoyed reading this thread. Your dedication to making this wagon wonderful again is to be applauded!

You are a super guy, and we are all the better for having you here as a member of this forum. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima Your kindness and helpful nature is much appreciated by me.

Have a great day, Jaunty! :dancingparty::You_Rock_Emoticon::dancingparty:

David

 

what about me??? what about MY kindness and helpful nature??? J/K hi all - Jaunty - ready for updates!!!

 

Ok Jeffrey, you too!

Yours almost goes without saying...as if you'd ever let anyone get away with that!
Yeah Jeff, :You_Rock_Emoticon:too!

David

 

thanks D much better - very needy these days