Help with wiring please! :confused:

I’m trying to help a friend with his 69 X-22 wiring issues. This car has had so many wiring issues it’s hard to tell were to start. He has replaced all the harnesses on the entire car at least once and just today replaced the main fuse panel and all under dash wiring. He also replaced the steering column with a tilt column out of a 70 Nova. Problems up till now have included blowing fuses when turn signals are activated, horn sounding when turning corners, and a burned up wire on the run back from the voltage regulator to the junction block on the radiator support. Some of these problems seem to have been addressed with the replacement of harnesses but the current problem since he replaced the fuse panel prevents us from evening running the car.

When tuning the ignition switch only to the full run position the starter engages but the car doesn’t seem to have power to the coil (no spark). When the key is turned all the way to the starter engage position, the car gets spark and tries to fire off but as soon as the key is left to return to the run position the spark seems to go away, although the starter will continue to crank. Returning the key halfway back to off stops the starter.

This guy has spent almost $26,000 putting this beautiful Hugger orange car together but can’t even enjoy driving it because of these wiring nightmares.

Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated!

The only help I can give is that every circuit needs to be traced. I'd start by disconnecting the connector at the fuse block and pull the fuse block down where you can work on it. You can separate the connector panel from the fuse panel and see the colors and get access to each connection point. Then, with a schematic in hand, I'd start ohming out each circuit until I was sure everything was fine. It's possible that the new steering column is wired a bit different that a 1st gen. If that turns out to be the case, you'll end up removing the pins from the plug and reinserting them in the appropriate hole.

Sorry, I can't offer a quick solution. You'll have to get an ohm meter, flashlight, note pad and schematic to figure this one out.

-dnult

There should be purple #12 wire going from the ignition switch to the "S" terminal on the starter solinoid. Technically, this wire also goes through a neutral safety switch.

The engine wants to start when the starter is engaged because there is a yellow #20 wire that goes from the starter solenoid "R" terminal to the coil + (or at least there should be). When you turn the key to "START" this yellow wire gets a full 12 volts to the coil. When you turn the key to "RUN", the yellow wire is not powered anymore and 12 volts are sent to the resistence wire going to the coil. The resistence wire only goes from the fuse block to the coil and will lower the volts to 8 or 9 to save the points. If you ever change to an HEI ignition, this resistance wire needs to be changed also.

I suspect that your wiring harness is not allowing 12 volts to go from the ignition key to the fuse block. This should be a #12 pink wire. Also check your ignition switch to be sure you are getting power to the correct wire with the key where you want it.

I believe the wiring is:
#12RED wire is 12v power to switch from horn relay
#12 PURPLE wire is hot when key is in "START"
#12PINK wire is hot in "RUN"
#24BROWN is 10ohm resistence wire going to voltage reg.
#12BROWN going to fuse panel.

Kurt is right about the pink wire for the coil. I just got back from Choptop's house working on a crank, but no start issue. The pink wire on the firewall connector connects to a resistance wire feeding the coil in it's original configuration. In choptop's case, someone had replaced this resistance wire with a solid copper wire - a common modification. Trouble is, the solder they used didn't stick to the brass spade terminal. We found it by tracking down a 68 ohm resistance between the ignition switch pink wire and the hot side of the ballast resistor. His car was a mess after we found the problem, but we figured it out.

The blowing fuses with turn signals etc, concerns me though.

-dnult

Thanks for the replys. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

It looks like we're in for a long haul on this one. Next on our list is tracing wire by wire and referencing the wiring diagram. :eek:

After much cursing and sweat the car is now running. graemlins/hurray.gif There were actually three totally separate problems that were driving us nuts.

1. The brand new left replacement park/turn lamp was shorted out. The two springs behind the contact pads were intertwined creating a dead short. This was the cause of the blown fuses and burnt wires. (The reason he replaced both park/turn lamps in the first place was to rule them out as a cause of any problem)
2. The brand new wiring harness and fuse panel were supposedly double checked at the vendor and bench tested before shipping. This obviously was not the case as we found that they had the start and run wires reversed in the harness going to the slide/switch on the steering column. This being the cause of the start/run problem.
3. The horn blowing when turning the corner was traced to a broken wire in the steering column.

The bottom line is to not assume that brand new parts that are “double-checked and bench tested for quality” are always going to be without issue. graemlins/clonk.gif

THIS THING DROVE US NUTS! WE SPENT OVER 100 MAN HOURS TRYING TO RESOLVE THIS! I GUESS THIS REINFORCES THE OLD ADAGE …. BUYER BEWARE!
:mad: