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Thread: Initial Electrical Testing-In Car

  1. #1
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    Initial Electrical Testing-In Car

    I have completed a substantial portion of the electrical and would like to test things. Even though I bench tested the guage lighting and individual front and tail lights, I would like to pre test the directionals , dash lights, horns and front and rear lights with all installed in the car with the battery connected. The engine, however, is not in the car. Did I read somewhere that turning on the ignition without the engine was not a good idea. Or, should I just be careful with wires which are not connected.

    If anyone or if everyone has done this, I'm looking for advice.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Avalanche325's Avatar
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    Pull the fuses for any circuits that you don't want to test. Since you asked about ignition without an engine in I am assuming you have and ECU or an MSD box?

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    I am running a Quick Fuel 780 carb and a Pertronix ignition 351 w.

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    Senior Member edwardb's Avatar
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    I don't know of any reason why you can't fully test your electrical system without your engine installed. Obviously any loose or bare wires should be properly secured to prevent shorts, etc. I'm also assuming since you mention Pertronix, you're using one of their products that's on the engine itself. Therefore not hooked up or powered. If it were attached, just pull the coil/EfI fuse so the system isn't powered without the engine running. But other than that, have at it.
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    Yes, the distributor is Pertronix and attached to the engine. I will do as you both suggest and pull unused fuses and tape any wires not yet connected for good measure. Thanks,
    Jay

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    I always test with a very small fuse in the positive side of the battery cable. Start with a 5 amp.
    Mike

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    Quote Originally Posted by michael everson View Post
    I always test with a very small fuse in the positive side of the battery cable. Start with a 5 amp.
    Mike
    Mike, I like that idea. This may be a silly question, but how do I go about introducing a fuse into the battery cable?

    Jay

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    Quote Originally Posted by ThickCobra View Post
    Mike, I like that idea. This may be a silly question, but how do I go about introducing a fuse into the battery cable?

    Jay
    I do the same as Mike. Just buy a fuse holder and attach some alligator clips to it and now you can hook one end to the battery terminal and the other to the cable. I start out with a 15-20 Amp fuse myself.

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    I can do that. Thanks.

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    Not a waxer Jeff Kleiner's Avatar
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    I do all of my testing with an 8 amp battery charger in place of the battery. Not enough amps to smoke anything.

    Jeff

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    Steve >> aka: GoDadGo
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Kleiner View Post
    I do all of my testing with an 8 amp battery charger in place of the battery. Not enough amps to smoke anything.

    Jeff
    I like this idea, plus I can put an inline fuse in place so if something goes wrong I'll know without any major drama!
    Will use the battery charger instead of that nice new Optima Battery!

    Thanks Jeff!
    Last edited by GoDadGo; 09-22-2016 at 12:52 PM.

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    Thought I'd post preliminary results of my initial electrical testing. I happened to have 2 fuse holders which came with the Cobra Heat seat heaters. As I'm using the heater wiring within the Ron Francis wire system, supported by a 20 amp fuse, these became available. Communicated with Paul about this and he concurred. So, used the fuse holder, with a 5 amp fuse, between the positive terminal on a 12 volt tractor battery and we were good to go.

    The testing went well and no fuses were hurt in the process. A bit of humor. I installed the Russ Thompson self canceling turn signal stalk and I used diodes to prevent any unwanted feedback. I also used the end button on the stalk for the horn. So...directionals work all around as well as the parking lights. I did have a problem with the brake light staying on all the time and headed for the peddle switch. I had to adjust the switch, not easily accessable, and found it needed to be pushed almost all the way in to deactivate the light ( note to self to share with others). The horn worked...really a good sound.

    But, what doesn't work. Headlights don't work. Tested the bulbs again and they are fine. I may have an issue with the switch which I found to be not of a high quality. Just my opinion. Emergency flashers dont work as well as the hi/low beam switch.

    Anyway, went in for dinner, grabbed a glass of wine, will read thru the wiring manual and tackle again tomorrow.

    Jay

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    Brief update. Headlights are still not working. However, good news is the flashers work great as do the directional indicators (left, right) on the dash panel. And, the hi/lo beam toggle lights up (I bought an after market switch that lights blue). But the hi beam indicator light situated between the directional indicators does not illuminate. The headlight bulbs work and the head light switch for all other functions appears to work.

    So, i will revisit connections and the testing continues.

  14. #14
    Not a waxer Jeff Kleiner's Avatar
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    Two things:

    You must have the red "Headlight switch #1feed" landed to the battery lug on the ignition switch. If you are you using the FFR provided on/on toggle switch for high and low beam selection the light blue headlight feed wire goes to the center terminal, red low beam to one outer terminal and the brown high beam wire to the other.

    Good luck,
    Jeff

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Kleiner View Post
    Two things:

    You must have the red "Headlight switch #1feed" landed to the battery lug on the ignition switch. If you are you using the FFR provided on/on toggle switch for high and low beam selection the light blue headlight feed wire goes to the center terminal, red low beam to one outer terminal and the brown high beam wire to the other.

    Good luck,
    Jeff
    The ignition switch wires come grouped in the harness which made it easy to attach. But, I may have connected them improperly early on in the build so I'll check these again. As for the high/low beam switch, I had purchased an aftermarket toggle switch, similar to the Cobra Heat seat heater toggles, that illuminates blue for the high beam. And, when I throw the switch it illuminates. But, the blue dash indicator situated between the dash directional indicators won't illuminate. I find this odd. First I'll check the bulb but I suspect it has to do with the headlight issue. I will revisit the connections and go from there.

    As for the headlight switch that comes with the kit, have you heard of any issues with its reliability and/or function?

    Thanks. Btw, I hope your settled in to the new place.

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    Here's where we're at trying to solve the headlights not working issue. I tested the headlight bulb as well as the high beam bulb and both work. But, still can't get the headlights to turn on. I temporarily wired the LED courtesy strip to the red and gray dash wires. The instructions indicate that turning the headlight switch full counter clockwise will illuminate the courtesy light. As soon as I connected the test battery, the courtesy lights lit up but would not turn off with the headlight switch. That, and the headlights not working makes me wonder whether I have a defective headlight switch. So...ordered a new one.

  17. #17
    Senior Member karlos's Avatar
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    Recently completed my dashboard wiring, and not without gremlins, so I can sympathize.

    Wondering if you might want to put an Ohmmeter on the headlight switch to see if it behaves as expected. In looking at the RF wiring schematic it appears the switch simply passes current from the red ‘headlight switch 1 feed’ wire to the light blue ‘headlight switch -> dimmer switch’ wire. So with the headlight switch in the off position, you should have no continuity between the two terminals that correspond to those wires. And with the switch in the on position there should be continuity.

    Not much to go wrong with the headlight switch. I hope that’s the problem but wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. Is the ‘headlight switch 1 feed’ wire connected directly to the battery (Jeff mentions this above as well)? In other words, are you sure you’re getting current to the headlight switch? The dimmer switch might be another place to look. The fact that your blue high beam indicator isn’t working tells me that no current is finding its way downstream of the dimmer switch (assuming you have the high beam indicator downstream of the dimmer switch, which is where it needs to be). You also mentioned an aftermarket dimmer switch. Is it an On-On, Three Post, Single Pole Double Throw switch, or something else? Can you verify there is current between the headlight switch and the dimmer switch?

    I’m guessing maybe the dimmer switch is of the wrong type. Temporarily swapping in the FFR-supplied dimmer might be enlightening (so to speak). Light blue dimmer switch wire to the center post, and red/brown hi/low beam wires to the outside posts.

    Good luck.
    Last edited by karlos; 09-27-2016 at 09:51 PM.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by karlos View Post
    Recently completed my dashboard wiring, and not without gremlins, so I can sympathize.

    Wondering if you might want to put an Ohmmeter on the headlight switch to see if it behaves as expected. In looking at the RF wiring schematic it appears the switch simply passes current from the red ‘headlight switch 1 feed’ wire to the light blue ‘headlight switch -> dimmer switch’ wire. So with the headlight switch in the off position, you should have no continuity between the two terminals that correspond to those wires. And with the switch in the on position there should be continuity.

    Not much to go wrong with the headlight switch. I hope that’s the problem but wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. Is the ‘headlight switch 1 feed’ wire connected directly to the battery (Jeff mentions this above as well)? In other words, are you sure you’re getting current to the headlight switch? The dimmer switch might be another place to look. The fact that your blue high beam indicator isn’t working tells me that no current is finding its way downstream of the dimmer switch (assuming you have the high beam indicator downstream of the dimmer switch, which is where it needs to be). You also mentioned an aftermarket dimmer switch. Is it an On-On, Three Post, Single Pole Double Throw switch, or something else? Can you verify there is current between the headlight switch and the dimmer switch?

    I’m guessing maybe the dimmer switch is of the wrong type. Temporarily swapping in the FFR-supplied dimmer might be enlightening (so to speak). Light blue dimmer switch wire to the center post, and red/brown hi/low beam wires to the outside posts.

    Good luck.
    Received a new headlight switch from FFR and it works for the parking lights, gauges and courtesy lights. Still no headlights. But, you are onto something with changing out the dimmer switch for the FFR provided switch. I swapped it out and the low beam headlights work but not the high beam. So I thought I could test the connections by pulling the blue, red and brown wires from the switch and merely using alligator clips and connect the blue wire diectly to the red and brown separately. Sure enough, red to blue works for low beam. Brown to blue nothing.

    I have been racking my brain as to where to start. I assumed the blue wire going to the dimmer switch was the power, but I'm thinking it may be the common and the red and brown wires carry the power. Accidentally grounded the red and popped a fuse. Any ideas as to where to start to sort out the high beam brown wire feed?

    And yes, I do have the hdlt sw 1 feed landed to the bat lug on the ignition switch. And this goes to the battery.

  19. #19
    Senior Member karlos's Avatar
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    Probably related to your high beam indicator light. Might try removing/bypassing it and see what happens.

  20. #20
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    Everything works now. I used my continuity tester to identify whether any particular section of wiring was the problem. While exploring this I discovered that wires within a weather pack connector in the dash harness were mismatched. I can't be certain whether the connectors from Ron Francis were mismatched or whether I did it. Either way, we are good to go. And, thanks to Karlos, I found my aftermarket high beam switch was an on/off. I'll be looking on line for an on/on switch.

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