1967 Camaro Restoration Project
Page Twenty Eight
One thing I needed to get done on the list of things was to get the car P.A. inspected since that's the state it is going to live in. Thanks Megan's Motors for taking care of that for me.
The way is project is going, as with any project, is not without it's set backs. On the way home from work after getting the inspection done around lunchtime, I noticed the interior curtesey and dome lights were on. By the time I got home, the dome lamp had melted the fixture and droped down on the lens, melting it also. After checking things out I found the headlight switch on the dash, that also turns on the interior lights, malfunctioned and thats why the lights stayed on. A pain in the butt but another "bug" that's probably better happening right now then later.
As if that was not enough of a problem,, then this one was. The same interior light failed. The fuse was burnt out. As soon as I put another one in, it burnt and right away. That tells me it a dead short somewhere in that circuit. After unplugging everything that was on the circuit and the fuse still popped when it was plugged in, it's safe to say it's the wiring harness itself. Not good. This was the only harness that was used from the old car because of the cost of it being expensive since it had the fuse block connected to it. It was decided to reuse it because it was protected under the dash and didn't show any signs of wear or damage. So here we go,, starting at the fuse block I start to peel open the harness in by inch looking for damage the would cause a dead short.
The dash had to come bach out to follow the harnes up under the dash. The seats also had to come out so I could get my fat ass under the dash to work.
I thought I found the problem when I came across this right above the steering column but it turned out this is a factory splice. Great,, now my dead short goes in 3 different direction. What the hell,, I started cutting the wires one at a time and on the seconed wire, the short went away. Now I know what wire to follow to find the short.
The guilty wire went up and over the radio and above the glovebox so all that had to come back out to trace the wire.
I didn't get a picture of it but I finally found the short. It was an unused connector that had a very small piece of the terminal exposed and it was resting on a bracket above the glove box causing a dead short. Something a small piece of electrical tape could have avoided but hey,, no one is perfect. We're back together now and looking good.
Back out test driving again with my buddy Dave. He drove us back home on this test cruise.
I took the original car keys and chromed them and gave them to the new owners daughter as a set of ear rings for a keepsake of the car she drove in high school. 25+ years later she's going to get Ole Blue back just like a brand new car.
