Posted by RWR on Friday, January 27, 2006 at 11:26PM :
Been for several weeks working on trying to revive a long-dead 58 w100 flat six. Been getting it ready by converting back to orig (generator, new solenoid, new volt reg, etc). No carb yet. Distributor is in truck, but not hooked up to coil or no plugs, which are out too so I can freely turn the motor. Until tonite, key had been missing from ignition, but I had been able to turn the motor over by jumping from "bat" post behind switch to "starter" post on switch(had not attempted to jump from "bat" to "ign" or "acc.") Anyway, tonite, I replaced the switch - which seemed to operate okay but, again, no key - w/ a napa universal that was suppose to work (bat, ign, acc, starter like orig, but in different config). I hooked everything up to back of this switch as designated (i.e., "bat" wire to "bat," "starter" to "str", "ignition" to "ign" and "accessories" (didn't heater motor) to "acc"), then turned key all the way to "starter" to see if the switch would work and the motor turn as it had before. For a fraction of a second the starter seemed to kickin and turn the motor, then almost simultanesouly, I heard a loud "pop" from engine compart or fire wall, then everything went dead. At same time, I think I saw out out the corner of my eye a red dash lite ("gen?)- by the way, that was the very first and only time I've seen any lite activity at all from the dash - which lasted for this brief fraction of a second. Then - everything went dead. Before this experiment, the headlites worked when I pulled out the switch, but since this "pop" & "lite" they don't. Also, there seems to be no juice at all at the switch (touched all terminals w/ test lite), and no or little juice anywhere else. I don't know much at all about electricity, but I took a test lite and got juice from the pos post of battery (truck negative grounded by the way at present, is this right or wrong), which has a cable runnng to one side of the new solenoid. According to my test lite, I have juice to this side of the solenoid too, and also at the "bat" terminal on the voltage regulator. But, that seems to be about it. Also, this truck has been badly jerry-rigged under the dash to accomodate an elect/hydro snow plow at one time, there is still a lot of wiring (or rat's nest) under the dash and also a separate solenoid on the inner fender well. Not sure if this is impacting things, but I also thought that I had at least this 2nd "plow" solenoid unhooked. Unfortunately, I don't know much about elect, and hope that someone here can give me some advice on the potential problem and/or what to do to eliminate or tracedown the problems. Again, the truck is currently negative grounded, by a cable bolted (loosely) to the top of a head bolt. The original ground cable to the frame is stiil there, but its been cut several inches so it won't reach the battery post. I know this is very cursory and brief, but any obvious problems - and suggestions to identify the cause? Sincerely, R Rogers
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