Make your own wiring diagram

[BobT-47P15]

When I was trying to determine why the Plymouth had no power coming through the system this week,

I looked at various parts of the wiring as possible problems.  Son in law had unhooked and

re-hooked certain items when working on the car over the last 3 years.   Did he get them back

in just the right places?  Had something worked loose over time and a connection needed

cleaning and tightening?  

 

It turned out that the battery cutoff switch had failed for some unknown reason.....but it 

appeared to be OK.  When I bypassed it and hooked the negative battery cable direct to

the solenoid, the problem was solved.  

 

But the question still remained.......where does this wire and that wire go?  Pretty hard to tell

as they  were taped into a larger group of wires coming through the firewall and going to

various places.  One or two ran down to under the car and I would need to jack it up and

crawl under to figure out where they went.  They were not as shown in the wiring diagram

found in the Repair Manual.  Added later either by me or someone working on the car.  

I probably knew at one time where that wire went.......but as I've had the car for about

40 years -- I forgot. I have not installed a new wiring harness.  

 

I have a looseleaf notebook in which I have drawn my own diagrams of individual

components to separate them out from the overall schematic which can get kinda

confusing with all those wires criss-crossing and such.   Then there are my "added"

things, like the two extra horns and a siren.....a couple "courtesy" lights under the

dash, underhood and trunk lights, hood ornament light and what-have- you.  I did

not draw these out.....but should have.......and plan to list them now since I've had

to think about them.  

 

Well, anyway, I thought I'd put this suggestion out for your consideration.  May be

helpful to some......not much to others.  I've learned lots of good things from others

on here over the years.  

[jcmiller]

Good idea.  I think I need to do that too.  I'm trying to get my front parking lights/blinkers to work and the current wiring is not even close to what the original wiring diagrams say it should be.

[BobT-47P15]

J C....do you have double filament bulbs with two contact sockets in your parking lights?

 

Originally, the two parking lights are connected to the middle tap on that little three contact

light bar on left inner fender .  If  you have turn signals as well, I'm not sure just how they hook

up with the parking lights.   I suppose the signal directions say how.  

 

I have only original single filament bulbs in my parking lights, and have disconnected them from the

light bar and attached them to the turn signal only.  

 

The problem with messed up or incorrect wiring is tracing the wires to be sure what goes to what.

A lot of the wires under the hood are often wrapped with electrical tape.......and you can't tell where

things are going.  It would probably behoove a person to cut off the tape so wires can be followed....can

be re-taped later.  

 

I bought a multimeter that has the continuity testing feature, but that isn't foolproof......as current will often

carry throughout an item such as the voltage regulator or solenoid and the tester will beep on every contact

point.  I had everything working as it should before some stuff was taken apart during repairs for the tornado

damage.  Even with factory diagrams and my own drawings, it's not easy to figure out.