Electrical issue?

buickman_86 · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 11:22 am Post subject: Electrical issue?

I took my 63 beetle out last night for a drive but had to tow it home. I recently changed plugs wires cap and rotor and coil. I had noticed a bit of a hesitation off and on like it was loosing power or miss firing last week went through and double checked everything and found nothing wrong except I decided to take te timing down a few degrees.

So last night I let the car warm up and in half a mile from my house I stater getting a surging on and off from the motor. Generator light and oil light comes on. I shut the car off and pull over right away. Look over everything and can find nothing obvious wrong. Get back in the car and turn the key on and nothing comes on at all. So I looke at te wireing under the front can't find or smell anything that looks bad. I wiggle some stuff around and get the generator and oil light back on but won't turn over so I shut it off and look farther. Still nothing I can tell. Try again and it starts up idels fine all is good. Then start to go and it does the same thing. So I tie it home as I put it in te garrage the or and generator lights come on but there is no key in the ignition and he electric fuel pump turned on. I was unable to figure out what happend so I pulled the batterie and parked it.

Anyone have any ideas of where to start?

subhuman · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 11:36 am Post subject:

make sure chassis ground is tight and no corrosion (trans to chassis) also, check your battery ground strap to chassis (under rear seat pass side) for the same.
_________________
63 restomod build
http://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq37/johnnysubhuman/?albumview=slideshow

you can have everything you want, just don't want so much!

"the wrong way always seems the more reasonable."
george moore

1963 type1
2002 Subaru Wrx

never argue with an idiot, they will only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!
Mark Twain

rcroane · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 11:57 am Post subject:

If it was running ok before the work you did, then re-trace your steps.

Test the new coil or put the old one back on. Is your rotor pushed all the way down on the shaft? Distributor cap on tight? Any loose plugs or plug wires (at plugs, cap, and coil)? Coil wires hooked up to correct terminals? Did you re-tightened the distributor clamp good after adjusting the timing? Could one or more of the plugs be bad? Do you have electronic ignition or points?

buickman_86 · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 1:08 pm Post subject:

I will check the grounds tonight.

I checked all of those the only thing I have not looked at to double check would be the points. I checked had a similar issue with the old parts before I switched them out I noticed a the same syptoms but not to this degree it would come and go. That's why I thought I would just go over everything and put in fresh plugs. Then I thought I would put on a new rotor and cap bc it had been a while thought I might have been a wearing issue with those. But I don't slice it is

Aynthm · Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 10:55 pm Post subject:

Check condenser wire coming out of the dist. could be grounding out and frayed plus make sure it's connected to the right terminal on the coil, should be the - term.

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lavo56 · Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 5:12 am Post subject: Re: Electrical issue?

buickman_86 · Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2015 2:58 pm Post subject:

Yes I was moving wires around behind the dash to see if anything was loose or disconnected or crossed.

I went out and looked it appears the grounds are ok I touched the positive back on and the fuel pump and both lights oil and gen came on without a key in again today.

jhoefer · Samba Member Joined: May 19, 2011 Posts: 987

Since you were tugging on stuff in the dash, most obvious thing to check is that you dont have a black wire touching a red wire on the ignition switch or light switch.

buickman_86 · Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:40 am Post subject:

Wanted to give an update to this.

I started removing all the electrical connections and cleaning up all the terminals and making sure that the wires were not broken or exposed. I found the wire from the bright light indicator had a broken connector and could fall off and touch other circuits. I also found a pice of metalic debre of some kind was under the ignition switch and would occasionally touch the terimials bypassing the switch. I also found that the ground strap on the trans to body had a crack almost all the way through that was hiding where the wire was bent. I replaced and cleaned up all the issues and the car is back to running great. In fact better I noticed that the starter turns better and my lights are a little brighter! I am thinking the ground strap might have need cracked for some time.
Thanks everyone for the help.

subhuman · Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:39 am Post subject:

glad you got it figured out! Very Happy

_________________
63 restomod build
http://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq37/johnnysubhuman/?albumview=slideshow

you can have everything you want, just don't want so much!

"the wrong way always seems the more reasonable."
george moore

1963 type1
2002 Subaru Wrx

never argue with an idiot, they will only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!
Mark Twain


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