35 Instrument Lighting

JSeery said:
The wire from the switch at the base of the steering column is not black, it is black with a blue tracer. However these color codes can be difficult to read after they fade.

There is almost nothing wired correctly under the dash. You need to decide if you want to rewire it or just try to keep patching it up. As Terry pointed out, the fuse panel is totally inoperable. The ignition resistor is bypassed and the fuse holder is missing. It is currently only being used as a terminal strip.

If it was mine, I would correct the wiring. The easiest approach would be to purchase new wiring harness and a fuse panel, however they are not cheap. You could also just replace the wiring that is missing or not wired correctly.

What are your plans for the car, back to stock or just functional? It would make a difference in your approach to correcting the wiring and switches.

Would also be concerned about the ballast resistor being bypassed. What type of coil is currently on the engine?
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Based on all of this info it makes sense to correct the wiring. If it was just one wire/connection that was bad, I'd correct that but as you say there's almost nothing correct. Checking online parts it seems that the new harness and fuse block for this '35 is approx $110. When I thought about your question, mainly I would like the car to be fully functional, but also back to stock where practical. In this case if I just did a patch/quick correction to get the dash lights working, it wouldn't be long before the next issue with a gauge or something else was still a problem with the bad wiring, so it does seem to make sense to get it right. Thanks for your help.
 
Did you ever take a look at the coil? It would be interesting to see what is being used with the ballast resistor bypassed.
 
Measure the resistance of the coil and see what it is. Is it a can style coil or an original attached to the distributor. It is also possible that a ballast resistor has been added somewhere else in the circuit. They are sometimes mounted at the coil.
 

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It is a can style, see attached picture. I haven't found another resistor in-line, and didn't see one (that I recognized) at the coil, although it could be somewhere else in the circuit. I will measure the resistance.
 

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My dash light switch is completely different to the one in the pics in my '35 roadster. I've got a uk built car though so will explain the differences.
 
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