Lighting Harness

[Rust Merchant]

Hello All,
I have a ground out problem in the lighting harness. I disconnected power from the generator; tried to reconnect; got 3rd degree burns immediately on my fingers! Immediate arc! Today I pulled harness off of the steering column and found it full of grease. Is this normal? Could this be causing my problem?

As you can see from the pics, this harness is OE. The fabric pulled off with no effort and was rotten. It has add on, poorly done, turn signals (I'm fixing that); they were connected to power separately from the rest of the lights, so I know the short isn't in this system.

I have plenty of 14 ga. wire and experience wiring cars. Should I buy a harness for $55 and replace or run it down myself? Left headlight worked intermittently before this all started, so I'm thinking it could be there. Horn is inop too. By the way, I wiped off the harness end before taking the pic. It was so covered in grease that you couldn't see the contacts.

Thanks,
Dwight

 

[msmaron]

OMG...and your car runs???? I suggest you call brattons, order a COMPLETE NEW wire harness with Turn signals and start over COMPLETELY... what you have is a mish mosh of everything and then some.. this is very dangerous looking and I would be very very concerned......good luck.

 

[CarlG]

Re-wiring with a new harness is not all that hard to do. I did that a couple of times when I was 15, back when there were no wiring diagrams to follow. Bought the harnesses from JC Whitney (back in the 50's when they had tons of Model A parts).

 

[MikeK]

I'm not sure just what is in your steering gear box, but it is likely leaking out the bottom into the light switch. If your wires are old enough to have actual rubber insulation beneath the woven cover, over time oils will turn the rubber to goo. Your harness is indeed toast. The vendors sell a redesigned end plate for the steering box with a long tube to prevent this lube leakage into the switch.

A second point, you have your turn signal blinker mounted upside down. If exposed to any weather or condensing conditions electrical connectors and devices should have their connections facing down, so as to drain water out. The deep drawn (dented) cup that holds the device may be filled with water! After checking and correcting, a rain 'boot' made from inner tube should be made to protect the device from water spray. Or mount it inside, out of the weather.

 

[Aok]

I just finished replacing my wire harness and it also had a lot of grease. It did work ok I just replaced mine because the wires were in bad condition. The steering box in my car is filled with grease (bought car this way) I guessed some of the grease worked its way down to the wiring connections.

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

Grease in the switch shouldn't be normal, but it is very common due to the lack of a seal in the steering box. As Mike said, an end plate with tube should fix that. Grease won't cause a short but with what you have I'd just buy a new lighting harness. If you have a drum taillight, Sacremento Vintage Ford makes the correct full length harness to fit it. It wasn't listed in my SVR catalog 10 years ago, but when I called they said they have some on the shelf. They make the harness in house. Your short might be in the headlights or the connection on the headlamp shell, or it could be in the horn. At any rate you might find the short while replacing the harness.

BTW, I always save old cloth covered wires if they are usable, because they are getting hard to find, and I like them for working on old cars, etc.

 

[Rust Merchant]

Thanks guys! I'm in the process of replacing the harness and end plate. I'll let you know what I find