63 Pinner Hightop

[John ED Renstrom]

no choice we have to look under that switch panel. it's kind of tight will the windshield in place. the first thing I did was loose a bit down the defroster tub, I donate it to Nick I'm not digging for it. got it with no trouble as soon as i laid the pickup magnet across the hole. go figure. but it confirmed what I thought the red wire was the ground for the horn relay. strange the cut the factory wire coming from the horn ring ran it up to the switch ran a red wire for the ground to the horn relay all the way to the left of the fire will instead of just connecting it to the wire they cut which already ran in the factory harness to the relay. it's a pro car, just be thankful it works and don't ask questions! got the sill plate back one and did a no-no repair on the kick panel. the fiber glass will hold good, fill the rust holes and not absorb water. it smooth up nicely in a place no one will see unless there vacuuming out the car. got everything back together and cleaned up the big pieces. I should be able to get the bench and the left wheel cove on tomorrow then we can start on the trim pads. unless there is 6 inches of snow on the ground. there making promises but I don't believe them till I see it. we are in extreme drought here.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

fumbled threw another afternoon got somethings found out some good, some bad. found enough stuff to get the electric fuel put on a fused switch circuit by itself. to the door is on to the inside is off. only need it to prim the system if it has been sitting awhile. the mechanical one works just fine. figured out how to make the compartment dome lights work and get the light at the head of the gunnie to go on and off with the doors. can't get the driver's side dome light to work. or the switches on the rear door. there was a green wire laying loose on the floor of the hatch that might be the one for the jam switch on the rear door. those switches work by grounding out the hot wire. ran out of time to play with things there. I don't want to get the wheel cover in place till I have the wiring straight. as it all connects in front of that panel. the blower for the heater works also. so,we are gaining more then we loosing

 

[Paul Steinberg]

During the cars in service life, the horn ring stopped working, and someone at the fire department put a push button on the dash. Because of the way that it was installed, told me that it wasn't done by someone familiar with automotive wiring. I took the column apart starting at the top, and when I was done, I had the entire column out of the car and found the problem, and Chrysler made a mid year change and replaced the spring copper strap with a piece of 12 gauge wire and a couple of screws. I learned about this from the parts car that I had at my disposal. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the upgrade without changing both the steering gear box and the column since the change required drilling into hardened steel, so I did the next best thing. I used 2 small worm gear clamps to clamp the spring copper strap back to the steering column, and got it working correctly. I don't remember how much wiring I had to fix to remove their Rube Goldberg way of getting the horn to blow, but when I was done, I had a small pile of wire left over. There were a bunch of other problems with the wiring that I had to repair, for fear that if I didn't, the car might go up in smoke. A lot of the wiring done by Pinner needed correcting.
As for the dome lights, they are all hot all the time at the bulb, and when you open the door the switch makes the connection to ground and the bulbs illuminate. The switches do not ground out the hot wire as you said above, because if they did you would have a massive short circuit on your hands. If the drives door doesn't activate the dome lights, check to see if the white grounding wire has fallen off of the switch.
Moving onto the single wire that goes across the floor of the rear compartment, if you connect both of the cut ends together, you will disable the other switches and the interior lights will stay illuminated. I spent hours trying to find where that wire is damaged causing it to ground out, but I couldn't find it without taking the entire rear compartment apart, and even then, there was no guarantee that the fault could be found. As a result, I just left it taped up just the way that I found it. I believe that it was that way when the car was delivered, and even the Pinner factory wasn't able to find the fault. Sometimes some issues can't be resolved unless you start from the beginning and work your way back. Unfortunately, there is no wiring schematic that shows where the wires originate from and there they terminate. Automotive wiring isn't as straight forward as many people think it is, and a lot of junctions are created along the length of the wires, by cutting, splicing, and taping the connections. The worse part of trying to repair these problems is that you have no idea of what was done along the way during the cars lifetime. Fixing the horn blowing problem took me the better part of 2 days to sort it out, and I had the luxury of having a 1963 Chrysler New Yorker at a local salvage yard that I could pick for repair parts.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

thanks for the hint on the white wire. came in thinking I had done something. will something was right when I left nothing was on, they were all on in the rear when I walked in. defiantly a wacko task. the green wires are grounds. traced that extra wire to a bundle of grounds soldered together. up behind the light you put in. so, we pulled it out of the hatch and sniped it off. the one running across goes to the center switch on the back door I don't have a clue what it for or how it gets power to it. the bottom one is the backup lights when you open the door. the top the dome. I ended up putting 3 new switches in the original were rusty and bleeding into the mounts. I can now control the dome in back with the rear door. the green wire for the left center door is not caring current, but the yellow one is. they put 2 jam switches on each door. on for the rear one for the front. I can't get power to the front dome. one jam switch is broken on the right center door. I did find the wire for it but it's too short to reach the switch. doesn't carry any current either so has to be for the ground on the front dome. but until I get power up there, we can't sort it out. I'll run a jumper up there and see if we can get sparks to fly. I have a green wire splice I took apart it shows no current, when I touch one with to green wire next to it that has current the dome light are dim the other half is the same way. but if I touch both of them, I get a bright dome. I go to the bundle of green and poke one at a time I have current two feet away no current in one. you can feel it down to the hole it goes in and were it comes out but can't tug it. either it comes out a different wire, or it's trapped on a rough edge. going to have to figure out where it's grounding at to get the lights on bright. all the jam switches are out and loose except the new one on the rear door. but at least that one now works right.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

The dim light indicated that the ground wire has a dirty connection and isn't carrying full current. I have been down this rabbit hole more often than I care to admit. Good to know that my Rube Goldberg light is still bright and shiny. Good luck solving the problem or problems. It might be more than one connection that is giving you trouble. It might make sense to install all new switches, because they do wear out and age causes them to deteriorate. I had to put all new switches into the Chevrolet to get everything working properly.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

still attempting to make sense of this mile or two of wire. don't know what they had hooked up to the 3 jam switches in the rear. took things apart again. discovered the one wire that was hot with key one and in reverse was spliced into the back up lights. so, it was to turn on the back up lights wen the rear door was open not unusual seen that before but took a while to find the power wire so that it would. we did come up with one so now that works as it should. got two things working back there. don't have a clue what the middle switch was to do. the green wire that crosses the floor is dead. hooked it up to the jump box and traced it to the jam switches left center and both front green wires. but I have that rear switch working so decided to cut it and connect it to the green wire bundle we now can get each door to turn on the compartment lights all 5 doors. so, I'm going to do it that way. if it works don't fight it. still can't find the power wire for the cab dome. took the light of and tester it. it works like it should with the on off switch functioning. the fuse marked brake and dome is good power on both sides. but I can't get behind the fuse panes to see if there is power out. one "assumes" they used the factory power wires and ground set up. but that is at best a guess. can't find a red wire going up any pillar in the cab. but for now, we have got everything working up to the divider. it's a start.

 

[Philip Scanio]

Ok ED, now my chest hurts!!!

 

[John ED Renstrom]

was testing thing with the jump box and let the smoke out. dangling wires I suspect ground out and melted one jam switch and the thin wire I was using for a jumper. but before I noticed it, I did test the ground wire on the cab dome. it has conductivity. so what i need is to find we it lost the hot wire. I'm guessing I can find it if I remove the glove box. all 5 doors will now work the compartment lights. why they doubled up the jam switches on the center door I don't know as either jam switch will work them. they have the yellow and green wires tied together. could have just used one. finely understood the one green wire that I could get to turn on the dome light it I touched it to the other wire. it comes out of the original chy harness. it the brake light turn signal wire for the left side. the chy harness is cut right at the divider and the wires are mixed int the pinner harness in the stretch. it's a little better than working on a superior were everything is wired with white wire. but you still need to run every wire and tag it.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

If I remember correctly, there was a switch at the front of the squad bench that could be flipped to turn on the rear interior lights and the drawer lights. That might be the missing link in the wire bundles. It might have been easier and less work to rewire the rear than to try to trace all the wires. It always drove me crazy when someone would splice a wire to a differently colored one because that was all they had. Good to see that you are in the final stretch with this car.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Wondered what they were for. Or run a ground wire from the right side of the rear door all the way to the left front door. But wiring confuses people like it was magical. When all it does is carry current from the + side of the battery to the - side. Inbetween it causes something else to do some. It's flow can be controlled on either side of that thing. But the negative side is always connected to the body. Now if i can just find were they connected the positive wire for that cab dom light i will have everything but those switches working.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

good news and bad news the bit of confusion today. figured out the problem with the cab dome light. I had hooked the wire up to the positive wire that feds the cabinet lights. it's only hot when the switch is on. so now we need to find a hot wire with switch off. but just in case that was the reason the battery was dead this morning I traded the jam switch from the center doo with the one in the front door. it fits better. but I kind of sure I left the headlight switch in park position. it sure felt like I pushed it in when I reached in there. anyway, the battery is stone dead this morning. now I would have put that dome light back in now that I know what wire is what, but I can't find that base. last I remember is I tested it in back of the car. I do know it in the garage but were. so we did the only thing we could and picked up the tools scattered around and swept up the floor. I'll find it tomorrow. did get the glove box back in and found a pig tail on the light for it. I can us that if we don't find a hot wire on the left where the end of the wire is.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

the stop and clean up did the trick. found it right off today between the tranny hump and the seat. decided not to mess with the bundle on the left side. and I plugged in in the hot wire that feeds the glove box light bet that was where it went from Chrysler. the only reason for a extra tap would be either dome light of clock. polished up the ring and put the light back in. got the right side together and noticed there is a screw hole that lined up with the flap panel just behind the seat. looks like if one put a screw in there it will move that out enough to clear the seat. I'll check the other side and if it so we can put one in there. spent the rest of this 72 deg afternoon cleaning up around the house. got a fet things that have feen bugging me taking care of.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

I would replace all those incandescent bulbs with LEDs because they draw less power and won't melt the lenses if left on too long. LED tail light bulbs are much brighter and safer while you are driving. Just need to change the flasher to an LED flasher. I get mine on eBay.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

went over to the left side we can control the light with that door. checked the center door no cab light. that switch had no current flowing. so went back over to the right side to see what i did. the jam switch I put in there to replace the damaged one had two prongs on it but they were insulated from each other. so, it would not carry current to the left side. got the two wires tied together and now we have control on all 5 doors. got two green wires that show no current flow. so traced the out found one went to the light on top of the switch panel it was hot with key on found a new ground a lot closer than halfway down the left door. we shortened up that one. the other was not hooked to anything under the dash so we removed it took the left to right power wire for the dome light out. because i found on it the original harness. this running a independent ground for each jam switch was foolish. they could have just jumped one wire in and out the car from switch to switch and used on switch on each door instead of two. but a little late to do that now. took that brown wire that if you ground it out would honk the horn and sniped it off in the center and taped the end. boy I'm glad this mess is done. it drove me crazy. but now it's simpler and soled. with nothing dangling down. the curtsey light is unhooked and the switch for it is bad. If one is found the wire is right behind it. now to get the door trim back on and find out why the spair tire keeps loosing air

 

[Rick Franklin]

spare tire is probably a bead leak.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

Couldn't find one, but that was my Guess. Got a tub i think I'll put in there. It's the original tire never been on the ground 800x15 got to be a couple inches taller then the tires on the car.

 

[Paul Steinberg]

Did you get the map light hooked up? It is in the center of the dash.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

no on the map light is was unplugged and the switch is frozen. so, I left it alone. but I caught whatever bug is making the rounds this spring. really set me back a but didn't get too much done today got the center door wires back in the loom and the strays tied into the bundles. the cardboard off the Intier piece by the right center door. we can get the new piece cut out and nailed on tomorrow. and the left wheel well finished. hopefully we can get that right one in. that vinyl glue doesn't make the small tears did apers You just got to get real close to see them.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

went down and got the rest of the parts out of the 74. I'm going to repaint that bit piece on top of the rear door it a little rough and I have paint.
we did get the left side back together. pulled the unnecessary ground out of the floor hatch so ne there is only the hot wire going across. still got no Ida what the center switch was for. but put one of the broken original back in to fill the hole. got the filler piece recovered. made the attempt to repair the tear in the bench not as pretty as it could have been. the padding had a lot of dirt in it. in a case like this one should have slipped a piece sniped off an over run between the hole and the padding to keep from stirring up the dirt. we added a booster under the weather stripping to see if we could stop the left center door for dripping inside.

 

[John ED Renstrom]

so frat this is what we have of the tear in the bench done. I will see if we can clean the excess glue off today. had I sipped the snip under first the dimple would not be there. used the two screwdrivers to pinch the tear together as the glue sets. also, they work will for transferring the glue to the underside and edges so that it will soften and let you pinch it back togather.