Thought I had finally finished the rewire of my 65 coupe...

Navyflyer72

Member
Mar 24, 2018
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So after smoke checking a smaller wire attached to the back of the alternator because the large gauge black wire - that turned out to be the supply for the gauge harness - is not a ground (Black does not = ground in Ford wiring harnesses and Scott Drake doesn’t put a wiring diagram in with their wiring harnesses) but now that it’s hooked to the Batt+ side of the start solenoid (relay), I was able to hook the battery up without any smoke or drama. Success? Well, sorta...

But now I have the following issues and need some help figuring out how to diagnose and fix them, for background here is what has been installed during the last few weeks:
- New Heading, gauge, dash and taillight harnesses, headlight relay upgrade for LED headlamps
- New headlight switch
- 140amp 1-wire powermaster alternator, with 150 amp fuse (removed voltage regulator)
- New starter solenoid (relay)
- Dakota Digital VHX gauges
- Retrosound Stereo
- Electric fan with relay
- New LED underdash courtesy lights and door jamb switches

So here are the issues:

1. Underdash courtesy lights
- driver side on constant, even with door closed, switch has no effect
- passenger side doesn’t come on with door open or closed

2. Both headlights work in hi and low beam and hi-beam indicator light on VHX gauges comes on, but driver side DRL/turn signal on constant, passenger side DRL doesn’t come on at all, but when headlight switch pulled halfway out to activate the DRL’s only the driver side DRL and taillights start to blink erratically.

3. On VHX gauges the left turn signal indicator light on steady until turn signal lever moved to the ”up” (right turn) position, then it goes out. At this point the right turn indicator blinks normally, but the front right turn signal/DRL does no come on. The left turn signal/DRL blinks when the turn signal lever is placed in the “down” (left turn) position, but the turn signal indicator light on the VHX gauges stays on steady.

4. Taillights: both running lights come on with headlight switch on, but when brake pedal is pressed the running lights do not get brighter. So no brake lights. Turn signals work on both sides in the back.

5. Stereo won’t come on.

I’m going to try and get a video of this so you can see it in action. If anyone can recommend how and where to start looking for where things are jacked up and how to fix them, I’d greatly appreciate it. I took a lot of time during the wiring to ensure I cleaned all the grounds and sanded the attaching points until they were bare metal and used dielectric grease on all connectors.

I’m wondering if having the gauge power supply wire grounded when I burned up the small alternator wire, if that caused something else to burn up or ground out?
 
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So now I’m just pissed off. I finally receive the correct length alternator belt and how up the battery and go to turn the engine over for the first time since June. Initially she’s cranking, try a few times with a few pumps of the pedal and she just cranks. So I try a few squirts of starting fluid in the primaries. Go to turn her over, cranks once and then nothing. No starter cranking at all. Check voltage on the start solenoid. Batt+ terminal reads battery voltage. S terminal while cranking reads 0 VDC. Checked fuses, all good.

I’ve been working on the electrical issues since June, this is my daily driver. Luckily it’s been Summer and my wife and daughter have given me rides to work when required. But I’ve spent 3 months and several thousand dollars trying to fix some electrical issues and overheating issues.

It’s a few days from the start of the school year and my daily driver is on jack stands in my garage. My retirement job is a high school Junior ROTC Instructor so I’m back full time starting, really this week, but school starts next Tuesday.

I used the “quality” parts from a vendor who folks recommend on here and several other Mustang forums. I took my time and soldered any connectors, no crimping or crimp and tape, or crimp and heat shrink, I did it all the right way. And I have more damn issues than when I started in June! The damn plastic headlight switch connector on the harness is absolute crap! The pins push right through, even after I adjusted the tabs, they wouldn’t positively sweat in the connector, the push right out the front and pull right out the back! It’s crap!! The ignition switch dying after less than 1 full minute of total operation...? I mean, seriously, what the hell?? I’ve been working in my 90+ degree garage for three months and just having my to-do list grow.

Now I have to try and find a bad *** local mechanic who is amazing at Mustang wiring issues and hope he is available. Can anyone recommend someone who is really good in the Annapolis out to Washington DC and down to the Patuxent area?

Here are two videos of some of the issues. Enjoy the s#!|show...

Video 1
Video 2
 
Is this all stock stuff ?

I wish, that might have made this easier. Since I’m an Navy JROTC Instructor in a high school and we have gone back to school, I had to take her in to a local shop since I just didn’t have the time to hunt down the electrical issue, this is my daily driver...

We’ll see soon enough what I screwed up.