<VV> HELP: Apparent Electrical Issue

[Joel McGregor]

If a cable had an intermittent short it would be letting smoke out and you would know it.  I've had it happen and it will suddenly let out all the smoke and melt a battery post.  I have a '63 that does almost the same thing and it's never quit long enough for me to track it down.  It's never done it at night so I don't know about the lights.  Mine will completely quit but it usually starts back up before I come to a stop.  It has come to a complete stop a couple of times but it starts right back up before I can check anything.  My problem and yours has to be an open circuit somewhere.  Are you sure it was just down on power and hadn't quit completely?  I would think a coil would make it quit completely or miss with no other symptoms it certainly wouldn't shut off the headlights.
Headlights off is a key symptom with yours.  You are losing power somewhere prior to the ignition switch which is killing the headlights and also the engine.  If it was at the ignition switch or after it you wouldn't lose the headlights.
Someone else needs to chime in on what happens with the Gen light when you lose power.  I'm guessing that power can feed back through it and make the light come on as long as the engine is spinning.
Does it still have a generator?
I would start with the main hot wire that feeds the ignition switch and the battery.
Joel

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Tom Hughes
Subject: <VV> HELP: Apparent Electrical Issue

My daughter was driving my '63 last night. After cruising fine for about 30 minutes at highway speeds, the car had the simultaneous symptoms of engine down on power, headlights dimming, and GEN-FAN light illuminated brightly.
After about a second everything went normal again, but the problem came back about 10 seconds later only to disappear again almost immediately.
This went on a couple more times until the engine died, the headlights stayed off, and the GEN-FAN stayed on. She coasted to the shoulder and her sister came and got her. This morning I went to the car expecting to have to flat-tow it home, but it started right up and I was able to drive it to a safe parking spot about a half-mile away. I'll go get it after work.


Heat-related? Would a failing coil give these symptoms? If it's running fine this evening, how do I troubleshoot? What do I check?


Note this car has a relocated battery with the positive cable running to the starter though the interior (i.e. plenty of places where it passes through and around metal surfaces). I would think if this cable has an intermittent short, there'd be more issues than dimming headlights, but I guess it's something to check.


Thanks in advance for the assistance.
--
Tom in Baltimore
corvairfleet.blogspot.com
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