1966 Dodge Dart
I had to call in some help in order to get the steering column into place. I wasnt able to slide the coupling on to the end of the steering box because the actual column housing was hitting the rear header tube. So I ended up pulling the column out and back apart and cutting 2" off the column housing bottom. This allowed the coupling to go down to the box but I still couldnt get the alignment correct so thats when I had a friend stop over and he held the column up inside the car while I worked the coupling until I finally got it aligned and he drove it onto the steering box shaft. All fits good now.
Next I moved in under the dash and started getting wires together so I could complete the wiring that will be going up to the front of the car like headlights, turn signals, parking light, relay feeds, horn and any other. I plugged the headlight switch into the column connector and again checked the operation. I couldnt get 12v to the wires for the front turn signals. Also I had no dash lights. I crawled under the dash and checked power to the printed sircuit and found I had 12v there. So I pulled out all the dash light sockets (that are brand new) and found that the brass tabs needed to be bent down so they touched the printed circuit. I missed the socket for the left turn signal indictator and of course that meant a ground problem issue with the turn signals. Once I figured out what was going on there I bent the tabs on that one and now all my problems seem to be gone for now. So now I will start terminating the wires under the dash. Probably going to take about 2 -3 nights to do this. Once that is done I will move on to the rear brake lines then add fluid and bleed. Here are a few pics of the column in the car
One other thing I found out is that the tach doesnt really fit on the top of the steering column unless I would drill the slip housing and mount it with bolts instead of a clamp. That would mean tearing the column part way apart again. Not sure I am up to that!
These are bad pics but you can see the wiring nightmare I am undertaking!!
Im having fun with this but its taking way too long. Ive learned a lot about the wiring on this old car and will need to make a wiring diagram up for future issues! I'll try to get a few pics of the run of wires up thru the fender well in the next few nights.
Thanks for following and if you feel free to offer advice or comments.
Rod
I had to call in some help in order to get the steering column into place. I wasnt able to slide the coupling on to the end of the steering box because the actual column housing was hitting the rear header tube. So I ended up pulling the column out and back apart and cutting 2" off the column housing bottom. This allowed the coupling to go down to the box but I still couldnt get the alignment correct so thats when I had a friend stop over and he held the column up inside the car while I worked the coupling until I finally got it aligned and he drove it onto the steering box shaft. All fits good now.
Next I moved in under the dash and started getting wires together so I could complete the wiring that will be going up to the front of the car like headlights, turn signals, parking light, relay feeds, horn and any other. I plugged the headlight switch into the column connector and again checked the operation. I couldnt get 12v to the wires for the front turn signals. Also I had no dash lights. I crawled under the dash and checked power to the printed sircuit and found I had 12v there. So I pulled out all the dash light sockets (that are brand new) and found that the brass tabs needed to be bent down so they touched the printed circuit. I missed the socket for the left turn signal indictator and of course that meant a ground problem issue with the turn signals. Once I figured out what was going on there I bent the tabs on that one and now all my problems seem to be gone for now. So now I will start terminating the wires under the dash. Probably going to take about 2 -3 nights to do this. Once that is done I will move on to the rear brake lines then add fluid and bleed. Here are a few pics of the column in the car
One other thing I found out is that the tach doesnt really fit on the top of the steering column unless I would drill the slip housing and mount it with bolts instead of a clamp. That would mean tearing the column part way apart again. Not sure I am up to that!
These are bad pics but you can see the wiring nightmare I am undertaking!!
Im having fun with this but its taking way too long. Ive learned a lot about the wiring on this old car and will need to make a wiring diagram up for future issues! I'll try to get a few pics of the run of wires up thru the fender well in the next few nights.
Thanks for following and if you feel free to offer advice or comments.
Rod