professor229
New member
Good morning!
I knew this day would come and I have a lot of decisions to make, but for now, winter is on the doorstep here in MN and I don't have the "third stall" I used to have to park the Sterling to work on all winter long. Therefore, I did one last project on it starting on Sunday and ending on Tuesday afternoon. It wasn't a big project but required patience which I am lacking these days. The stereo I originally installed in the car was an "el cheapo" at the time but the speakers were first class Jensen speakers.... I needed to replace the stereo unit in the custom made dash which was a leap of faith. I no longer have access to a complete wood working shop like I did in the old days and used butternut wood which was native to SE Minnesota for all the interior pieces. The stereo I bought a few years ago languished in a box because I restored a 2004 Ford Ranger and a 1995 Chevy C1500 which is now my daily driver. But I had some time so I moved our daily driver car out of the garage and worked on the Sterling starting by making sure to label all the wires from the el cheapo stereo so I would be able to quickly install the new stereo and I screwed that up. Oh well... The new stereo is a double din radio and the original el cheapo was a single din radio so the opening needed to be widened and would this even fit in a pod dash? I found out later that it did.. but just barely.
I installed the new stereo because it also had a backup camera and was a touch screen to boot... I worked a few hours at a time on it because endurance is also lacking but eventually, I got it done and the moment of truth after studying the operating manual. I turned on the power and put in a USB flash drive loaded with music and listened to it for about an hour while I tidied up everything and cleaned up the workbench. It was gorgeous sound. I made sure all the components worked but never did get the back up camera to work; something for next year I thought and yes, the instructions were awful.
My wife and I took the car for a ride even though a couple weeks earlier, we had it out on the road and it was "missing" at the bottom of each gear and seemed low on power. As we motored around town, this happened again. I suspected perhaps that the choke was partially stuck or perhaps I had a bad accelerator pump or even bad gas; whatever. So we cut the ride short, I opened the canopy in the driveway to let her out and proceeded to the storage unit where it is parked for the winter. I suspect Rod Serling was somewhere in the area.
I reached up to shut up to the console on the ceiling to shut off the motor with the two toggle switches, accessory and ignition (coil) and one switch shut down with the LED light going off, but the other LED stayed on, even though the switch was off; and the engine kept running... I practiced the definition of insanity and tried the toggle switch a couple more times and finally decided that there were issues. I got out, walked to the front and decided the best way to shut down the motor was to use the lock out on the positive battery post and unscrewed that. The positive post was now off but the car remained running. I took off the negative battery connection but the engine kept running. Can you hear the Twilight Zone music in the background?
I contemplated pulling the coil wire and have been there, done that before in my naive youth. So instead, I closed the butterfly on the carburetor and pressed down on a towel the carburetor throat which stopped the motor. Since the battery was disconnected I was home free but what was going on? I hooked up the trickle charger to the battery for the winter, closed the shed doors and kept thinking. It had to be the generator producing enough electricity to run the motor but how was it getting to the coil? Was there a short? Could it be a bad switch? One thing was certain. All the years of adding bells and whistles and cute things to the car had caught up to a 30-40 year old restoration.
I contacted J Bugs and ran this past them and had my answer back within 20 minutes. My theory was correct and however the electricity was getting to the coil would be a nightmare $$$ to find and with cobbled in wiring this old, it was best to essentially "start over" ..... So, my next thoughts are to strip the cute wiring from the car and do only the necessary wiring which would be adequate in a model A. I would leave the intricate linear actuator circuits. I would pull out all the old gauges that worked some of the time, and leave as much of the starting system as I could.
I have also decided to have a new alternator installed, probably professionally with a keyed ignition system and I would install everything else when I got the car back.... IE ... brake lights, signals etc... and leave it at that. No more bells and whistles. No overhead console for that cool look. I just want a speedometer for now and new dash pod facades.
The car has two fuse boxes. One is an original well done homemade unit. The other is a pretty good sized (circuit wise) unit that I will keep and use removing ALL the old wires. I will keep the three grounding blocks in place.
That's the plan. The fuse box is located immediately behind the passenger seat on the firewall between the cockpit and the engine compartment firewall. What I need is to find out if anyone has bought a wiring harness that is more/less basic with a few extra circuits (for the linear actuators and stereo) that would reach from this fuse box location to the dash and also where the wiring will comfortably reach the engine compartment areas. I don't want a super duper whopper expensive wiring harness. Is there one that is stock and not custom made or am I to the point where I should just buy a primary wire assortment kit and do it myself documenting everything?
I am in no hurry and may not even be the one doing this if my son and grandson decide to spend a weekend installing a new interior and pulling wire. I have all winter to think about this and I am bound to change my mind several times but I am pretty much resolved to be done with electrical gremlins. It is time for the basics and to drive the car. The only splurge I might do is the European sounding horn that is so loud and so cool sounding.
All the advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated especially if you found a basic wiring harness that works well with the distances required to make the runs in a Sterling using perhaps the hollow sides of the car.
That's about it. I am growing weary of car restoration, and just traded in my HHR and Ford Ranger project and after two years to restore that, I am done with all my problems. My 1995 C1500 only has 80,000 miles on it and looks great and runs great. My problem child right now is the Sterling which I might have the ambition to restore one more time but, it might not happen. Who knows?
Thanks for listening... sorry for making this a more/less home movie and have a good winter.
Dennis
Mounds View MN
I knew this day would come and I have a lot of decisions to make, but for now, winter is on the doorstep here in MN and I don't have the "third stall" I used to have to park the Sterling to work on all winter long. Therefore, I did one last project on it starting on Sunday and ending on Tuesday afternoon. It wasn't a big project but required patience which I am lacking these days. The stereo I originally installed in the car was an "el cheapo" at the time but the speakers were first class Jensen speakers.... I needed to replace the stereo unit in the custom made dash which was a leap of faith. I no longer have access to a complete wood working shop like I did in the old days and used butternut wood which was native to SE Minnesota for all the interior pieces. The stereo I bought a few years ago languished in a box because I restored a 2004 Ford Ranger and a 1995 Chevy C1500 which is now my daily driver. But I had some time so I moved our daily driver car out of the garage and worked on the Sterling starting by making sure to label all the wires from the el cheapo stereo so I would be able to quickly install the new stereo and I screwed that up. Oh well... The new stereo is a double din radio and the original el cheapo was a single din radio so the opening needed to be widened and would this even fit in a pod dash? I found out later that it did.. but just barely.
I installed the new stereo because it also had a backup camera and was a touch screen to boot... I worked a few hours at a time on it because endurance is also lacking but eventually, I got it done and the moment of truth after studying the operating manual. I turned on the power and put in a USB flash drive loaded with music and listened to it for about an hour while I tidied up everything and cleaned up the workbench. It was gorgeous sound. I made sure all the components worked but never did get the back up camera to work; something for next year I thought and yes, the instructions were awful.
My wife and I took the car for a ride even though a couple weeks earlier, we had it out on the road and it was "missing" at the bottom of each gear and seemed low on power. As we motored around town, this happened again. I suspected perhaps that the choke was partially stuck or perhaps I had a bad accelerator pump or even bad gas; whatever. So we cut the ride short, I opened the canopy in the driveway to let her out and proceeded to the storage unit where it is parked for the winter. I suspect Rod Serling was somewhere in the area.
I reached up to shut up to the console on the ceiling to shut off the motor with the two toggle switches, accessory and ignition (coil) and one switch shut down with the LED light going off, but the other LED stayed on, even though the switch was off; and the engine kept running... I practiced the definition of insanity and tried the toggle switch a couple more times and finally decided that there were issues. I got out, walked to the front and decided the best way to shut down the motor was to use the lock out on the positive battery post and unscrewed that. The positive post was now off but the car remained running. I took off the negative battery connection but the engine kept running. Can you hear the Twilight Zone music in the background?
I contemplated pulling the coil wire and have been there, done that before in my naive youth. So instead, I closed the butterfly on the carburetor and pressed down on a towel the carburetor throat which stopped the motor. Since the battery was disconnected I was home free but what was going on? I hooked up the trickle charger to the battery for the winter, closed the shed doors and kept thinking. It had to be the generator producing enough electricity to run the motor but how was it getting to the coil? Was there a short? Could it be a bad switch? One thing was certain. All the years of adding bells and whistles and cute things to the car had caught up to a 30-40 year old restoration.
I contacted J Bugs and ran this past them and had my answer back within 20 minutes. My theory was correct and however the electricity was getting to the coil would be a nightmare $$$ to find and with cobbled in wiring this old, it was best to essentially "start over" ..... So, my next thoughts are to strip the cute wiring from the car and do only the necessary wiring which would be adequate in a model A. I would leave the intricate linear actuator circuits. I would pull out all the old gauges that worked some of the time, and leave as much of the starting system as I could.
I have also decided to have a new alternator installed, probably professionally with a keyed ignition system and I would install everything else when I got the car back.... IE ... brake lights, signals etc... and leave it at that. No more bells and whistles. No overhead console for that cool look. I just want a speedometer for now and new dash pod facades.
The car has two fuse boxes. One is an original well done homemade unit. The other is a pretty good sized (circuit wise) unit that I will keep and use removing ALL the old wires. I will keep the three grounding blocks in place.
That's the plan. The fuse box is located immediately behind the passenger seat on the firewall between the cockpit and the engine compartment firewall. What I need is to find out if anyone has bought a wiring harness that is more/less basic with a few extra circuits (for the linear actuators and stereo) that would reach from this fuse box location to the dash and also where the wiring will comfortably reach the engine compartment areas. I don't want a super duper whopper expensive wiring harness. Is there one that is stock and not custom made or am I to the point where I should just buy a primary wire assortment kit and do it myself documenting everything?
I am in no hurry and may not even be the one doing this if my son and grandson decide to spend a weekend installing a new interior and pulling wire. I have all winter to think about this and I am bound to change my mind several times but I am pretty much resolved to be done with electrical gremlins. It is time for the basics and to drive the car. The only splurge I might do is the European sounding horn that is so loud and so cool sounding.
All the advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated especially if you found a basic wiring harness that works well with the distances required to make the runs in a Sterling using perhaps the hollow sides of the car.
That's about it. I am growing weary of car restoration, and just traded in my HHR and Ford Ranger project and after two years to restore that, I am done with all my problems. My 1995 C1500 only has 80,000 miles on it and looks great and runs great. My problem child right now is the Sterling which I might have the ambition to restore one more time but, it might not happen. Who knows?
Thanks for listening... sorry for making this a more/less home movie and have a good winter.
Dennis
Mounds View MN
