dplotkin
New Member
This 3 year tale of woe wound up today with resolution that I want to share with the rest of you. I've owned a 68 New Yorker for 15 years and have put 55,000 hard miles on a 98,000 mile car. After owning and driving it for years, about 5 years ago I replaced the burned out side marker lamps. Not long after that I would intermittently lose my instrument, park and stop lamps. Not long after that I would lose the headlights completely, both beams and then they would come back. It would turn out these were separate problems happening at the same time but I was convinced they were related. I suspected a bum headlight switch figuring the extra load of the side markers had finished it off. When I held the switch in-between detents I could get everything working, so I condemned the switch. So I replaced it with one from Devin Duke (Devinism). That took care of it or so I thought. The following spring both problems reappeared. I studied the wiring diagram. I studied the fuse panel. I pulled out the switch and did what I could to improve connections. This second switch behaved exactly as the first.
Finally I removed the switch and sent it and my original to Devin who took them apart and found no trouble. In the meantime I installed a third known-good switch and same result. So now out come the bulkhead connectors I've been reading about here. They were a mess as evidenced by the photos below. Cleaned up and greased they are replaced but same result. Last night while out for a drive and everything working I note a whiff of burning plastic that could be coming from the car in front of me. Alas it occurs to me that the odor is pronounced when I'm on the brake, and I note that the dash lamps are dropping more than usual when I am. But still no hard short, no unusual ammeter activity, all lights working until the parking, instrument and brake lights drop out. The smell goes away.
This morning I awoke resolved to solve this mystery today. Now you would think that a guy who already had to bypass the melted AC fuse lug with an in line fuse would have taken a closer look at the back of that fuse panel again. But not until a phone call to Devin who walked me through the headlight switch circuits was I prompted to put my eyeballs on the pink wire on the load side of the fuse. There, obstructed by another wire and my failure to look carefully was the feed to the switch connection to the load side of the fuse melted and burned out, only visible from the rear. (Never assume therefore that a dead fuse lug is trouble elsewhere, it could be underneath!). See photo below. Note that a high resistance connection with a big load on one 18 gauge wire. Maybe 16 but I don't think so. It slowly burned over 54 years until finally it was running on a few strands and then that's all folks.
I ran another bypass as I did for AC from the fuse panel buss through an in-line fuse holder to the pink wire whose end had burned up, but never blew the fuse. It all works. While out for the test drive one of my 13 year old Toyo radials belts seperated. So tomorrow its new tires. Then hopefully another 50,000 miles.
Ps. If anyone needs a 68 headlamp switch I'll part with one at my cost. It was rebuilt by Devinism who is one helpful dude. Remember! Electrical problems in 68 C bodies are going to be in the bulkhead connectors and the back of the fuse block.
Danny Plotkin
Finally I removed the switch and sent it and my original to Devin who took them apart and found no trouble. In the meantime I installed a third known-good switch and same result. So now out come the bulkhead connectors I've been reading about here. They were a mess as evidenced by the photos below. Cleaned up and greased they are replaced but same result. Last night while out for a drive and everything working I note a whiff of burning plastic that could be coming from the car in front of me. Alas it occurs to me that the odor is pronounced when I'm on the brake, and I note that the dash lamps are dropping more than usual when I am. But still no hard short, no unusual ammeter activity, all lights working until the parking, instrument and brake lights drop out. The smell goes away.
This morning I awoke resolved to solve this mystery today. Now you would think that a guy who already had to bypass the melted AC fuse lug with an in line fuse would have taken a closer look at the back of that fuse panel again. But not until a phone call to Devin who walked me through the headlight switch circuits was I prompted to put my eyeballs on the pink wire on the load side of the fuse. There, obstructed by another wire and my failure to look carefully was the feed to the switch connection to the load side of the fuse melted and burned out, only visible from the rear. (Never assume therefore that a dead fuse lug is trouble elsewhere, it could be underneath!). See photo below. Note that a high resistance connection with a big load on one 18 gauge wire. Maybe 16 but I don't think so. It slowly burned over 54 years until finally it was running on a few strands and then that's all folks.
I ran another bypass as I did for AC from the fuse panel buss through an in-line fuse holder to the pink wire whose end had burned up, but never blew the fuse. It all works. While out for the test drive one of my 13 year old Toyo radials belts seperated. So tomorrow its new tires. Then hopefully another 50,000 miles.
Ps. If anyone needs a 68 headlamp switch I'll part with one at my cost. It was rebuilt by Devinism who is one helpful dude. Remember! Electrical problems in 68 C bodies are going to be in the bulkhead connectors and the back of the fuse block.
Danny Plotkin
Last edited:
