I need some electrical help

Ok, so first I'm gonna say that electrical is my weakest point of any car. I just do not know much about it.
I have a 1960 Ford 4x4 pickup. I have had it for years, has never let me down. The other night, I jump it, fire it up, and when I turned the headlights on everything died. No lights, no ignition, nothing. I checked the battery, it is good. I tried jumping the starter solinoid and it will turn the engine over. I checked the fusses located on the headlight switch- all good. All wires look good (not pinched or cut). So I know I have no power going to under the dash. I figure I may have a bad wire somewere, but I have no idea how to trace it. The truck is all orriginal, the wiring never tampered with.
Kinnda wierd to me that it happened the moment I turned the headlights on. Makes me think headlight switch, but I don't see were that would kill power to everything!

Any ideas????

 

I find a good way to think about electrical is compare it to plumbing. Think of each wire as a pipe and the electricity as water. If you're not getting water somewhere in your house you trace the pipes starting from the source. Get your self a test light and start at the Battery and follow the wires checking for voltage. Hope that helps a little


also this is a nifty little book to have

http://uglysbooks.com/

 

i'm not sure how your truck gets its power from under the hood to inside the cab, if it goes into the back of the fuse box through a plug from under the hood they can be a problem at times, i know chevys can do this, maybe your ford could be the same, chevys have a screw holding the plug to the fuse box, you remove the screw and the underhood wireing harness pulls off the fuse box, if yours is the same pull that plug off and check for a bad conection, if fords are different ignore this responce.

 

First thing try junping the postive cable from the battery to the solinoid. If your lights come on ya got a bad cable. Also for the hell of it clean both batt terminals. Also use a jumper on the ground side of the batt. Seen cables that looked good on the outside and would not pass enough juice to light up a bugs ass.

 

The very first thing i would do is do a search on the net and see if you can find a schematic. Wireing is the easiest thing in the world if you have one. If not it can be a god damned nightmare.. Being versed in ac and dc wiring I pass on most trouble shooting jobs unless they come up with a print i can read.. I say most but ive done it on the side of the road with nothing .. It just makes it easier with the proper schematic.
Dave

 

Most likely as simple as a bad ground........

 

jusjunk is right a schematic always helps. With original wires the jackets wear thru often. Could be a wire exposed grounding out between the light switch and the power source. Also, has an after market radio been installed? Sterio shops are known for "short cuts" not always doing the job the right way

 

IIRC, the "fuse panel" was part of the headlight switch on those trucks. Disconnect the batterey & drop the headlight switch, and have a look around. I have access to the factory diagrams, if need be, just shoot me a pm.

 

If it has a firewall connector where all the wires connect to go thru ..... take it apart and CLEAN the connectons.....

....... jersey Skip

 

Thanks guys, lots of great ideas! It is all factory, the only thing non-orrignal in the whole truck is an AMP gauge. No aftermarket radio. I'll do some suggestions and check it out.
I did pull the light switch yesterday, everything looks OK, but I do not know what it looks like inside (it's rivited together). I do have a spare somewere that I may try to put on, see if that changes anything.

 

Is this one of those amp gauge deals? If so, does all the electrical feed go thru it?
If it has a firewall plug like my 65 Chevy, it could have a connection problem in the plug. Mine had me scratching my head.

 

I have an OT truck that does the same thing. However, I just beat the battery terminal with a wrench, get connection again, and crank it up. If you had a short that was pulling that diverting that much current, you would see smoke from the insulation. I'll bet dollars to donuts that it is your terminals.

John

 

The battery is fine, new wires, and if I jump leads at the starter solernoid the engine turns over. So I know there is juice, just nothing going under the dash.

 

On my daily trash Ford truck, the firewall conector always seems to be the problem.

 

Hook up a 10 guage jumper wire across the two studs on your amp guage, and try.

 

clean up all of the wires going from the positive side of the starter solenoid. take a good look at them, cause if memory serves, one or more of them is a fusible link. when You turned on the headlights, it probably finally keeled over- I have seen them die simply of "old age"- they're really soft, and vibration will break strands in them over time, which means the other strands of wire in there have to carry more load, which brings the heat up and eventually cooks one off.

the sheath on one of these doesn't have to burn off for the wire inside to be "done", by the way.

and remember this- a test light can lie to You on one of these. so can a continuity test. the best test for a fusible link is an ohm test.

but Yeah...start at the battery and work towards the firewall. these's only what...5 circuits on that truck total?

 

Yeah, if that....but remember, I'm DUMB

 

I would eliminate the ground circuit by taking a jumper cable, clamp one side to the neg. battery terminal, and the other end to the body. Sounds like a bad ground.
Jeff

 

Me too. But I have been doing this long enough to fake it.

 

I figured it out. I started tracing wires, and found a fault. It was one of the plastic wire connectors at the amp gauge. One side of the wire became loose, when I grabbed the wire to test it, the loose half fell right out. I got a new connector, re-wired it and everything works as before!!!!

Thanks everyone for the help! Lots of good ideas for future problems!!!!!!

Chris