SBF won't shut down.

Been having some electrical trouble this week with my '64 F100. Had a wire short at the ignition switch and replaced it on Friday afternoon. Cruised around all weekend without any problems.

This afternoon I had an issue that appeared to be a dead battery. After some inspection I found the nut on the postive side of the solenoid was loose. Snugged that down and it fired right up.

Then I tried to turn it off and it stayed running. Now I'm thinking there is an issue with the ignition switch. So did a few other HAMBers I happened to be hanging out with today. So I drove home, swapped in a new switch, same problem. It'll fire with the switch but I have to shut it down by other means.

I've made a few calls to some guys that are way smarter then I am, and they were stumped too. What do you guys think?

 

Sounds like you have an alternator energizer wire running to the 'coil', or 'run' post of your ign. switch. Only the coil wire should be at this terminal. If there's another wire there, connect it to the 'acc' post.
(it sounds like you are 'effectively hot wiring' your ign switch when the alternator is charging)

 

Have you tried another solenoid ?

 

Everything appears to be wired correctly, this thing was working as it should all weekend. I've been 10 places in the truck since the initial short repair 3 days ago, and had started and shut it down a few times this morning. Could the loose connection at the soleniod cause it to fail and cause an issue like this? I have a spare I can swap in.

 

I guess it pays to be curious. I just found a few fried wires on their way to the voltage regulator. I got bigger problems than a bad/mis-wired ignition switch. 48 year old wires have just had enough. Looks like I'll finally have to re-wire this old truck.