Wiring...uugh...Help

[DaveT]

I have my dash out for winter mods and cleaning up some wiring issues. I'm an idiot when it comes to cars- thats why I did the home build. I'm learning slowly but need help with some questions.

1. There is a 2"H x 3"L x 2"D box mounted mounted on the cowl bar. It has a brown wire that runs into the steering column. I'm assuming its turn signal or hazards? There are 3 other wires coming out of the box, 2 purple wires and one red wire are currently not hooked up to anything.?? Any Ideas??

2. I was poking around with a test light and found some hot ground wires. From what little I know about automotive wiring this is bad. But everything seams to work when its hooked up this way. When I disconeect these ground some accesories don't work. Is it something with a fiberglass body or do I need to trace some some wires???

Thanks,

Dave T

[sleal]

Sounds like your headlight relay--why do you think you have live grounds??? I am a former electronic systems tech turned electrician, although I am not sure how your car was wired we could probably figure it out. Do you have a meter, and if you do what kind is it?

If you have any questions let me know

Steve

[sleal]

Dave< I was just rereading your post, if you have power on some of your acc and they are not grounded you are going to read the voltage right thru the device, that is normal

[DaveT]

Hey Steve, I don't have a meter was just using a test light. I called a friend who is going to stop by next week with a meter. I'll let you know what we find. I have a ground block in footbox where I ran most of the acc grounds, when I hit those terminals with test the light comes on?

I was thinking that box may be from the turn signal dimmer kit for headlights that i never hooked up, cause I mounted the foot dimmer on the dead pedal.

Thanks Dave

[KenC]

Dave, normally there would be nothing there, but you added high beam switch to turm signal in steering column. I remember it wondly. So as was stated its probably relay for high beams. Hope this helps!

[Rogelio]

Dave. when testing to the ground block in footbox, what is the other end of test light connected to? Battery, hot wire, ground wire?
Roy

[DaveT]

Ken, thanks again for helping install that turn signal dimmer, it may be used some day in the future.

Roy, I'm using the el cheapo test light that looks like a srew driver with one wire and clip. I clipped on a hot wire from battery then touched ground block and it lights up.

Didn't get to mess with it today.

DT

[Wendell / Lynn]

DR, you wanna live person to talk with to get on the right page?

Wendell 870-904-8810 cell

[Rogelio]

I hope you have it fixed by now. I havent checked post for a few days.
With test light clipped to a hot wire, you would expect it to light up when probing a ground wire. To find HOT wires, connect clip to a ground, and it will light up when you probe a hot wire.
Roy

[DaveT]

Thanks Roy, after thinking about it I realized I was just completing the circuit. I did find one hot wire that should have been ground, swapped that and the defroster works. one small victory.

DT