'83 Electrical Woes

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cornholio

cornholio

10 Year 15 Year
Joined
May 30, 2007
Threads
7
Messages
195
Location
Lancaster, CA
I believe I may have a major electrical snafu. My headlights tend to flutter on and off rapidly, and when this happens I can hear the relay ticking under the dash. Already replaced the relay to no effect, fuses are good, etc.

On top of this the truck tends to stall occasionally on depressing the clutch during deceleration or low RPM driving, I believe this to be in part to do with the Chevy ignition coil, but I'm not sure.


I'm no electrician, and have no idea what I'm doing when I need to solve a problem and see wires. I've tried searching to no avail.

Anyone had either of these problems before? Or at least know where I should start?
 
Does it or has it ever had any extra driving lights that may have been tied into the oem light harness?

I would look into checking the head light switch.

My bet is on the pigtails but these old rigs see many hacks over the years.

You notice any rhythm to the lights, any consistency at all, bumps, turging, etc?
Another odd question, what is the voltage/ charging guage reading?
 
I assume it has the toyota Ignitor......yea dump the Chevy coil and go OEM before something gets burned up. You know what the Chevy coil puts out or better yet, what is it off of then I can find out for ya. Or just shoot me a picture.
 
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It sure doesn't look like it ever had any other driving lights hooked up to it. I have noticed that both problems seem yo occur after driving down rough roads, so I'm assuming a loose connection somewhere, but I have no idea where to start.

I believe, in fact I'm pretty sue the whole coil/igniter system got swapped, at least from what I can see.

No clue what it's putting out though.
 
I dont wanna go to far off course but if you get time shoot me a picture of the current setup......I really wanna see it. If they did do a direct swap to Chevy, it may not have enough juice?

I cannot remember exsactly but I think oem puts out like 40K volts? Its alot.


Well its safe to assume there is not rust up front that is causing a ground issue so would unplug the headlights , turn them on , even check voltage, bla bla , low beam high beam while having a helper playing with the plug/wires to find a short. Most I have messed with you can normally see a bad connection, over time , body flex and wear and tear , bla bla


Also yours has the fuse block under the hood on the passenger side , correct?

If you dont have a meter, buy one.





cornholio said:
It sure doesn't look like it ever had any other driving lights hooked up to it. I have noticed that both problems seem yo occur after driving down rough roads, so I'm assuming a loose connection somewhere, but I have no idea where to start.

I believe, in fact I'm pretty sue the whole coil/igniter system got swapped, at least from what I can see.

No clue what it's putting out though.
Click to expand...
 
Ill snap a pic right now.

There's no rust, I'll try to start fiddling with them.

No, only fuse block is under the dash.

I'm going to buy a meter I can actually read when everything opens.
 
Take the spark control module in to an Autozone and have them test it for free, make sure they do it 2 or 3 times to get it good and hot.

The module is the one bolted to the inner
fender with the black/red wire going to the coil.

Ok here is your part
Ignition Control Module | 1975 Chevrolet C10 1/2 ton P/U 2WD 8 Cylinders V 5.7L 2BL | AutoZone.com

You see the steel plate (for the lack of a better term?) yea that has to have dielectric grease on it otherwise it will fry......it gets hot. I dont really think the module should be bolted down to the fender. That is why I insisted on seeing the setup.

That is ok, the setup overall, I dont like it but if its done clean it should work, check the dwell, point gap and that kind of stuff in the dizzy.

I used something close to that set up but I used a ford spark control system on my old 40, it was a reall clean install.
 
I'll work on it. Going to see about going back to OEM today. After that hopefully the headlights will be the only problem.
 
I am tired as hell, have to stay up...lol anyway I am sure I left some stuff out. I gave your dad my number , if you dont make any head way by the weekend I am more than willing to help you by phone on saturday. Just give me a heads up so I willl be by the phone

I love working working/tinkering on these old rigs
:cheers:
 
Cool thanks. Yeah it's the 22R

I'd like to make it as good as possible without spending $250 bucks on the OEM ignitor, thats for damn sure.
 
Basically whatever I can do to make it work properly, if I have to spend the money that's fine, I just want it to work properly for a long time.
 
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