Hi All,

I got my 67 Camaro 2 days ago and seem to have inherited an electrical fault. I'm not experienced working on cars, though understand the basics, so have attempted to track this fault myself and got stuck. I'll describe what I'm seeing here in the hope that someone can point me towards how to locate the fault.

The day after I got the car, it wouldn't start. Nothing, not even the clicking sound. Replaced the battery, she started & I thought that was it. Day 3, the interior light won't turn out when the doors are shut and the radio won't turn off and I need a jump start coming home.

I started trying to locate the issue yesterday. With doors shut, everything off & all fuses pulled, there is a 2.5amp draw on the battery. I know this is coming from the wiring loom that feeds the front lights & all interior electrics, but do not know where to go from here. I also did a continuity test across the each of the two fuse points and seemed to get intermittent results to earth - different points beeping at different times.

So, I'm assuming that there is an issue before the fusebox - as I still get the 2.5A draw with them all removed, but have no clue on how to approach fault finding this & isolating the fault.

Any advice / guidance welcome.

Thanks, Paul

 

From www.camaros.net:
Since you just got the car - on these old things, turning the headlight **** all of the way CCW will turn on the interior lights, regardless of the door being open or closed. Since you pulled all of the fuses, I doubt that's your problem, but just in case you left that shorty fuse in....twist the **** clockwise.

I don't think the radio in a 67 requires the key to be on - so that sounds normal.

The headlights themselves do not run through the fuse block, and other than the starter motor, it's the only circuit that doesn't have a fuse (I think) - the switch has an internal breaker. So you might try unplugging the connector from the back of the headlight switch and redo your test.

Also - where are you connecting your meter to test? The simple way is to disconnect the neg cable from the battery and connect a test light between the post and the cable. Pull one fuse at a time and close the doors - Light on = draw. Light off = no draw.


Do you think or know if the harness is original and or what might have been changed from how it was when originally assembled ?.

If it's all original, try this:

Disconnect your battery, then remove the wires on the alternator and position them so they cannot short to anything, then do another amp draw test. If the draw is still there, disconnect the battery once again and unplug the 4 wire connector on the external voltage regulator (providing your car still has this originality to it and not an alternator that does not require it) and then do another amp draw test.

If the draw is still there then disconnect the battery yet once again and on the horn relay on the bottom there are two screws next to each other and one screw will have a fork terminal under it crimped to a large 10 gauge wire and this one you want to leave as is but now the other terminal should have a fork terminal under it too but attached to a smaller wire and a little down the length of this wire will be a round tubular plastic collar and then the wire becomes larger. This is the feed wire to the bulkhead connector. Try disconnecting it and doing an amp draw test.

Who knows, you may have one issue or multiples. You just want to do a logical progression of troubleshooting working your way out from the battery.


Welcome, Paul, to the Cruise - Ice cream on second deck.
Radio should work with ign switch in ACC or IGN position, if wired OE configuration.

Good guidance given, and the two red wires on horn relay buss bar, one goes to battery, the other goes to firewall connector for Camaro power.
Also, the alternator is crimped into this same red wire, so remove from alt BATT stud and view the light.
If off, bad diode in alt, if on, unplug regulator, if off after, bad reg.

Keep asking