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Wiring up my 58 Bugeye - Questions

Bruce_B

Jedi Warrior
Offline
Well, after I installed the motor and the 5 speed trans, now it's time for the wiring. I have lots of notes and color-coded tags BUT there's always something Missing.

Looking at a bugeye wiring diagram it shows a connection from the Negative (positive ground car) battery terminal to the "A" post on the control box. I've got a brown wire in the "A" post already but that goes to the fuse box and that's OK. I touched a wire from the neg. terminal to the "A" post and electricity flowed, lights lit, but I removed the wire quickly (thin gauge wire).
So WHAT hooks up the battery to the control box?

Also near the fuses/control box - out of the harness are three thick brown wires going into a 3 tubed connector that has 3 open ends for other wires. Any one tell me what those are for?
Thanks....Happy Holidays!
 
Bruce, there should be two brown wires at Terminal "A". One to the fuse block, and one to the battery.
One of the other brown wires goes to the heater blower switch. That takes care of the only 3 brown wires I see on my diagram. Time to grab the meter and go hunting, I guess.
Jeff
 
Jeff, thanks for the info I'll just run a thick gauge wire from the "A" terminal directly to the neg. battery post.
 
There should be a big fat brown wire that is under the dash that goes to the postive side of the battery or negative in your case.
 
Jack....BINGO! There's a wire that comes through the firewall right by the post, but it's a different color. That wire is spliced onto the big brown wire. Mystery solved.

But. when I touched it to the NEG terminal, big spark, and the end started to smolder. At that point I realized I have still to attach the body ground strap bo the transmission. Hopefully that will reduce the spark...but logically that doesn't make sense.

Ideas anyone...
 
Bruce, back to what I said earlier. Time to grab the meter and go hunting.
If you don't have the ground strap at the tranny connected, it'll find it's own ground. Usually through either the throttle or choke cable. They melt easily!
Jeff
 
That wire going from the hot side of the battery into the firewall is just a link to the A terminal of the regulator. If you touch it to the battery and it overheats, it's obviously not going where it should, or something is shorted downstream. This should be easy to find--definitely time to get a meter and wiring diagram and start looking for the problem.
 
Thanks all. I've got a meter, and I've got a diagram (the one on ebay, large and laminated.)

Wait a minute...I'm missing the beer!

Happy New Year.
 
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That's my kinda lad!!!
 
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