25. On the Road Again

On October 3, 2014, I took the car on a test drive.
 
What works:

• The odometer, which I had repaired while I was wiring the car. They set the mileage at 3000 miles.
• The cruise control.

What's iffy:

• The speedometer shop said they didn't have parts to repair the trip odometer, but it appears that it might be OK. I didn't check the trip reading at the start of the drive.

What doesn't work:

• Overdrive


• The steering wheel is not tight. It won't come off, but it wiggles slightly.


• The headlight switch sometimes turns with the steering wheel, turning the headlights on or off. It didn't do that before I rewired the switch.


• Tach operation is erratic.


• HVAC and Cruise Control lights do not work.

NOTE:
 
The steering wheel & light problem may not be understood by those unfamiliar with pre-WW2 Fords. The light switch actuator is in the center of the steering wheel surrounding the horn button. It's connected to a hollow shaft which runs the length of the steering column and actuates the light switch at the other end of the column. The actuator should not turn with the steering wheel. The horn wire runs inside a rod inside of the hollow light switch shaft and is insulated from the rod and the hollow shaft. When the horn button is pressed, the uninsulated lower tip of the rod touches a ground contact in the light switch, blowing the horn. I decided to keep this Henry Ford (Rube Goldberg?) arrangement. I like it.

To solve the overdrive problem took two steps. Gearvender overdrives are supplied with six conductor telephone cables. They are identified by naming them with colors (The cables themselves are off-white.) To identify them, I put a band of colored electrical tape at each end corresponding to the cable name. The first step was to disconnect the white wire in the "red" cable at the controller end and attach it to the white and black wires in the "black" cable. The Overdrive then operated, but it was on in the off position and vice-versa. I solved that by turning the toggle switch 180°. The ready light and the on light worked normally.

The steering wheel and light switch problems were corrected by inserting two .005" shims between the steering wheel and the tapered shaft. 

The HVAC indicator light was fixed by moving the supply wire to the Mode Switch common terminal. 

The wires to the Cruise Control light were reversed. I swapped them at the molex plug. The light works but now the documentation is incorrect. 

After reading some information about erratic tach operation on the internet and tach and coil instructions, I realized that the problem stemmed from replacing the stock GM coil with a high voltage, low resistance coil. It was solved by placing a 1N4007 diode in the tach supply line. To eliminate a weak spot in the wire I soldered the diode like this:

Then shrink wrapped the assembly.  

When installed, at first the tach still didn't operate properly, but the next time I started the car, it did operate correctly. I don't know why. 

The dashboard, windshield trim, sun visors, and rear view mirror have been reinstalled.