Work on 66 Charger EL lighting please help

[ragtp66]

I am working on trying to get the EL lighting working on a 66 charger. Before I get buzzed with 240 ac I have a question the FSM says to check for 12 volts on the orange wire when the headlight switch is on which I have. Then it says to disconnect the connector (which is where my confusion lies) the connector going TO the power pack has a white and an orange wire going TO the power supply this is where I checked for 12 volts. When the book says to disconnect and check for 240 ac on the white wire are they referring to the orange and white connector? or is there another connector on the OUTPUT side of the power pack? ALSO under the dash in about the dead center there is a white wire with 2 red connectors very close together I assume One of them is to connect to the white wire going to the radio for the EL is the second connector supposed to be connected? I have not yet been able to trace where the EL wires for the shift indicator are going they just go into a large loom under the shifter plate. I can take pictures if needed. If anyone has an extra glove box light I would be interested in buying it.

 

[A383Wing]

to check for 240v at white wire, you will need to disconnect the orange & white wire connector and run a jumper wire between the orange power wire from the 2 spade terminals, leaving the white wire coming out of power pack open for your test lead. Use a multi-meter that is capable of at least 300v ac voltage to test. (red lead of multi-meter to white wire at power pack, black lead to ground) Then you can turn on the light switch and see if you have the proper AC voltage at the white wire. If you do have voltage, then somewhere in the EL system is a short, think of it as old style Christmas lights, if one goes out, they all do. If you do not have AC voltage, power pack needs rebuild, which I do here. If you do have AC voltage, but voltage consistently drops when power is on, then power pack needs rebuild.

The extra white wire around radio is for cars with factory AC for lighting up the push buttons

let me know if you need more help

post your findings and we will go to next step

Bryan

 

[Gpuller]

Yes just like Bryan explained. Check for AC voltage on the white wire on the power pack side.
The wire harness in the console should also have a white wire with a red connector that goes to the shift indicator.

Do you have air conditioning? If so the extra white wire would connect to the AC buttons. One will go to the radio.

 

[ragtp66]

OK so far so good I think. I jumpered the orange wires and took the white lead from the power pack to the red lead of the voltmeter and black lead to ground. I was getting a reading of 1500 (not sure I had the meter on the right scale) there is a red led and an audible indicator on the meter thats alerts you to VERY HIGH VOLTAGE each time I grounded the meter it fluctuated a little and then would go to about 1500 there was also an odd noise coming from the dash as well when i grounded it. So I didn't hold the ground on long as I didn't want to damage anything. It was weird not like a relay clicking noise more of a humming kinda sound. SO I still am not sure if this means the power pack is OK or If I need to tear into the dash next.

chris

 

[Gpuller]

You don't have the meter set on the right scale.

This was taken from the 66-67 Charger source guide.

"The orange wire gets +12 volts when the headlight switch is pulled out. the white wire is the output of the power pack and that white wire should be unplugged from the connector when checking the voltage on it.That white wire should have 230 volts AC on it. You will need to get a meter to check that part of the circuit. Put the negative lead on frame ground and probe the white wire with the headlight switch turned on."

Keep reading here. Lots of good info...

http://www.chargersourceguide.com/EL.html

 

[ragtp66]

would this be the correct capacitor if infact I need to get one:

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail...ha2pyFadugt3o7Oydi6/VAfLl%2bIMhjCvB4SbVxUOm0=

thanks
chris

 

[A383Wing]

no, that is not big enough, that one will not hold up....I can rebuild your power pack if it turns out bad. I have new capacitors here. My power packs are bench tested for 8 hours at full capacity before I release them to a customer.

 

[ragtp66]

OK so rechecking the power pack I am getting 216 volts AC out of it but still none of the gauges lighting up.


chris

 

[Gpuller]

Sounds like its on the low end for voltage but still should light up the dash. Now you need to start unplugging the the different EL components to see which is the problem.
Your going to have to test cluster, radio, and shift indicator separate. If you have a clock on the console you'll need to check that too.

 

[A383Wing]

216 is low...too low for our cars....I can fix it to put out correct voltage.

You need to find where the short is, as Reed said, you need to check each EL circuit separately. Unplug every white wire connector, then plug one in at a time until you find the one that does not light up

 

[ragtp66]

I am going to attempt to pull the dash and check each of the gauges separately. This white wire on the radio I assume is for the EL but I think it is just missing its plastic connector as long as I put it in the dash red socket and tape up any exposed metal it SHOULD be ok right?

 

[A383Wing]

yes

have you narrowed the short down to something inside the dash then? If not, you are pulling it for nothing unless you have tested and ruled out everything else.

 

[ragtp66]

I have tried disconnecting the radio, shift indicator and the white wire at the far left side of the cluster tried plugging in just the shift indicator and just the radio by themselves while keeping the dash connector unlugged and none of the el has worked so far. But the turn signal indicator and the high beam indicator and the headlamp door indicators arent working either so I figured I would pull the dash check for any not connected wires check all the grounds and try to go from there. I am thinking I may need to send you my transformer and have that rebuilt before I can tell for sure about the gauges. I have a buddy that has another 66 Charger that is going to let me use his power pack that we know already works but hes out of state working on a project for another couple weeks. The previous owner was someone who should not have been working on the electrical. The very first problem we fixed was the sending wire was pinched between the gas tank and the body effectively grounding it, loosened the tank used a little dab of liquid electrical tape I have this black stuff for use on boats that is great to repair a slight nick in the insulation then the headlight switch was bad after about 10-15 min of headlights being on they kept blinking on and off...New headlamp switch took care of that. etc etc

 

[A383Wing]

when you tested the power pack by itself, did the AC voltage numbers continue to drop in voltage the longer it was connected?

 

[gibber]

Bryan does a great job of repairing the EL powerpacks. As for the gauges, I'd be happy to help if the gauges themselves need EL or other repairs...

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Skatpak]

no, that is not big enough, that one will not hold up....I can rebuild your power pack if it turns out bad. I have new capacitors here. My power packs are bench tested for 8 hours at full capacity before I release them to a customer.

Hello, how much do you charge to fix the power packs?

 

[RemCharger]

Not sure if Bryans in the hobby anymore.

 

[Skatpak]

Not sure if Bryans in the hobby anymore.

Oh ok thank you.