Day 5: With a Little Help From My Friends

Day 5

Luke Kirchner

With a Little Help From My Friends

I woke up today to see the man, the myth, the legend....the destroyer..... Joel! My cousin Joel came over today to help work on finishing the gauge wiring and to try and start the engine once again. As usual, things got whacky real fast. 

Our first task was to finish wiring the engine bay with our harness. Weaving through pillars and small holes, we managed to connect every little piece - from the horns to the headlights to the alternator. Everything was now attached to something! This meant we could focus our attention back on the gauge cluster to see what we needed to work on. Putting on the final screws, we could hardly hold our excitement to finally turn that key and start this car with everything wired up. I actually almost saw a smile slip from Joel's face. It was getting serious. 


Once we made sure all the connectors were attached and all the screws were in, we decided to try and crank the engine to get fuel to the carburetor and provide ignition spark. We turned the key. Nothing. Looking around we thought taking it out and trying again would help. It didn't. Damn. 


First, we had to check and make sure other systems were getting some sort of power. Fortunately, when we pressed on the brake pedal, the taillights turn on! And the courtesy light switch on each door all proved to work when the overhead light came on. I wondered why those things were getting power when the things in the dash weren't, but my dad was quick to explain why. Because when you open a car, you want the lights to turn on. This happens before the key is in. Therefore, it is routed using different wires but all in the same main harness. My dad thinks it's the ignition that is the problem. Things are supposed to start getting power once the key is turned halfway, but if the ignition switch is shot, that electrical information won't get relayed to the systems it powers.   

"Shocking"


We decided to leave that alone and go do some fun things on the car to still make progress. Over in the back, we had to shave off some paint to get the trunk lock installed. After a bit of yelling and swearing, we *gracefully* got in the lock to complete the majority of the rear end. We then moved up to the front of the car to install the windshield wiper assembly. This was thankfully very easy, as it just slid right in. 



Although the day didn't go exactly to plan, we always end up making some progress and get closer to our goals!  


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