Just those 2 words, "replacing fusebox" make me shudder and want to run away.
However, the fusebox on the Grande Parisienne has 2 issues. 1) Most of the lettering is rubbed off, so I can't tell which fuse does what. 2) The terminals have some corrosion. When Ken owned the car I'm betting he cleaned them and other than one persnickety connector that powers the backup lights everything seems to work.
Anyway, I decided that since I have a spare plastic body for the fusebox from one of the wagons I scrapped, I'm going to change it. Yuck, what a pain getting all those connectors out but I have them all out and have the terminals soaking in Evaporust. Tough to see but its in a clear plastic bottle with a purple cap. Cap has a hole in it and the wires are hanging in the liquid.
Left side, replacement housing, right side came out of the Grande Parisienne.
Yuk is the right word for spending that much time crouching to reach all those connections- good thing you are young enough Carl.
__________________
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
Changed it all over this morning. Put as many better condition contacts in from the spare parts fusebox as I could without soldering any wires.
Put it all back together, hooked everything up and ............????? Battery connected, key off, tailights are on, interior lights are on. Push the door jamb switch and the interior lights go to about 50% intensity. I had never paid attention before I started this project to see if they were that way prior. Not everything electrical had worked right and so I was suspicious that maybe it was a prior issue that still hadn't changed with the fusebox upgrade.
Decided to take a break, have lunch, go for a walk, have a nap and ponder rather than just panic and rip into it right away. My brain kept saying "headlight switch" but I just put an NOS GM switch in a couple of months ago. If it was a repro I would have been more worried.
The more I thought about it, the more I figured it had to be feeding an extra circuit. On this fusebox only one of the 6 fuses, the tailight circuit is powered with the key off as confirmed by testing my Strato Chief. When I did some tests on the Grande Parisienne, I found that the tailight circuit plus the circuit right under it was powered with the key off. Aha! Too coincidental, it's gotta be something behind the fusebox that is crossing over between the 2 circuits. Took it apart and looked, moved some wires around that may have been touching, put it all back together and "Bob's your uncle", everything works like it should.
Now that I've done this fusebox thing once I won't be so intimidated by it if and when there's a next time to do one on an old car.
Has anyone seen a supplier for the metal clips that the fuses plug into in our old car fuseboxes? The wires crimp onto them in the back using the same special crimper that Packard 56 wire terminals use and I have that crimper. I'd still like to put brand new ones into this box if I can find a supplier.
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
When I got my Grande, back in '86, I lived in Brigus, hometown, on the east coast just an hour from St. John's, the harness was butchered. Found another car with a good harness but the terminals were corroded badly. (Replacement harness was in Newfoundland and my Grande was from Goose-Bay, Labrador) I cut every wire at the blocks and soldered them all back together to the good block original to the car. I used that car travelling back and forth to Seal Cove trade school for my 9-month long mechanic pre-employment classes every day with 4 other students for the term except the winter months. I still have the car to this day.
-- Edited by 67Poncho on Friday 2nd of August 2024 08:00:21 AM
I certainly debated doing that with this one. The parts car fusebox I had was pretty good but Evaporust cleaned up the terminals in the Grande Parisienne that I couldn't just unplug and change so went that route. I think there was 5 that could be unplugged and transferred from the parts car, the rest were crimped. I've tried online to find a supplier for new replacement crimp on terminals but so far no luck.
Once you get into this job it's not as awful as it first appears but it's certainly not at the top of this list of favourite things to do on an old car!
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
