1966 Mustang electrical question

If you are blowing fuses you most certainly have a short. You are correct the lighter and the emerg are on the same circuit. My first reaction when the lighter is involved is to disconnect it and see if the short goes away. The lighter socket lives a pretty hot & harsh life and thus can get melted and mangled or get the dreaded foil paper from a cigarette pack in it! The lighter cable should just unplug from the back. Try the fuse then or use a test light across the fuse terminals. If it still blows or the light turns on then you need to trace the wire back from both the lighter and the switch. From the emerg switch you should have a blue wire that goes back to the flasher unit, out of the flasher the wire will be orange with a yellow stripe, this will meet with a blue with white stripe wire which is the lighter wire. This wire goes back to the fuse box. Now some of this may be wrapped up in taping so you may have to do some surgery on the loom to look for chaffed wiring. From the emerg switch the wiring goes through the turn signal switch so this may be another source of shorts. Turn signals switches on this vintage of car are very prone to breakage.

Check all the areas where there are connections like the lighter, switches, flasher even look to see if you have a burnt out bulb in one of the indicators. Disconnect one connector at a time and see when the light goes out. When it does you most likely have found the problem or you are on your way to finding it.

There is the wiring diagram for a '65 on this page. Pretty much the same as a '66 so you may want to print them ( in 2 pieces)

Good Luck StuK

Wow! That is a very comprhensive answer..Thanx a million! I am going to try and disconnect the cig lighter. If that solves the emerg. flasher that I am cool. I am a non smoker and a non working cig lighter will not bother me........

the lighter and

flasher unit, out

switches, flasher even

blows....Have

No Sweat, I have the wiring diagram and I'm and Electronic Tech so I have slight advantage! Cars of that era have one of the easiest wiring to work on because they are so rudimentary. I hope that the problem is that simple.

I'm a non smoker too but the thought of something not working would bug me! BTW where in Canuckland are you? StuK

Hi Stuart,

I asked this question in this newsgroup last year and got nowhere...

I have put an AM/FM cassette radio in my '65 coupe. But, the radio needs to be wired in to retain its preset stations. Otherwise, every time I turn the car on I have to refind my favourite stations.

What can I wire the power lead from the radio into? Someone said the cigarette lighter fuse. OK, but how? What end is it connected to in the fuse panel and with what kind of connection?

Any help would be appreciated.

Andrew Croft

'65 Caspian blue 6 cyl> No Sweat, I have the wiring diagram and I'm and Electronic Tech so I have > slight

Just run a splice connector, such as this one

,to the power lead coming offthe fuse box to the cig lighter. You can get these at Home Depot and I thinkeven Radio Shack carries them. The fuse for the cig lighter will protect thecircuit to the radio, if your only using it to run the memory. I would NOTuse this method to actually power the radio for listening. The memory leadfor aftermarket radio's is IIRC usually yellow.

I wired the memory lead in my maverick along the antenna cable through the fender, under the hood and put it on the battery post of the starter relay solinoid. Been like that for many years now and has worked just fine. (Of course the radio came with a fuse on that line, if there wasn't one it's a good thing to add one, only needs 1 amp fuse generally)

I thought I had posted a reply on that one? I had ISP probs a while back so maybe it didn't get through???

Your best source of constant power without wiring butchery is the cigarette lighter IMO. As Scott Williams said in the other reply you can use a through type splice ( often called a "Scotch connector") Here in Canada Home Depot sells GB brand but they are the same thing, Crappy Tire has them or even Princess Auto. There are also spade type connectors that will slide onto the fuse box under the fuse cartridge itself. These should only be used on the load side of the fuse otherwise you have a unprotected wire that could cause a short and cause a fire. The wiring loom goes into the back of the fuse panel so it is hard to connect directly to the fuse box and most connections are riveted on back there. Personally I'd just use the cig lighter as being a none smoker I would never use it thus never really loading it. The connector pulls off a small threaded rod on the back of the lighter socket. You could get a crimp on male "Bullet" connector for the radio preset wire and simply plug it in to the lighter wire ( rendering the lighter inoperative) or you could crimp on an eyelet connector to the radio preset wire and get a nut and attach the eyelet to the cigarette lighter then push the connector back onto the lighter socket to allow both to work. StuK

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your response. I have never seen one of those connectors - looks like overkill for a '65 Mustang! :-)

The power for the radio is fine so I have that connected properly. The antenna and speakers are all fine - I was somewhat surprised here as it only took 45 minutes to install and I was allowing an extra hour for troubleshooting and screwdriver tossing ;-) Luckily, most of my wiring is clean and already worked on when I first got the car so there were no surprises.

I haven't been under the dash since last October but I was quite certain of the leads off the radio, matching it up to the diagram supplied. I will check again to see if it is in fact yellow.

Andrew Croft

'65 Caspian blue 6 cyl> Just run a splice connector, such as this one

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for your reply - yes, maybe the 'net gremlins got to your reply last year.

I did try an eyelet lead on the back of the cigarette lighter but it did not work. So, if I am to understand how to attack the cigarette fuse... I need to place a spade connector under the load end, as you state - is this the end that the feed wire IS NOT connected to? I am guessing it should go on the end after the power goes through the fuse, correct?

But, if I do connect to the back of the cigarette lighter, technically both should work, no? I do not smoke so it's no bother if it doesn't. I just figured an eyelet connector on the back of the cigarette lighter would be the cleanest and easiest. But didn't seem to work. I will try this again in the coming week or so.

I am relatively handy - having renovated my house, including all new wiring and plumbing. I once had the entire wiring loom of the car stretched on my bedroom floor 18 years ago when I first got her. My wife wouldn't stand for that now ;-) I used one of those Mustang wiring diagrams [nearly going blind because of the quality of the print] fixed the wiring and made the car buzz with life - all the lights and accessories worked like they hadn't in years.

The radio is just a little glitch in an otherwise enjoyable experience.

Andrew Croft

'65 Caspian blue 6 cyl> I thought I had posted a reply on that one? I had ISP probs a while back so > maybe it

Hi there,

Just a thought... have you checked both the front turnsignal and rear taillight bulbs lately?

I seem to recall a time when my turn signal didn't work, which was odd because I had fixed everything electrical and bulb-wise.

Turns out my rear passenger turn signal bulb housing had gotten flooded [nice design how the trunkline comes right down dead centre on top of the housing, eh?] and shorted it.

Pulled it apart, replaced the bulb, fixed the gaskets with a little extra assurance on keeping the top rim covered and voila... no problem since.

Could be that one of the flasher-only filaments in the bulb is shorting the entire thing.

Just a stab [in the dark?!]

Andrew Croft

'65 Caspian blue 6 cyl> Hi there.

It's not actually a true "spade" connector, It's a special connector that goes around the metal contact of the cartridge fuse at one end and has a male spade connector that sticks proud of the fuse panel you can attach your lead to that via a female spade. FYI they can be hard to find. You could use a spade just pushed into the fuse slot but it isn't very elegant. You are correct the load side of the fuse is after the power goes through the fuse. It can be determined by removing the fuse and seeing which contact has constant power ( with a meter or test light) The side WITHOUT power is the load side. StuK

Further to this, gang, it appears connecting an eyelet connector to the end of the cigarette lighter will not work. Sigh. The cigarette lighter IS working. I put the eyelet connector on the end of the cigarette socket and reattached the nut. Why does this not work so keep the radio presets? I am very sure the wire lead I have for this on the new radio is the correct one. It's yellow. All other wires were used when the radio was installed and it is getting power and the speakers work [all adjustments to radio with knobs have the desired effect].

I may have to try the wire to the solenoid but the wire I have available for the connection does not have an inline fuse. I could get one from a supply store but would really appreciate any feedback on an under-the-dash connection possibly first.

I seem to recall uncovering the leads for the console in the wire loom when I hauled the wiring out in 1987. If they are not in use [no console] surely I should be able to connect the radio's trickle feed to one of these with a bullet connector. I would guess the grey/blue stripe lead as that is for lights which have constant power.

Help! I really want to be able to set the stations on the radio and the time and have them stay there!!

Andrew Croft

'65 Caspian blue 6 cylinder coupe, blue interior [07.85 to present]

'96 Forest green GT coupe, grey interior [04.96 to 04.00]'88 medium blue 5.0LX hatchback, grey interior [93-04.96]'80 white hatchback, red interior [91-93]My other car is a Ford - '04 Escape, 6 cylinder, silver, grey cloth -LOVE IT - it's my second Escape.

try hooking it to the battery!

Yes, I know, but I would rather an under-the-dash option as the feed does not have an inline fuse. Feeding it to the battery will require a fuse. It has to be more straight-forward than this. Anyone?

Andrew Croft

'65 Caspian blue 6 cylinder coupe, blue interior [07.85 to present]

'96 Forest green GT coupe, grey interior [04.96 to 04.00]'88 medium blue 5.0LX hatchback, grey interior [93-04.96]'80 white hatchback, red interior [91-93]My other car is a Ford - '04 Escape, 6 cylinder, silver, grey cloth -LOVE IT - it's my second Escape.

"Andrew Croft" wrote

straight-forward than this. Anyone?

It doesn't get much more straight forward than hooking it directly to the battery. Most of the radio installs I've done I connect directly to the battery and bypass the fusebox entirely. Just go to Radio Shack and pick up some inline blade fuse holders and butt connect them inline right at the battery. That will end up being the easiest way to solve all your problems. If you spliced the memory wire directly to the power wire for the working cig lighter and the radio doesn't work, then either the radio isn't grounded securely or there is something wrong with the radio.

You should hook it temporarily to the battery to make sure the radio itself works right. Since it would not when hooked to the lighter, there may be something amiss. Run a long wire outside the car and jam the other end into the battery's positive connection. Program some stations and make sure the radio holds the memory right. I suggest buying a test light to eliminate guesswork looking for a 12v constant line. The lighter lead should work. Also the green wire leading to either door switch, and one of the two wires on the brake pedal switch. There is a constant feed to the igntion switch, but you will have to splice into a bigger wire.

CobraJet

Thanks Scott Williams and CobraJet for restating what I am pretty sure others have said and probably many more have thought.

I connected it to the battery and it was a no go.

I hauled out the radio and checked all the connections [finally having good weather and the time to do so! As the radio was getting power only when the ignition was at accessory, or the car was started, the power had to be correct.

So I checked the trickle feed wire back from the connection I had made.

Sure enough - there IS an inline fuse all wrapped up in the myriad of wiring. I was only seeing the end that hung down after I neatly placed all of the wires up behind the radio out of the way.

THE INLINE FUSE WAS BLOWN!

Replaced the inline fuse and it worked immediately.

I have the trickle feed connected to the end of the cigarette lighter with an eyelet connector. So that DOES work! YEAH!

Many, many thanks to those of you who have offered help - it is greatly appreciated!

Andrew Croft

'65 Caspian blue 6 cylinder coupe, blue interior [07.85 to present]

'96 Forest green GT coupe, grey interior [04.96 to 04.00]'88 medium blue 5.0LX hatchback, grey interior [93-04.96]'80 white hatchback, red interior [91-93]My other car is a Ford - '04 Escape, 6 cylinder, silver, grey cloth -LOVE IT - it's my second Escape.

Glad you have it working now.

Listen, is your '65 in original paint or has it been reshot?

CobraJet

Your welcome. I may not know motors, but I know stereo's :)