'61 356Bt5. I was tracking down old no-longer used wires and I found the wire pictured hanging there. I must've inadvertently pulled it out of the ignition switch. Now, the car does nothing - not even a click. I'd love to tell you what color it is, but it could be gray, green, blue or faded black. In the ignition switch currently, I have red to the lights, heavy black to the starter, another black that goes to what looks like a quick disconnect and then continues over to the area of the fuse box on the passenger side, the blue/yellow...and then there's this wire. I think it goes to the ignition switch and I think it's the source of my problem. Anyone?

From the factory color wiring diagram.

CW

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Charlie White

Thank you, Charlie. I looked at that, but I can't make up my mind whether it goes to 15 or 54. #15 seems to make sense, but the car does have a radio, so it could be 54. Of course, 54 would have nothing to do with my "no power issue," but then where the heck is my radio wire?

I'm no expert on wiring, but can you see the back of your ignition switch....if the black wire is supposed to go there, there should be an empty hole, right?

CW

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Charlie White

That's the black wire for the ignition. it goes to 15 on the switch. You can see that the bigger black wire that goes to 50 (starter) is still connected.

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There are already two wires in 15 on the switch, the blue/yellow and the black that goes across the car and disappears behind the fuse box. So this wire goes into 15 as well? I'm not questioning you, just trying to make sure. As I'm poking around, I'm finding a number of things that were not done correctly, I assume in the name of maximizing profit. I don't mind, though. It'll allow me to learn about the car. On the other hand, a stupid mistake with an ignition switch once cost me a lot of money when I re-connected the battery.

Extra black wire is for the second coil on a 4-cam car. Surplus and taped up on a pushrod car.

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Whatever you do make sure you this loose cable is electrically isolated and do not touch anything, specially your hand brake!!! Then take your time to track its usage and original connecting location. BT5 is not intended to mean Burned in less Than 5 sec

Rainer Cooney wrote:
> Extra black wire is for the second coil on a 4-cam car. Surplus and taped
> up on a pushrod car.

Christopher,
If it is the spare coil lead, the west end is typically wrapped around the mount of the voltage regulator. Or it was 'way back when. Check there and if you find a lead, just check continuity to confirm Rainer's point.

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Hmmmph. I went and bought a 6V charger and put it on the battery that suddenly seems to be stone dead. It was hot all the way across the Country and it was fine when I took it out for a drive. Now it is so dead that it does absolutely nothing. It's been charging for about four hours and nothing yet. Also, while trying to trace the black wire from the ignition switch, I found that there are no fuses in #7 or #8. I haven't found a BT5 fuse box diagram yet,so I'm not completely sure what they do, but the fact that someone took the fuses out leads me to believe they do something bad.

Ah, as they say, "The plot thickens".

I would say disconnect the battery completely from the car and then attempt to charge it. If it is a lead acid battery, just remove it from the car. Charge it with a good charger, capable of 2A or 10A, but don't leave it on overnite.

If you get a spark when re-connecting the battery, there is some thing causing a drain. Disconnect the clock (if electric) and the radio and try again. If there is still a spark you will have to troubleshoot the source. I would start with any funky looking wires, just disconnect or remove the fuse and try again. Note that numerous circuits in the car are not actually fused. Using the wiring diagram, follow the lines from the battery to each accessory to see whether the power goes through a fuse, or just uses the fuse panel as a convenient connection point.

Thus you will become familiar with the wiring diagram and your car, and will be in a better position to figure out what is supposed to be there and what isn't.

But as Rainier pointed out, there may be original "undocumented" wires as well to tantalize and confuse.

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Sounds like fun, Sterling. I've ordered Mr. Leoni's 356 Electrics and a full color schematic to guide me. When they arrive, I'll don my Sherlock Holmes hat and get to work...

It is Elementary.

One quick method to determine if you have something causing the battery to drain while the car is parked, is to shut off all components, remove the ground strap from the battery terminal, then connect a test lamp from the neg. terminal and to ground. If the lamp lights up, you have a short somewhere. Be sure not to have the car in reverse when doing this, as the lamp will light, since you have activated the reverse light below the rear fender.

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Geoff,
I don't have a manual right here, but I think you have to pull #4 fuse to isolate the clock; it'll show an intermittent 'short' if you don't.

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