OK, nothing earth-shattering to relate. I haven't added anything here since March because I haven't done much. I was deeply involved (maybe I should say embroiled) in wiring when I hit a snag. This is not my first rodeo; this is the 8th car I have wired and most of them have been pretty much snag and problem free. The first 5 that I did were done without a wiring kit! I simply built a fuse panel, bought an array of different color and gauge wires, and strung one wire at a time until they were done. My '31 has been on the road for 17 years with no wiring issues.

The last three, my son's '50 Mercury, my Track-T, and this one I have used pre-fab'd wiring harness kits. The Merc and the T went together without issues, but this one almost drove me to do something regrettable - like involving gasoline and a match! Anyway, as it turns out the problem was not with the wiring harness, it was my choice of components and a silly mistake. I literally walked away from this car, closed the doors, and spent my time and efforts on other things for a while. So, what happened? Here is my saga of ignorance and stupidity...

The wiring kit I bought was the same exact make and model I used on the '50 Mercury. It all went well until I finished wiring the turn signals. The headlights, parking lights, and taillights all worked as expected. However, the turn signals would not flash no matter what. OK, that wasn't completely unexpected - all the lights in my entire system are LEDs. I installed the lightest duty flasher I had and still no dice. I ordered new flashers on Amazon specifically for LED applications. Then the rear signals would work, but the fronts would only work if the headlights or parking lights were turned on! I've encountered similar problems before - the fronts aren't sufficiently grounded, right? Wrong! Every test I ran with my continuity tester and multimeter say I have a good ground. I switched the wires on my parking lights and turn signals - same result. Also, the indicator lights in the dash would come on, but wouldn't flash no matter what! GRRRR!! OK, I'll do something else and come back to this later.

I haven't had this thing running since I set the body on the chassis. Maybe I ought to just turn the key and fire it up. Yeah! So I turned the key and it sounded like the starter is about to fall off! I haven't messed with it at all, haven't had the starter off or loose or anything, so what the hell? I don't know why the starter suddenly sounds different than when I had it running before, but I know it needed shimming. I loosened it up, shimmed the outside bolt with two thin washers and tried again. Now it sounded like it was binding - I had shimmed it too much. I loosened it again and removed one washer. It sounds better now, but acts like it's "dragging" and this is a brand new starter! At this point I was thoroughly disgusted and disheartened. I walked out of the shop, closed the door behind me, and went in the house. That was in late March...

Finally, last week, after not touching the '32 for almost 8 weeks, I had a mental revelation. I bought two little non-LED clearance lights for a trailer. I spliced a wire into the rear turn signals and hooked up the clearance lights. Presto! All the turn signals suddenly work like they are supposed to! I have mounted them inside the trunk where they will never be seen, but they make everything work properly including the indicator lights in the dash, so they will be there forever. Now for the starter problem...

I wanted to get the thing to crank properly. I didn't think it was turning over fast enough to start. I turned the key to "start" and the starter still sounded like it was dragging. After a couple of seconds I stopped, waited a second or so and tried again - still dragging. I went to the trunk to disconnect the battery so I could remove the starter and have it tested. When I touched the negative cable it was too warm; not just a little warm as normal, but too warm. It wasn't hot enough to make a blister, but uncomfortably warm enough to be abnormal. I started feeling the connections and where I had the ground bolted to the frame, the bolt was hot. OK, on a little further investigation I discovered that the bolt I had used was too long. The nut on the bottom had bottomed out on the unthreaded part of the bolt and froze. Sure it felt tight on the two wrenches, but it wasn't holding the cable tight. I replaced the bolt with one a bit shorter (had to cut the other one out) and now the starter works fine.

So, it turns out that the wiring harness is just fine; it was just a matter of educating myself. Henceforth I will always put at least one set of lights in the system that are NOT LEDs. Also, I guess I will now probably always check for tight bolts when installing cables. Sometimes self-education is frustrating... The good news is I'm ready to get back to work on this thing.