Trouble with lights, circuit breakers..

Sabre2th

Hi all. Just got this '54 Hornet going (been sitting since the mid '60s) and I'm having issues sorting out why I have no tail/marker lights. The manuals mention a circuit breaker left of the column, but can't see it right off. Any suggestions? Common problems?
Thanks!

Lance

Your  car wiring  likely has deteriorated so that you may have grounding or shorting problems.  The circuit breaker is behind the dash on the dash frame.   Please do yourself a favor and rewire this car. 60plus year old stranded steel wire is notorious for insulation falling off and corrosion building up on the wires. It will pay off in the long run.  I do rewiring where I live in the mid Atlantic if you aren't interested in doing it yourself. In any event get some stranded copper wire in that Hornet.

railknight

I had a similar issue with my tail lights some years back.  Turns out it was a bad ground at the lights themselves.  By the way, if you're going to continue to use the original wiring until your replace it then I suggest using a battery "kill switch" for when you're away from your Hudson.  It'll prevent a fire in the event your wiring has a nasty short circuit while you're away.

Sabre2th

I tinkered with it some this afternoon, made progress.  It was, in part, the switch itself.  I noticed a "flicker" once when turning the park lights on, so I switched on-off a number of times and they eventually came on.  I've found quite a number of bare wires, especially in the front, so will start there with rewiring.   I have a habit of disconnecting batteries on anything that's going to sit any time at all.  It's that time of year when the home repairs and farm stuff take over for a while, so it going back-burner.

Sabre2th

Well, the more things I've fixed, the more problems I find! I've just decided I'll be ahead doing a complete re-wire on it (as Lance suggested). I'm finished with the front lights and behind the grille, new wires back to the dimmer. Looks like it's going to be a cramped job under dash. Any hints or tricks to gain better access? Looks like it'll be a bear to pull the inst. cluster. This isn't going to be easy for me at all, messed up my lower back this winter, don't contort so good, lol..

RichardD

Hint is take the front seat out and get thick blankets, etc.

Jon B

....or you may be able to simply remove the bottom seat cushion, and find that you had a lot more room in which to stretch out.  With plenty of thick blankets, of course!

During the course of your re-wiring the headlights, you might want to consider installing a relay (if the car doesn't have one, of course).  You can put this behind the dash, possibly, or somewhere in the engine compartment.  Using a relay, you'll bypass miles of bad wires and corroded switches.  Now the only purpose of the wiring and switches, is to carry a trickle of power to the relay, which then directs current directly to the lights).