1951 Driving Fine, turn on the lights, engin begins to shudder...

Unknown
Unknown
edited November -1 in HUDSON
I was driving my newly acquired '51 Club Coupe home the other evening. I turned on the headlights and everything was fine. As it got darker, I thought I'd run it with the high beams on for better visibility. The second I hit the floor mounted high beam switch, the motor began cutting out. I hit the floor switch again thinking it would reverse and resolve the problem, but that did not remedy it. The only way I could get the engine to run normally again was to turn the headlights off completely. Mind you it was 8 o'clock at night in the downtown Dallas area.. not a good spot for this to happen. So I pull over and try to diagnose. While doing this the car dies and the battery is shot. Any ideas of where to start my repair process would be much appreciated!

Comments

  • Park_W
    Park_W Senior Contributor
    Kev, if the GEN light wasn't and hasn't been on, you may have a faulty dimmer switch that shorted headlight power to ground when you hit it. There's a fuse in that circuit, so if that's what happened it should have blown, but ... . I'll look at the wiring diagram, and expand the comments if that reveals anything interesting (I have a '51 also). There may be a bad connection somewhere that's losing you some voltage.
  • nick s
    nick s Senior Contributor
    I agree that it sounds as though there is an issue in the light circuit

    Start at the light switch - from the factory it should have a self resetting circuit breaker (not a fuse) which should trip if you have a short downstream. Obviously this is not happening so there would be an issue here - not necessarilly your problem just one of them. Down stream from the circuit breaker, something is shorting out - considering the onset of the problem, I would suggest the dimmer switch.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I had a similar problem with my '50 Pacemaker, Deluxe(!), just a few weeks ago except when I blew the horn it caused the engine to shudder and backfire a little with no sound coming from the horn as well. The engine returned to normal a few seconds later ( I didn't blow the horn that day any more going down the road after that experience). To make a long story short, it turns out the horn relay on the firewall went bad. Purchased a new one at a local Napa auto parts store and now everything's fine-horn wise.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I had this problem on my 52 Hornet. It turned out the generator was not putting out enough amps to handle the load and while the battery had juice, it was also low. Check the generator/regulator function.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    All good information guys. Thanks for the help and ideas!
  • Park_W
    Park_W Senior Contributor
    Kev, be sure to tell us what it was, when you get it sorted out. That's how we all learn.
  • Geoff
    Geoff Senior Contributor
    Kev, in case you don't know where to start, you need to connect a voltmeter (not digital) to the "A" terminal of the voltage regulator. With the engine running at around 1,000 r.p.m., and headlights on, you should have between 7.2 and 7.5 volts. This is a basic check, and if it is not reading that, you need to investigate. It could be worn generator brushes or faulty regulator, or other causes.

    Geoff.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Park W wrote:
    Kev, be sure to tell us what it was, when you get it sorted out. That's how we all learn.



    Will do! My buddy's coming over tomorrow to help sort out this mess. I'll keep ya'll posted.
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