Wagonmaster w/455 Olds and HEI has no electrical

[WagnMastr]

Evening, folks.
I recently bought a '73 wagonmaster 1010 that a po had put in an olds deisel 350 long ago. Since it had been altered already (and that engine has been out of it for 15 yrs), I opted to put in another olds that would bolt up, and it sounds awesome. It's at a transmission shop today to have the center support bracket and u-joints replaced, so it is very close to coming back to life after sitting outside up in or fir 15+years and I am very excited about this old piece of IH steel.
Michael mayben provided me with the wiring diagram needed for me to rewire the ignition, starter, ignition switch and hei - and it cranked, ran and turned off on the first pass (thanks, michael for that and your other input!).
However, on an earlier pass of wiring it, when I left the battery hooked up over a couple of days, the battery was dead. So, in an effort to see if the rewiring job also corrected that problem, I turned the key to the 'off' position (at least I believe I did), and then let it sit for a couple days. Again, battery was drained. I know when I opened the door, the courtesy light came on briefly, then turned off. I thought that was odd, and turned the key and no sound whatsoever, and no lights.
Now, I cannot jump start it and charging the battery doesn't resolve it either.
It is a new battery, new ignition switch, newer starter, and the darn thing ran 5 days ago.
Could I have damaged the hei or something else if I did accidentally leave the iginition set to 'run'?
What should I look for tomorrow morning when I go down to check it out?
Thanks in advance, all, for any response!

 

[Michael Mayben]

Malcolm!

Glad ya made it over here, you won't be sorry!

Very carefully check all the wiring, both the oem stuff, the po-installed crap, and anything else and look for some "fusible links". In the original 1010 stuff those will be on the engine side of the bulkhead connector where those 10 gauge wires are, those are "master fuses" for the electrical system and can 'burn open" but look like a simple piece of weird wire. Sometimes the only way you can tell they are "open" is by testing for continuity in the fusible segment.

They can't be simply repaired, but the segment can be replaced by crimping in a piece of "repair" fusible link that is either pre-cut or is cut from a spool.

Or, they can be eliminated and you can install a "maxi-fuse" in line instead of the fusible or install a cartridge-type fusible link that looks similar to a large fuse.

The fusibles are the master protection for the entire system, kinda like the main disconnect in your home electrical panel. The feeds that are connected to the fusibles are 10 gauge, so ya use a replacement that is four gauges numbers lighter of fusible link wire...so you would need a repair segment of a 14 gauge fusible link. Looking at the pic from left to right, you see "14 gauge" fusible (for use with 10 gauge wire run), 16 gauge fusible (12 gauge wire run), and 18 gauge fusible (14 gauge wire run). The colors really mean nothing, though the pre-cut Ford repair segments colors do mean something in the Ford electrical schematic. The black piece on the far left is just another "universal" version of the 14 gauge fusible in the bag, that came off a bulk spool of 25ft.

If one or both fusibles are "blown" or open/fried/melted, then ya gotta correct the cause of the overload. Otherwise, they will continue to go "open" when they reach critical mass!

If you check "open circuit" battery voltage with your dvom at the battery terminals, you will know if the battery is fully charged (should be around 12.6vdc), that means the problem is not the battery, but is in the wiring.

The "green weenie" t'all ya bought from skip had this same issue when we got it home on the trip back from atlanta. The fusible was open, that was caused by the punkee bulkhead connector. I repaired that while I was at skip's before I left to return home.

Since the wiring for the 455 olds is dam near identical to the oem sv engine (except for the feed to the hei connector), then try and get the engine bay wiring back to close to original. I bet for the diesel setup, the po did a buncha monkeemotion for that install that is not compatible with the gas motor stuff.

The pictures I have that the po sent me when you were looking at buying this rig show a big dam mess of wiring hanging from the brake booster. I know it's had the "remote starter relay" workaround added, but setting that up for the 455 starter is identical to the same deal for an IH sv engine starter. The actual starter motors and solenoids are nearly identical!

Can you post a good pic of the engine bay/firewall as it is now showing the bulkhead connectors and how you have the remote starter relay wired up??

 

[Michael Mayben]

This shot shows the bulkhead connector I'm refering to. This is the one to the left of the steering column with the two "lug" terminals.

Connected to the right lug terminal is the fusible link. That one is red with a special yellow rubber tag on it to denote what it is.

The fusible links are not called out or shown in that wiring diagram I sent ya, in fact, they are not shown in most all ihc wiring diagrams!!! They are considered to be just a part of that wire run, what a dumass way to do this! The fusible link was an advancement in technology back at that point in time, but the sumbitches didn't tell the mechanics about 'em, they learned about this stuff the hard way! Chrysler did the same thing during the same model years! Drove us dam crazee in the dealerships since not all vehicles had 'em and they were not always in the same place!

That is my rig in the pic, though it is an 1110, the wiring is identical to yours when it was new.

 

[WagnMastr]

Thanks, michael.
My only problem is, I used all new wire when I rewired everything, so nothing from the bulkhead was being used. On my first pass when I emailed you, I did use mostly the original wiring. I thought, take the rat's nest out of the equation and wire it like the diagram from scratch. Additionally, I opted not to include the remote starter relay the second time around, because I wanted to take that out of the mix of potential issues, too.
I am going to the transmission shop this morning to try to get it fired up, and to look at the wiring carefully, though it had not been touched up until the tow truck came and it wouldn't fire up.
So, I think I must have left the key in the 'run' position (even though I feel relatively certain that the last thing I did for the night was turn it to 'off' so I could see if my wiring attempt still made the battery drain).
If I did, and I didn't use a fusible link, did I just fry something?

I will bring my camera too, and type up a from-to list of the new wiring I did.

 

[WagnMastr]

I found the problem and corrected it. A lot easier than I thought to find.
Apparently, when I pushed it out of the garage, one of the wires got hung on the steering column and when I turned the wheel, it unceremoniously yanked all the wires and the bulkhead plug off the connector.
Hooked everything backup, and charged the battery, and that was that.
Oh yeah, I went ahead and used the top left and right wires from the original harness, so the fusible link is in place.
Now, the mechanic can pull it into the bay, replace u-joints and center support bracket, and I will be one step closer to making it a driver.