68 beginner

holy cow....just restored...coil is hot with switch off..left side of fuse panel is dead...electric fan won't come on..starter doing nothing...jeez.. where to start....any suggestions...I have the driver panel loose thinking switch is bad...need to know what wire is hot to switch..have replaced all wiring accept for dash harness..bought one from person on line...guess i start over...what a mess...need to know which wires are hot to switch to start with...got to figure out why left fuse panel not hot..etc...thanks for any suggestions..Malcolm
ignition switch was new also...I wonder if the dash harness is for a 69 or something

CAMS69

Thats alot to digest.. there is a fusible link in the engine bay area.. Is this a new or used harness?

68 beginner

has new engine harness and new headlight harness....dash harness was a used harness from online.. i have a feeling that theharness wiring from firewall is not the same as fusebox under dash...may have to order a new dash harness to get the wiring the same..either way I sure hate to take all that apart again

CAMS69

when i did my frame off i used all new wiring...youre probably correct on the fault..

kanvasman

Probably the first thing you should do is get a wiring diagram. I prefer the large, laminated ones specific to each year. Easy and large enough to follow, color coded. They even have addional pages with options like a/c, cruise etc. First investment you should make. The go back over everything you did ( and why you changed things) one item at a time. It could be you shorted something out and that burned the fusible link and that shut down the fuse panel. Maybe even disconnect everything you did ( I know you hate to do that all over, but if you don't do this right you could burn up the car and/burn down the house. Start over with a plan and take your time. But you really need a wiring diagram, and the first thing that will tell you is what is supposed to be there and what bubba put there. Good luck.

TOM B1

I restored a 68, look at the plugs in the engine side of the fuse box, the 2 halves of the harness plugs sometimes does not install correctly even if the bolts are tight and you loose power to many switches including the ignition and headlights. some of the power wires bypass the fuse box and into the dash and this is why many early corvettes went up in flames. the main pos wire from the battery runs to the starter solenoid then to the ignition switch buzzer and alt regulator mounted on inside fender as there are many problems here, power wires run through these for whatever reason then into dash. and test for power to the engine compartment side of fuse box. I think I have this right as it was 30 years a go.

Rescue Rogers

Disconnect your battery so you dont have a fire or burn up wires. Make sure your engine ground straps are attached then I would disconnect the coiil wire. Get a good color coded wiring diagram and start tracing wires to make sure they are attached correctly. Once you do that you can figure out the fuse panel. Tackle it one issue at a time. If your engiine isnt grounded anything that needs power is going to find a ground somehow and it wont be pretty. Same with the dash wiring and the body grounds

The right side gets power through the llight switch I believe. I would have to look at it again. I know I had a bad wire on the back of my fuse panel and had to resolder it and found out alot about the wiring at that point. As to why the coil is hot with the key off is a mystery. I would connect that last and see if there is power to the wires with the key off, then figure out where the power is coming from.

68 beginner

heres an update...pulled apart the fuse box from engine side..cleaned all the old grease from both sides..put back together..all fuses are hot now...the batt..acc..and ign..connectors in the middle of the fusebox are all hot..I thought the batt..conector was only one hot all the time...I thought the acc. would be hot when you turn ignition key to accessory side of switch...the ignition connector would be hot when your switch is turned to ign..side without starting..is that correct?..PS...I have DOC Rebuild wiring diagram for two years

68 beginner

also the large Pink wire is hot and large black wire is hot going into switch....when I turn the switch to start,the solenoid wire goes hot but nothing happens at starter..I will have to go to starter to figure that one out...

68 beginner

another update....went ahead and ordered a new dash harness

Mr D.

As RR said don't use the battery to troubleshoot this, use a 9V battery you won't fry wires and can do voltage checks.