The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay fried all the ignition system wiring

i really hope someone can help out here. i have a 57 3200 with a 235 6cyl. the truck is bone stock and very original. so here's the deal. first off i do not have a key to the truck as the previous owner wired a toggle switch off of the ignition switch (i imagine they lost the key at some point). so to start the truck you just flip the toggle forward and hit the floor starter button. this past weekend i was working under the hood and decided to leave the toggle forward so i could listen to the radio while i worked. shortly after i noticed the wires to the coil and distributer starting to smoke. i quickly turned the switch off but the damage was done. most of the wires in the iginition system were fried. i have since ordered a new harness from The Car and Truck Shop in Orange County CA, but my question is why did this happen? i definitely don't want it to happen again. any help is much appreciated.
-Mark

Points were probably closed.

Bill,
can you please give me a brief explanation. all my experience is with 60's muscle cars that all had electronic distributors. thanks.

so you're saying when the points are closed and i leave the ignition "on" it's sending the current directly to ground thus frying the system?

you got it surfer, the closed points complete a circuit the same as if you made a direct connection between the battery posts - that's why they started with the "accessory" position on the ign sw, so you could listen to the radio without the engine running you should also note that the coil might have been damaged

Bill

thanks Bill. after i turned the switch off i did take off the cap and noticed the points were fried. i hear ya on the coil thing too, just one more item to add to the list...along with a key/tumbler setup. i figured with a new harness i should do it right the first time. oh well, it's a great learning process. gotta love these old trucks.

The fact that the ignition was left on with the points closed should have not caused all of your wires to burn. It will discharge a battery in a hurry, but I think you had other problems. I made a lot of service calls 50 years ago to people who had left their ignition on and the battery was dead It didn't do the points and coil any good, but that was about the extent of it. If a regulator sticks, it will burn wires. You still have a circuit with the battery and the generator tries to "motor" and of course can't. This will cause wires to burn.

You probably didn't have a resistor wired in the system. The combination of the switch left on & no resistor is what caused the wires to burn. You should never leave the ignition on with out the engine running on any vehicle but moreso on one with points.

there is a resistor in the circuit. i belive the flow goes from the ignition switch to the rigged up toggle swith to the resistor and then to the coil. all of those wires are in bad shape from overheating. i received the new wiring harness today and with the 3 day weekend coming up i know what's in store for me. the good thing is that the truck is very original so this shouldn't be a difficult process, just timing consuming. it will be nice to know all the wires are much newer than 1957.