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Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Tom Tate
NOR'EASTER Online - July 2002

I heard someone once say " when you hear hoof beats, don't think zebras". Now I've been around the block a few times and I know what that means. Don't make things complicated, try to keep it simple. That's why when I'm looking at an automotive problem, I always try the simplest solution first. That's similar to always trying the cheapest fix first. If that doesn't work then move up to the next stage solution.

The trouble with that position is that sometimes the simplest solution doesn't just jump out at you. Let me share with you a recent example.

Enter a '64 356 C coupe with what has been described as a wiring problem. Actually it is not a problem, just some lights that don't work. Not a big deal, I have an electrical engineering background and have spent some time with 356 wiring. Of course we studied vacuum tubes when I was in school (my kids tell me that it was right after electricity was invented), a transistor was built in a little can and microchips were still an idea in someone's basement in Cambridge.

The small lights in the headlight fixture weren't working at all and one headlight was very dim. After 38 years it's common to have ground problems, fuse problems and just tired bulbs. I pulled the fuse cover to clean up the fuse contacts only to find a couple of loose wires that didn't seem to have a home and were taped alongside each other. Not a good sign but I'm not doing a chassis rewire, just a few bulbs, so I count those as unimportant and ignore them. With the fuses in good shape I proceed to the bulbs to check them out. Sure enough, one has a loose ground wire and the other has a spent bulb. Fixed in a jiffy, a victory before dinner and I've only been at it for an hour or so. During dinner it did occur to me that a 356 C shouldn't have the little lights in the housings because the turn signal fixture has two bulbs in it. One for the parking light and one for the turn signal.

So after dinner and dishes I'm back to Dr. Johnsons Restoration Guide book to confirm that the car has lights where there shouldn't be lights and no lights where there should be lights. The mark of a "turkey repair" if there ever was one. I pull the headlight housings and inspect the wiring to the bogus parking lights. Yep, it's clear speaker wire from the '70's. Another bad sign but I've seen worse, so I proceed to remove the lenses on the turn signals. As expected the parking light bulbs are missing. Seems that the previous owner was trying to make the '64 look older, figure that out, I can't. With the correct bulbs in place it's starting to look like the C car that it really is. After removing the fixtures and small bulbs from the headlight bucket I replace them with a small piece of cardboard painted silver. I'm not making this up, that's the way it was done in '64 and '65. Remember that this was a small company that used a lot of parts from outside vendors. If the headlights in a VW bus look familiar, there's a reason.

There's only one problem remaining and I'm on a roll so this should be done before the 11:00 pm news. The right headlight just glows on both high and low beam. Easily diagnosed as a bad ground since it actually works. Just to make sure I pull the headlight and hook it to a battery that is sitting on the bench being charged. It burns bright on both circuits so I'm closing in on the problem. I unbolt the ground leads from inside the trunk after the jack and spare are removed. After the surfaces are cleaned and bolted back up I'm done right? Wrong! I still have a glow not a light on the right side. I go back to the fuse box with a meter and check all the connections. There's 6 volts everywhere there is supposed to be 6 volts. I don't like the look of those wires with the blue tape on them (the Germans never used blue painters tape) but they don't seem to be part of the problem. I pull the light flash relay to test it and it clicks just fine. That shouldn't have anything to do with it anyway but by now I've missed the news and I'm checking everything. The voltage at the light is at 6 but the light looks like 3 volts. This problem has gotten by me this day but the fight isn't over.

The following night after much thought I decide to recheck every connection. It only takes an hour and there's nothing but reruns on TV anyway. Still no solution! In desperation I disconnect the other headlight and swap them. The left headlight fixture works just fine on the right side. Wait a minute, I checked that right side bulb two days ago and it worked just fine. A close look reveals that the turkey that last had his hands on this light had put in a 12 volt sealed beam instead of 6 volt. When I checked it on the bench I had wired it to a 12-volt battery without thinking so that it looked just fine. What we used to call compensating errors.

They're not all easy problems that I've made difficult however. As I was sitting in the driver’s seat checking the lights I noticed that the gas gauge was not showing any signs of life. That's not a big deal for a 356 owner because all the cars have a reserve position on the fuel valve. Common practice years ago was to drive the cars until they started to sputter and then just turn the valve to reserve. The gas would normally get back to the engine before you even had to downshift. Only then would you start to look for a gas station. But gauges are good and if you're gonna have 'em they might as well work.

Let's see I already cleaned up the fuses. I guess I could pull the multi-function instrument out of the dash and try a little 6 volt juice to the back of the gauge. But there are two spin on nuts that hold the instrument in place, two lights to back light the face, two other sets of leads for oil temp and the warning bulbs for handbrake, generator, and oil pressure. By the time I get it out I've got a basket of snakes with tape around their necks staring up from a big hole in the dash. No, the easier path would be to look at the wires going to the tank itself. These tank-sending units came two ways. One was on the top of the tank, the other was on the bottom. On the top is good, on the bottom is bad. Do I feel lucky? I pull up the plastic trunk mat to see a top mounted sending unit with the two wires lying nearby. Not connected to the unit, just lying nearby. Good news, this could be horses that I hear. I plug in the wires and if by magic a half tank of gas appears on the gauge. Some day’s things just go your way.

Keep the faith.

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region