1949 Cadillac 62 Electric/charging issues

[bjm1983]

I purchased my 1949 Cadillac Series 62 convertible almost two years ago and have had electric/charging/starting issues ever since. When I first purchased it, replaced battery and everything seemed well. Then after driving it for about 20 minutes and stopping, it failed to start and I figured vapor lock. The previous owner had installed an electric fuel pump that when into the manual fuel pump before the carb. I ran rubber fuel line from electric fuel pump directly into carb and it seemed to solve the vapor lock issue.

All power windows/convertible top worked and then one day the passenger side window wouldn’t go down. Turn signals and brake lights stopped working although the headlights worked. Radio worked (I recently had it rebuilt with an MP3 port that comes from an Alexa Auto Bluetooth that runs off a separate 12 volt charger I keep in the glove box.

After driving only a mile from home, the radio totally quit and within 3 minutes the car died and would not turn over. I had someone jump me. It has sat idle in the garage for the last month.

Today I looked at the old 6 volt turn signal flasher and found that the fuse holder to it had a loose connection. I replaced. Now on a partially charged battery, I started the car and the turn signals flashed intermittently. The left one would blink normally and then stop after about 10 seconds. If I hit the right signal, it too would flash but not steady (like it had a short). Both turn signal indicators on the dash would flash at the same time and then go out. But now the power window started working again!   Thinking I had one faulty turn signal bulb, I replaced and started the car. This time none of the turn signals worked and all the power windows were not operating correctly. As I would hit the window switches, headlights would dim until I quit using the switch. Then, the car died.

It would seem to me that the car is not charging at idle and I think that there is just not enough voltage to operate windows and turn signals if it is not charging correctly.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I should point out that this is a 6 volt negative ground system and the battery isn’t even two years old. I don’t have any experience at 6 volt cars, but recently converted an old 6 volt tractor to 12 volts and have had no issues with that since. Thanks for any assistance.

[Alan Harris CLC#1513]

Not to be snotty about it, but this is not a tractor. I guarantee that converting this car to 12 volts will only add to your list of problems.

The car not charging at idle is normal. Generators do not charge at idle.

1949 still used cloth covered wiring. How does yours look? If the insulation is crumbling, you need to go through it all to look for problems.

[35-709]

Agreed. 
Your wiring needs a thorough going over.  Both your signal indicators on the dash flashing at the same time sounds like a ground issue.  Check all of your electrical connections, pay particular attention that any and all of your grounds are all clean and tight --- good grounds are especially important with 6 volt systems.  Very often the wiring insulation that old (as Alan Harris mentioned) is brittle and comes off the wiring, leaving bare areas which become perfect places for shorts to occur.
 
If you rev the engine slightly off-idle, does your ammeter indicate the generator is charging?  If not, I would take both the generator and the regulator to an auto electric shop and have them tested together.

[Jay Friedman]

I agree with everything Alan and G Newcombe wrote.  It sounds in general that you may have some sort of charging  and grounding problem. 

I would add that I think you should pay particular attention to the grounding of the starter motor.  Make sure the negative ground strap (cable) is clean at both ends and where it is bolted to the frame halfway along its length.  Also that the bolt and the spot on the frame it is bolted to is clean.  You might want to remove the starter to make sure the bolts holding the starter to the motor, the surface of the starter touching the motor as well as the adjacent surface on the motor are free of paint and clean. 

In addition, make sure the 2 small ground straps are connected from the back of each cylinder head to the adjacent firewall.

You can also add a second ground strap to the other end of the starter.  Along with another guy I wrote an article on how to do it.  Email me at jaysfriedman@yahoo.com and I'll attach the article to a return email.

On my own 6 volt '49, if the voltage is a bit low for any reason, the turn signals don't work well.  This may be all that is wrong with your turn signals, so check everything out as the previous posters suggested.