dear chevelle.com members; i have a 1970 396 ss chevelle. i recently reinstalled my engine and harnesses.everything except the amp gauge was working on the dash when i disassembled the car.i installed a brand new printed circuit and the amp gauge is now working. the car has a factory tach, clock and all gauges. there are no idiot lights. i re-installed the original dash harness because it was in great shape. i installed brand new engine and forward harnesses. i am having an electrical issue and i wonder if anyone can assist me. when i turn on the key to get power to the dash, all of the gauges are lighting up fine,but i cannot get the blower motor working or the glove box light. both were working before disassembly. i looked under the dash while the car was in the dark and the heater box resistor was very hot and glowing orange. i recently cleaned up a remanufactured windsheild washer motor and installed it. the threaded screw hole for the motor ground strap is somewhat stripped out. could this be the problem or do i need to look elsewhere? regards, dave

by the way, the windsheild wiper motor and pump appears to be working fine.

Can't offer a lot of help but the stripped ground screw should not cause an over current, glowing resistor, condition. Disconnect the heater blower to start and see what you have. Does the wiper motor work?

the threaded screw hole for the motor ground strap is somewhat stripped out. could this be the problem or do i need to look elsewhere? regards, dave
You need to look elsewhere. Something in the blower motor circuit must be shorted to ground if the resistor is glowing. Do you have the proper size fuse on that circuit? Did the car ever have A/C?

For the glove box light, check to see if it has power, the bulb is good and has a good ground.

If you don't have one, get a multi-meter. The price can vary ( from really cheap to far from cheap ), but they are invaluable when doing eletrical work such as you are doing. Like posted earlier, the glove box light is simply verifying bulb, ground, and power. The power need to be 12volt constant for the light to work with the key off ... Trace the wires and/or use the meter to test continuity. Fan motors work by altering resistance, but you don't want to see a glowing red anywhere electrical. That's why fuses will blow in fused circuits. When no fuse, you might produce excessive heat. Test the motor and test the switch and use the meter to check for short by testing power wire / ground continuity ... There shouldn't be any. Lastly, anytime you move/replace multiple wire, watch for pinching wires and make sure you have grommets on wires going through firewall ...

hi again; thanks for answering. i took a length of 12 ga. wire last night and ran it directly from the blower motor to the positive side of the battery. the motor did not work. could that mean a bad motor or an improperly grounded motor? the entire heater box assembly and the box on the engine side are steel. how do you properly ground a blower motor? i thought that with all of the painting ,the new firewall pad and heater box gaskets that i installed during the resto, that there possibly might not be enough bare metal in the critical places for a ground. i thought that just the screws threading though the holes would give me the ground.



a few people told me that the resistor in the heater box is supposed to get warm,but because of the air flow from a properly working blower motor,it would not get hot enough to glow orange. i will check the fuse,but i didnt pull out any of the fuses during the resto. the car never had factory air,but it did have a sears aftermarket system installed since 1975. i removed the whole air-conditioning system and drove the car for 3 months without incidence before disassembly.



during disassembly of the car,i found that they were not ground straps from the body to the motor or the frame to the body. the car was operating fine for 35 + years this way.the car has been untouched since 1975. i didnt find any provisions or holes in the firewall for ground straps either. i have been talking to a few people this summer and some had ground straps on their 1970 cars and some didnt