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Sudden Electrical Problems all Related? 444-544 1962

Had the 544 running for a couple months and put maybe a hundred miles on it and electrically almost everything was working. Decided time to get climate control sorted. Blower worked on both speeds, but both cables were loose at dash control end, so got them tightened and even got coolant valve freed up. Air dist. box door works great. But then after a couple days of goodness the blower motor started screaming. Took it apart and re-lubed the old “bearings”. (Ordered the ball bearing replacements but wanted to see if could save the original ones for a while).
All reinstalled but now blower fan motor only has the high-speed. No 1/2 speed when switch all out.
Problem #1- Is there a trick to how it goes together for the low speed to work?
My first though was a bad connection and the ground wire for blower was loose but cleaning/ tightening all the connectors around fan motor didn’t help the issue... no low speed.
Problem #2-While looking around saw instrument panel lights don’t work now (the green background glow is gone, but the warning lights all work.) then noticed parking lights and tail lights inop. Everything else seems ok. Since I was into it I kept cleaning connections at fuse block. Pretty bad, but only things not working are all on fuse #3. Tried swapping fuses around and cleaning them, still nothing on that one fuse.
Note: accidentally swapped wires around and had the dash lights/parking lights on #2 and they all worked- just not at right times (!) oops - but at least I saw everything does indeed light up so it’s not the bulbs...
Could it be that one set of fuse block posts is just “bad”? Replace the fuse box?
Should I totally remove and clean it more “aggressively”?








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    Sudden Electrical Problems all Related? 444-544 1962

    Phil;

    I'm having trouble following your description of symptoms...so my advice will be in general: Retrace your steps and areas where you changed things...9 out 10 times the problems will be where you disturbed things...clean all connections in sight and check for voltage drops with a DVM (under Load!...voltage drops do not occur when drawing no current!) Check and sort one circuit and issue at a time...divide and conquer!

    P1: Referring to Wiring Diag (http://www.sw-em.com/544%20Wiring%20Diagram.jpg ) it looks like for 12v 544, they use a dropping resistor to get the low speed. If any connection along the way to Resistor (or R itself) is open, NO slow speed will result...

    P2: Inst Lighting goes through Fuse 3 and Variable control. (See: http://www.sw-em.com/Intermittent_Variable_Instrument_Lighting.htm)

    P3: ?

    Good Hunting!








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      Sudden Electrical Problems all Related? 444-544 1962

      Yes that was it. The wire to fuse #3 was loose but at the light switch, so the whole circuit into the block was not getting power.
      Sorry for lumping so much in my initial question but was really just the 2 things, the lights and the blower fan motor that were my questions... and now lights are all working again, and the low-speed on the blower even seems to be trying to work now, so I think the other reply about a “dead spot” in the switch might be on to something, because it seems like more I work it, the better it gets. I didn’t change anything on that circuit at all - just worked the switch a few more times and it started whirring.
      Thanks everyone for the help!








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    Sudden Electrical Problems all Related? 444-544 1962

    Several months ago I had a similar problem with my 122, but can't remember the exact details by now. As I recall, one fuse holder would show continuity (with a meter) sometimes & sometimes it would not. I ended up installing another fuse block which solved the problem.







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