'56 wagon dies after driving 10 miles. Looking for similar experiences...

[astroracer]

Not Pro Touring but electrical is electrical...My recently acquired '56 Chevy Wagon. 350 sbc, starts and runs fine. AAW wiring harness. 1st hint. Previous installer with ZERO talent for doing wiring...
Started out for a car show this morning. Got about 10 miles and the car shuts off. Dead, nothing. No fuel pump, nothing.
Called AAA (again) and had it roll backed home. Push it in the garage and, just for grins, I hit the key... FIRES RIGHT UP!
So, I know I have a bad connection some where that is getting hot... Tomorrow I will be getting under the car to check the solenoid and ground connections. Any suggestions? I am to the point where I am going to rebuild the entire start and charging harnesses.
This is what I found last week while chasing gremlins.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/06/ry3D400-1.jpg
Cutting it apart found this.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2014/06/ry3D400-2.jpg
So this is what I am dealing with. I figure the only way to make this right is to redo everything.
Mark

[72BBSwinger]

What ignition system? Bad coil connections and or leaking coils can wreak havoc. Also if its an HEI check the "resistor" wire it may have on its hot side. Fuseable links are also notorious for failing when warm then fixing themselves after cooldown.

[astroracer]

Thank You Sir.
I don't think it's ignition. It's bigger then that. When the car died yesterday there was no power to anything. It was completely dead. If there is power the fuel pump will start when I turn the key to run. Yesterday that was dead also. The first thing I am checking today is battery cables and grounds. Its got to be something along those lines to kill the power like that... After it cooled off it fired right up...
Thanks
Mark

[astroracer]

Okay, I've been busy... Rewired the whole front of the car and made a lot of changes.
The only issue I have is the turn signal indicators in the dash. I pulled the cluster to replace a dead LED for the left turn signal. I couldn't find the exact same LED so I picked up two at Radio Shack. I replaced both turn signal indicators and they blink opposite. Right indicator blinks for left turn and vice-versa...
The ONLY difference I can see is in the LED's. The ones I replaced had no resistors. The ones I just put in do.
They are wired to the correct leads... Left to left, right to right.
I wired the input to the red lead and the ground is wired to the side with the resistor. This was Thursday...

This morning I switched polarity on the LED's and now neither of them work so that tells me they were wired correctly (polarity wise) to begin with...
Any ideas? I am at a loss as to where to go from here. Unless I switch the left for right and right for left on the LED's... Not something I really want to do...
Mark

[72BBSwinger]

Im at a loss on that one, its probably a simple fix lol! Try a different flasher? Is the flasher setup for LED's?

[astroracer]

Im at a loss on that one, its probably a simple fix lol! Try a different flasher? Is the flasher setup for LED's?

You were right! Very simple fix. I emailed Tony Candela this morning and he had me check all of the connectors... Yea, that simple... The dash harness had the left/right signal wires reversed in the connector. I swapped the wires in the cluster connector and everything works great! After I swapped the polarity BACK to the correct leads of course...
Finally, I am able to relax on this car a bit. The wiring is fixed, the back up lights and all of the turn signals work and it fires right up when I hit the key!
I redid the N/S switch, removing the wires from a switch down on the trans to a new switch I installed on the shifter. It starts every time now but I need to adjust the micro-switch. It starts fine in Park but it also starts in Reverse and not in neutral. The switch has a long lever arm. I need it to be about a 1/4" shorter. Has anyone re-bent one of these arms? I have looked for a switch with a shorter arm but no luck so far.
Mark