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Newbie - Just brought this baby home - Printable Version

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Newbie - Just brought this baby home - sonicboom - 01-30-2019

Hi Y'all,

Just found this group...glad to be part of the Mach 1 family.  Just purchased a 1973 H-Code Mach 1 last week and have been doing some research on what's out there...

This is a locally owned car and I'm the 3rd owner...  It has 46,861 miles on it and looks to be in great shape.  Is been sitting in a garage until 2001 with the original owner.  His son then had it for a while and then the guy I got it from last week had it for about a year and is been sitting.  Engine sounds great.  Rear drive shaft cause it to shake a little, but otherwise, seems to be mechanically and cosmetically pretty good.

Even have the original title to the car (the 2nd owner kept the original title) and all the paperwork including the window sticker...wish Mustangs still cost this much today :-)

Spent a day cleaning the engine and interior...and will start to tackle it one thing at a time.

Did run into a problem...trying to figure out why the instrument panel/radio/headlight not working...check the fuse, seems to ok. not sure if the contact in the fusebox is dirty or what.  can't find anything online on what to look for in trying to trouble shoot that

Looking forward to bringing this baby back to is original beauty!


RE: Newbie - Just brought this baby home - Mustangmike - 01-30-2019

Welcome to the site.  It looks like you found a pretty solid, low mileage and mostly original car. Except for the tears in the driver's seat the interior looks to be in really good shape. By the looks of the faded paint the car looks like it had spent it life in a dry climate and should be an easy restoration back to original.

In regards to the electrical problem did you use a test light to check the fuses?  Sometimes it is difficult to tell if the fuses are blown by visual inspection.   If you have a test light, place the pointer at the end of each fuse.  The test light should light up when you touch each end of the fuse.  If it only lights up on one side then you have a bad fuse.  You may have to turn your key one click to the right for this test so there is power.  I would start with testing the fuses first. If your fuses are good, you will have to see if you have power going to the components that are not working. This can be done with a test light as well. Other possibilities are dead bulbs, poor connections, or even possibly a grounding issue.  Once again, I would start with the fuse box to rule out that out first.  You didn't mention if your windshield wipers work?

Mike


RE: Newbie - Just brought this baby home - sonicboom - 01-31-2019

Thanks mike, I will try that...the wipers, radio, headlight, heat/air/fan...none of those work, which from what I read is all tied to that one fuse.  I looked online at CJ and is strange that their fuse kit only include the 2amp for that fuse and not a 4amp...


RE: Newbie - Just brought this baby home - Mustangmike - 01-31-2019

(01-31-2019, 06:11 AM)sonicboom Wrote: Thanks mike, I will try that...the wipers, radio, headlight, heat/air/fan...none of those work, which from what I read is all tied to that one fuse.  I looked online at CJ and is strange that their fuse kit only include the 2amp for that fuse and not a 4amp...

Definitely sounds like a fuse box issue since nothing seems to be working. You may have to pull the fuses and inspect the fuse box contacts. They may need to be cleaned up and new fuses put in. It is not uncommon to have corrosion on the contacts where the fuses push into. It can be a little tedious cleaning them but it can be done with a little patience. I am not so familiar with the 71-73 Mustangs but I thought the correct fuse for the switched accessories and headlights is a 14A.  Let me know how you make out with testing the fuses.


RE: Newbie - Just brought this baby home - JTS71 Mach1 - 01-31-2019

Welcome, looks Pretty Good for 46 year old. Got all the Right Bumps, in all the Right Places. LOL!  Laughing The back of the fuse box mates with the underhood harness, and the connections are prone to corrosion damage etc. This is where all the main power comes in from the battery, and feeds the entire car so you may have a issue where the two halves come together? Hope it helps. 

JTS


RE: Newbie - Just brought this baby home - Steven Harris - 02-03-2019

Welcome!

Very nice find.

It sounds like you have been given good advice on your electrical problem.  Using either a meter or a simple 12V test light you should be able to test wires, fuse ends, etc. and come up with the problem.

Thanks for joining and thanks for sharing the pictures.


RE: Newbie - Just brought this baby home - Rare Pony - 01-19-2020

Welcome to the site from Virginia.  Looks like a solid 73. Good tips on the electrical system. I remember having to clean the contacts on my fuse block on my 73 convertible. Hopefully that will work for you too.


RE: Newbie - Just brought this baby home - Mustangmike - 01-20-2020

I am glad to see this thread pop up again.  Sonic Boom, just curious if you where you able to fix the electrical problem? 

Mike