first nova 1978 have questions

Okay, but the bulbs will still light with a bad ground. A dual filament bulb will do weird things to the circuit if the ground is bad. It seeks a ground and will actually travel through the other filament in the lamp to find one. When this happens one or both of the circuits can be affected. A visual inspection of the ground tabs, the black wires in the front and rear harness and the harness attaching points to the body all need to be looked at. The attaching points to the body should be removed, cleaned and reinstalled.
 
Okthe rear harness has the main ground but it follows thru the interior where r the main grounds located for the bulbs or are you referring to the main ground for the battery
 
The rear harness should have a body ground on the trunk lower latch support. It is on the passengers side and just clips into a slot.
 
OK I've seen that wire but I believe my connector is a bit rusted .I'm clean it and get back to you
 
Should be black

rearlightharnessground2.jpg


rearlightharnessground1.jpg
 
Yes I found it I changed the wire and re grounded it and the same results. So I unpluged the main ground and the rear lights didn't blink but he lic plate light contineued to blink
 
The plate lamp circuit is grounded on the deck lid. Remove and clean the area well. A star washer should be used under the ground connections. It cuts through the paint and grounds to bare metal.

trunkwiringaccess.jpg


Has your 78 been repainted? Sometimes if a complete disassembly is done the grounds are not installed properly on the newly painted surfaces.
The ground cable from the battery goes to the engine and a smaller one to the fender. Another ground strap from the engine to the firewall is also installed at the factory. I will take a look at the front harness today and see how many ground locations it has.
 
From what I can tell its the original paint . I'm going to take the ground off the lic plate light removing it from connection and try the blinker then.also clean as well I will post my results
 
I recleaned the lic plate ground same results. So changerldbthe ground to the bumper biggest piece of metal I could find and same results Ifound a harness next to the drivers trunk hinge. So I unplugged it and tried the blinkers and the front ones behaved the same when I signaled right the both came on but faint
 
True which ground could it be when I unplugged the resr end harness for the tail lights I got the same results could it be rhs batteries ground
 
The ground on the front fender from the battery is important, it ties the battery directly to the body. The large battery ground attached to the engine is somewhat isolated from the body by the motor mounts. The front lighting harness ground is through the black wire on the drivers side head lamp plug to the core support. Check that connection on the core support and make sure the second black wire on the plug that goes into the harness is still attached. All the grounds in the harness hook into this one line, there are several soldered and crimped connections in the harness that tie them all together. The right headlamp is grounded separately to the core support. with all the weird things your lighting circuits are doing it just has to be a bad ground connection somewhere.
 
So check the battery ground and the drivers ground on the headlight. I didn't quite understand where you said the passengers side is grounded or ItS rounded by the drivers headlight
 
The front light harness is grounded to the core support next to the drivers side headlight. The head light plug has two black wires in it. One is fastened by a sheet metal to the core support, the other into the front harness for the park/turn sockets. The right head lamp has its own ground to the core support.
 
So I redid the batteries ground and the same results when I signal to the right everything works as it should when I signal to the left everything blinks but this time the interior dash signal right bulb blinks weither I'm signalling left or right. But when I turn the headlights on the signals Dont work period. I found the head light ground and it looks like I have to remove the evaporator to get to it so when I do get to it I'm going to relocate it to a more accessible spot for future reference
 
cnova78 said:
So I redid the batteries ground and the same results when I signal to the right everything works as it should when I signal to the left everything blinks but this time the interior dash signal right bulb blinks weither I'm signalling left or right. But when I turn the headlights on the signals Dont work period.
Click to expand...
This leads me to believe it is a ground issue. Usually only a bad ground will affect multiple circuits in this manner.
I found the head light ground and it looks like I have to remove the evaporator to get to it so when I do get to it I'm going to relocate it to a more accessible spot for future reference
Click to expand...
The The harness ground should not be behind anything. From the factory it is located above the head lamp opening in the core support towards the fender.

It may be necessary to remove the horn, but that is only one bolt.

These photos may help. First one is of the ground in my car, second is from a core support removed from a 78 Nova.

headlampground2.jpg


headlampground1.jpg
 
OK I'm look into it. I was thinking with other cars when the alternator is bad or belts are loose the rest of the cars electronic s go wacko. My salt is one and has been on the whole time and the belts are old do you think that could be causing this.

So I turn the head lights on and the front passenger blinker doesn't come on and the right dash blinker light comes on with the lights
 
Last edited:
So I had a friend come look at my blinker issue we went out side and they all worked as should except when I turn the head lights. So I let them run will and the blinker departed to speed up and we are back tht square one . When I shift left everything blanks. So I looked under the dash and I found a 33 wire harness yellow black and Greg does the go on the steering column switch
 
Here's the up date I cleaned the ground by the drivers head light unplugged and I get this from the . Blinkers. When the head lights are on the same no blinkers . When I signal right no problems when I signal left they all blink but the front passgeners blinker.. but when I turn the hazards on the ball blink but the front passenger so I'm thinking that the bulb with the issue
 
So I noticed when I turn my headlights on and turn the high beams on the drivers head light didn't work could that be my problem
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top