electrics working at 50%

[daviddisanto]

Hi, I have recently completed a restoration of my 1970 914, the wire harness was out of the car but reinstalled, the car runs great, the charging system works fine, I was careful to remove the new paint from under the ground connections, BUT, the headlights are dim, the tach runs about half speed, the wiper motor is very slow etc...whats up?

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

You still have some bad connections somewhere, it sounds like. It might be something that's common to all of the above, like the battery (+) cable or the battery ground cable.

Is anything at the rear of the car misbehaving, lights dim, etc.?

There is a power distribution point up above the fuse panel. There might be something up with that, either bad connections or something shorting. If it's shorting, it won't last long--the wires or the connections will heat up to the point where they start a fire. You probably don't want that to happen...

Any idea how many amps the car is pulling with the engine and all the rest of the systems turned off?

--DD