Yesterday while changing the lights in the dash on my '63 Merc, I tried to disconnect the stator wire for the alternator gauge at the junction. After much pulling and prying it came apart but it now appears to be broken. My question is do I need to replace the whole wire or can I just splice it back. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
I'll bet it wasn't broken before you pulled and pryed! The wire won't know it's spliced if you do it right.
Your right... it had existed for 50 years without a problem until I needed it to come apart. If it had only pulled apart without such an argument it wouldn't have been harmed... Now I need to fix it to last another 50. It has 12 dash lights including the turn signals and high beam indicator and all but 5 were burnt out or not working. Plan on using leds to replace the old bulbs. Found them on Reflective Illumination for under $2 a bulb.
Don't use the LEDs for every replacement. For the turn signals, that may result in the signals blinking slower, maybe much slower; the existing lights are part of the load. If you have a 'charge' light, a LED won't present enough load to the regulator and the regulator may not allow charging. The rest can be replaced with LEDs, but you'll loose some of the ability to dim the dash lights.
Thanks for the advice. I still have 3 old 1157's on each turn signal so I think that's probably enough load I will put in a new flasher while I have the dash out though. I am going to try and find a wire plug block of some sort to put all the lights on to ease the installation. The high beam indicator was actually working but the lens was so burnt it couldn't be seen.
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