This was mounted on the core support of a 54 caddy that's in my shop. The wire wasn't attatched to anything.
Are you kidding??? There was an identical question about a mystery box under the hood of a caddy posted yesterday http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=432515 Look there, as there are already dozens of answers, your box looks different, but there are lots of possibilities, like garage door openers, radio reverbs, or time machine flux capacitors.
Nope. That looks like a transistorized capacitive-discharge ignition box, like what were available in the late '60s to the early '80s. Used to have one that was built in Grand Junction, Colorado that looked a lot like this one. It was built by Delta Electronics. They also had a line of tachometers at the time, too.
Thanks, but I am not kidding. That box looks nothing like this one, so probably served a completely different purpose. And honestly I don't have time to read every post on the hamb so I did not see that thread.
I agree with those who think it's a transistor ignition, like a capacitive-discharge type. A unit like that would be an aftermarket add-on, using the stock points for switching, and probably was a decent upgrade, as opposed to the gas saver accessories on the market back then.
It looks like a power supply of some sort. ...su****iously like an AC inverter, as if someone wanted to have an AC powered device ran off the cars DC system...maybe one of those funky record players from the sixties and seventies? If you look closely, the three poles (one on each transistor) are tied together as a common. The capacitor might be used in conjunction with the resistors to create steps (or pulses) to create an AC sinewave.
This is most likely right. The circuit and parts do not look like a CD ignition...if you want to see more about the Delta ignition look on my page about it http://www.selectric.org/delta/index.html
I dunno, somewhere I have an electronic ignition my grandfather used on his '59 Buick and it doesn't look a whole lot different from that.
The circuitry probably looks quite a bit different. I guess I'll ask my brother.....he understands this stuff
Quite possibly an anti theft device. Wired directly to the body metal and when anyone touched the car they got shocked!!! Tell your insurance company....you should be en***led to a discount.
Sorry Man, I wasn't trying to kill your thread, I just found it quite ironic, 2 threads about mystery elucktronuks boxes being under the hood of old caddys....within a day of each other. I was sniffin at your 57 though... Any more pictures of it or the 390 mill?
No problem. I'll see if I can get some more pics up soon. I need to do some painting first. The guy who built the 390 didn't paint it very well so it started to rust from sitting.