Time to get ill...My 72'

[DJ Dark Laboe]

alright, it's time to get dirty. Got my 72' M&M Caddy parked, registration tomorrow, then elbow deep in the build. I'll be posting everything here for public scrutiny(Misery LOVES company).

First off, the easy stuff. The 72' came with a flip out touch screen stereo and a sub. I have a hifonics zeus amp I threw in but it needs to be trouble shooted and/or shot. If anyone has any experience here I'd love the input. I'm almost a noob at everything. The amp is giving me a protect signal and it also looks like the remote wire is hooked up direct, cause the protect on the amp never shuts off. So should I wire toward the fuse box? or splice somewhere under the dash? I was thinking the dash but it might be easier just to stuff the wire behind a fuse.

Second, the headlights are pretty crappy at night, I was thinking of updating to some projecters or something abnoxious like that. anyone know where I can find some that fit? I'm thinking of replacing all four and rewiring so that each has hi/lo, would that be too crazy bright? hmmm....

[Apostle]

OK kiddo...1st off, if you go slapping high draw electronics on a car of that vintage, you are just asking for trouble if you don't setup the electric system to handle it first. Your coach has multiple fusible links provided by M/M when built for coach/ambulance accessories. Don't overload the fuse parameters and you can use these as a good start to your system without butchering your stock wiring. Just be sure where and what they go to before tying in to them. If you think you are going to just slap on some projector headlights and go down the road lighting up your highway to hell, you might get surprised by a lovely dash fire to the left of your steering wheel where your headlamp switch USED to be. The stock switch in that coach was not made to handle the high amperage of projector lights...it will have to be upgraded or a ballast resistor unit put in with your lights. Most coaches and ambulances came with a higher output alternator but upgrading to a more stable "modern" unit would also be a wise choice if/when adding them there electronic goodies. Take your time and do your research when working on these cars...they are a different breed altogether. Good luck and welcome to the club.

[DJ Dark Laboe]

cool, yeah the alternator was updated in '11 and is quite strong. the previous owner had tons of lights blinking all around but stripped em out and left me just a couple of switches on the dash and a decent sound system. Couldn't find any 5.75" projectors and I'm not all balls deep about tracking some down. found these though, the wife likes em.. what do you think?:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-75-Halogen-Semi-Sealed-H4-Halo-Angel-Eye-Headlight-Conversion-w-Bulbs-buick-/330913141681?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Year%3A1972|Make%3ACadillac&hash=item4d0bf5d3b1&vxp=mtr

also as far as the rest of the electrical system goes, yeah I feel you. got my copy of the shop manual on deck to cross check specs before I go all master shredder on anything... but wait! LASERS!!! haha

thanks for the heads up

[Apostle]

The point I was aiming to get across is that there is additional wiring in that coach that is not factory. It was added as the coach was being fabricated by the coachbuilder. This wiring will not be in your standard Haynes or Chilton shop manuals....A M/M commercial chassis diagram is what you would want to start with, and many of those were different as well "being custom ordered and hand fabbed at that"....and who knows how FUBAR any of it is, if it was already molested by the previous owner. http://www.100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1970/cad72.htm Some info to get you started learning what you actually have. Good luck!

[DJ Dark Laboe]

ooohh... thanks again.
Yeah the manual I got is the factory shop manual for '72 so I see now what you mean. I got a better look underneath some of the carpet and under the dash today and the only funny stuff I really could spot right off was the two switches left over that go nowhere and the stereo wiring. Also I got a mysterious yellow wire hanging from behind the seats that looks like it runs under the rollers to the blower in the back. It was sitting where the amp used to be that the owner took out right near where the amp was grounded so I'm assuming it's a ground. I'll test this weekend.
Talked to the previous owner again earlier today and he said he was the third owner. Second couldn't have put it through too much cause the odometer reads 59658. Before that was the Groman Mortuary, location unknown. As for all the blinky lights he said they were mostly purple LED strobes. so not much draw and hence less molestation I can assume.

in other news, the subwoofer sounds great and really made "Raining Blood" scare away some four legged creatures.

[Psychoholic]

Man, if you've got the 72 shop manual (I have a '72 M-M as well), can you snap a pic of how the rear end is put together and post it for me?

[DJ Dark Laboe]

absolutely, I can do you one better and show you where I downloaded it from for free:

http://www.ulozto.net/xTTz3Xg/1972-cadillac-shop-manual-pdf

click the yellow 'download' button then on the next page enter the human verification and yellow button again. Presto! it's like 800+ pages so it took me a little bit but it's all there. looking for a good all in one picture, I'll post it when I get find it. Anything specific you're looking for?

[Psychoholic]

KICK FUCKING ASS! I left my original shop manual in the hatch of an '86 Camaro that got repo'd 14 years ago (wasn't mine).

[sgath92]

The point I was aiming to get across is that there is additional wiring in that coach that is not factory. It was added as the coach was being fabricated by the coachbuilder. This wiring will not be in your standard Haynes or Chilton shop manuals....A M/M commercial chassis diagram is what you would want to start with, and many of those were different as well "being custom ordered and hand fabbed at that"....and who knows how FUBAR any of it is, if it was already molested by the previous owner. http://www.100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1970/cad72.htm Some info to get you started learning what you actually have. Good luck!

Nothing high draw should go through a switch anyway, when in doubt: run a relay.



The pins on the relay are #'d, numbers correspond to the above. IDK why they go with 30, 87, etc instead of 1-4.

[DJ Dark Laboe]

^^ Thanks for that. I came to terms that I know almost nothing about the recent history of the car and how much/little it was cared for. So rather than rely on my own shallow knowledge of the guts I dropped it off at a shop a friend of mine recommended. Not being familiar with the shop myself I drove to it reluctantly but was lamented to find that there was at least one gear head there that I knew and the lot was like a classic car show. Seems this is where the local bad asses go for some special treatment.

They're gonna give the '72 a good run through, fix the fuel gauge (might be the float getting stuck cause it seems to work intermittently), and replace the A/C condenser.

Then if all else is well, it's off to paint. I can't wait!