This is on a 1955 S88. I have owned the car about 6 weeks, been going thru items, trying to redo/undo any past oddities. For example, my clock was disconnected with the wire taped up. I hooked it up and the clock has been working great for about a month now. My latest discovery is the Autronic Eye relay blue wire is taped and disconnected.
Q: What should I be concerned with before I reconnect this wire? The hi/low beam switch currently works, but the over-ride button does nothing which I believe this disconnected wire is the cause.

 

There is a good possibility the brain in the Autotronic Eye is dead. They did not have a long life and somebody probably disconnected it years ago. I had one on the 54 convertible I had but it was rebuilt by a guy knew what he was doing. He converted them to solid state and they worked great. They are a novelty item and pretty much useless. Street lights will make you headlights flash from high beam to low beam.

 

Don't see anything obvious. Thanks.

 

All capacitors of that age would likely have failed. Tubes could be bad too, not sure if there is any way to have the tubes tested or replaced. Many years ago you could do that at Radio Shack.

As for the clock, if you drive the car rarely it's likely to drain the battery. That might be why power was removed previously. A battery tender will prevent that from happening.

 

II'm envious that you have an Autoerotic eye, but like Glenn said when they do work even reflective signs will set the headlights from high to low.. If you think about it when that accessory was a viable there were no reflective anything, now some yellow lines are reflective. Me,I would leave it on the dash and not worry if it works....Tedd

 

Tube testers exist, that back one looks toast.

 

Yes, my buddy has a '52 98 he rebuilt his and it works. He is an electronics wiz. I did hook up the blue wire and that did not change anything on the AEye function or the momentary foot switch either. Yes, not removing it from the dash. I will get it working eventually, not to use it, but so that it's working. So far, everything works on this car, including the auto-tuning on the radio, clock, etc.

 

I noticed that this unit has a vibrator (changes DC to AC).
They were also used in tube type radios and were often a cause of failure.
With the power on the unit, you should hear a humming sound, or at least feel a vibration if you touch it.
Also, with power on the elements in the tubes should glow, and the tubes will feel warm to the touch.