Also consider, an intermittent short corresponding somewhat to the engines vibration would feel and behave more like alternating current than some might think, thereby amplifying the tingle.

 

hey Kalli put salt and water on your hands rub em together and touch those battery post its pretty cool...It will put a grin on your chin for sure and you could maybe use it in the future to win some bets

-Gun

 

I built a capacitive discharge ignition in the early 80s, had 300 volts going into the coil. Could jump an arc 3" wide. We were screwing around arcing it though a Bic pen that was grounded on one side. Worked really well until the kid holding the pen had his knee touch the metal cabinet below the bench. Arc skipped the pen and went through him. He laid on the floor 15 minutes before he could compose himself enough to stand back up.


Lesson of the story, the human body conducts better than a Bic pen

 

If it hasn't been stated already,

I can pull the gauge cluster out enough to unthread the speedo cable and start to remove the cluster.

That aside, if your wiring is truly a birds nest of spliced and taped together wires than you may consider rewiring a portion if not all the car in the not so distant future. In my opinion, these cars didn't use thick enough wires to handle the current from the factory. When you factor in the resistance of 40 plus year old connectors and their corrosion, well you get the picture.

Some things I would highly recommend on all these old cars, good wiring or not:

replace the fuse panel with a newer blade type fuse panel
replace the headlight switch
get a solid state voltage regulator
wire the headlights on relays
replace the ground straps from engine to chassis, if original ofcourse

If you don't do a litte preventative work on the electrical system, I am sure you will be doing it down the road.

 

On the money guys, I couldn't find anything grounding the motor to the frame, just the negative battery post to the motor block.

How would this effect other things, for example the horn tries to blow but is barely making noise but if I jump directly from my + to the horn they both sound fine. Any chance its effecting my pesky dash lights?

 

Another factor that might come into play is the surface area of skin exposed, meaning that the surface area engaged by skin on a typical multimeter probe is quite small when compared to the size of a shifter handle and even a battery terminal.

Unless your test took this into account your resistance figures are going to be off by a few multiples...

Also, I was getting most of my "shocks" through the bottom of my forearms, the electricity certainly flowed through my forearms better than my hands, and for sure perspiration and the amount of pressure I was applying changed things some too.

It never really hurt, but it was unpleasant.

 

A lack of a body ground can affect a lot of things. You should connect a cable from where the neg post hooks to your engine block back the the frame/body, and make it a cable/strap of moderate size, like at least 6 or 8 gauge.

Chances are this will fix a lot of gremlins.

 

Yes JMD certainly rough numbers but they are fitting for such a crude device...Im not trying to build an AHRS IMU...I just wanted to get shocked...

The ground strap should clean up voltage and improve potential meaning brighter lights and whiter whites.

-Gun

 

LOL