Al,
If I understand you question the Red/Blue wire was burned out of the
harness in the area between the headlights at the very front of the car.
If this is the case I suspect that your problem had nothing to do with the
A/C but more to do with a short somewhere on the Right side of the car.
You should probably inspect the all of the wiring for both of the
headlights (more attention to the right side) looking for shorts. Also
the small bullet splices can slip around in their insulator and expose the
"splice" part allowing it to short.
While it looks good a vlotmeter is not real usefule for troubleshooting
these problems. If you can get a Volt-Ohm Meter (VOM) or a digital
Voltmeter (DVM) and use the ohms scale (low ohms) to look at the wiring to
ground (be sure and disconnect the minus lead on the battery). You should
be able to see the lamp filaments at about 4 to 5 ohms (if you want I'll
get some readings on mine and get them to you).
As far as running both lights and AC you really need to get an Ampmeter
and watch that. If, with both units on, the guage sits at zero you're
probably OK. If not then you need a bigger alternator.
Steve Hansleman
tr6@kc4sw.com
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of Alan
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 4:46 PM
To: 6pack; triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: holy wire meltdown batman
My 76 TR6 has ac and the volt meter always dipped down when the air and
lights were run together. I had never run both for more than an hour.
On the way home from TRF summer party I ran them both for over two hours
when
smoke came out of the steering column.
The light switch on the column burned out fusing it in the low position
but
only operable when pulled back in high beam.
I replaced the switch and now the lights work.
I pulled the radiator shield off and noticed that the blue and red wire
burned its way out of the wire harness (controls dip beam lights) I cut it
out
and replaced the wire.
Question, if anyone knows:
Is it normal for the extra load of ac, condenser fan , and head lights to
drop
volts to 13 or less. Or is that the cause of the melt down.
The car has the standard alternator. As far as I know when the dealers
added
ac they did not change the alternator. The Fan and ac power leads are
connected to the bottom fuse; on opposite sides. The fan was grounded
to
the front ground tab. The headlights alone do not cause volt drop, ac
alone
w/fan will run at 13 1/2 to 3/4.
I know the alternator could be upgraded, but is there something else I
should
look at for the cause of the melt down?
This is not covered in Dans book.
Thanks in advanced
al salvatore
76TR6
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