Another twist in the "erratic running snake mystery". Last night I
decided to check a couple of things and discovered that the battery was
completely dead. Suspiciouser and suspicouser. Well, this could have
been simple dumbness I my part. Because the ignition warning light
stayed on when I removed the key, I decided to leave the key inserted
with the switch in the accessories position so that the light would stay
off. I have no idea why this would drain the battery. Nothing was on
and I assume the ignition circuitry was disconnected in this mode. So,
I'm either over looking something obvious here or the ignition switch is
hosed even more than I thought. Anyway, I removed the battery ground
lead and put it on a trickle charger. Until the battery has a good
charge I won't be able to follow up on the many good suggestions I've
received so far. Thanks for all the help, gang.
In the mean time I decided to try to come up with a reasonable wiring
diagram of the ignition and charging circuitry based on the information
I already have. Last night I scrutinized pictures of the dash panels of
various Cobras to see which was closest in appearance to the one in my
car. Lets see, there was the Mark I (lots of Brit stuff), the Mark II
(lots of 'merkun stuff- my car), the 427 S/C (lots of Brit stuff,
again), the street 427 (still lots of Brit stuff but different form the
S/C), the AC 289 (similar to the Mark I, but not quite the same) and, of
course, there were variations on all of these. The Mark I dash was
closest so I decided to use the Mark I diagram and the diagrams in the
Ford shop manual as a starting basis. Right away this presented a
problem. The Lucas generator control box had 5 terminals while the
alternator control on my car has 4 terminal. Interestingly enough, the
427 diagram shows a 3-terminal controller. Also I can't find any
reference to a ballast resistor in the Mark I diagram. Could it have
been in the generator control box? Seems unlikely. Maybe there wasn't
any. After all, this car IS half British.
More later, sanity permitting.
Roland
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