>I'm a couple of weeks behind in reading my British car mail, so this is
>probably old news. But this sounds exactly like what my '72 TR6 is doing.
>I've had another problem with the car which I believe is unrelated; my
>headlights blow a 15-amp (I think) fuse more and more frequently. First
>it only happened in the rain, and I assumed there was a bad connection
>at the lights that, when wet, was shorting. But this started happening
>even in dry weather. Now it's to the point where, if I leave the
>headlights on for more than 15 minutes or so, they're sure to blow a
>fuse.
Ummm, I think all the fuses on a TR6 are supposed to be 30 amp. You
should double-check, though. (I recently found that mine has a 50 amp
fuse in one - that might help explain some of the slightly toasted wires.)
If you haven't done so, you should clean all the fuse contacts.
I've had some wierd problems with electrics caused by poor contacts at the
fuses - things just suddenly dieing and suddenly coming back to life for
no reason.
>Because of this, I parked my car in November, the last time it refused
>to start, and haven't driven it since. In the intervening months,
>through all this bitter cold weather, a voice in my head was trying to
>whisper something about dead batteries and cold weather; today when I
>tried to recharge the battery, of course, it dawned on my that the
>battery was ruined by freezing. Or at least, that's what I suspect,
>because it was a pretty new Die-Hard. Sears confirmed that it's ruined
>and kindly discounted a purchase towards a new one.
A discharged battery is basically fairly pure water - it can freeze.
>This suspicion was somewhat confirmed yesterday when I jump started the
>car. I connected the cables and let the donor car idle for several
>minutes to build up a charge in the battery (this was before I realized
>the battery was toast). If I turned the ignition to "run", the ammeter
>showed a slight discharge as the fuel pump was energized. Once I
>started the car, the ammeter showed a moderate charge; but once I
>disconnected the jumper cables, the ammeter showed no charge or
>discharge. At this point, the car was running off the alternator, which
>wasn't even trying to charge the battery.
Fuel pump? I thought all TR6's had mechanical pumps (unless you
added an electric).
Randell Jesup, '70 TR6
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