Hello All
I was following last week's Ammeter vs. Voltage meter
discussion with some interest since my LBC has been
experiencing electrical infarctions for the last two
weeks. I have a 1974 TR6 that runs pretty well most
of the time.
Over the last three or four weeks we have been
faltering a bit: first the head lights started dimming,
then the radio/CD player stopped working when the
car was running, then the horn and blinkers stopped
working.
Everything works when the car is not running, but
stops working when the car was running. I finally
noticed that the little round thing on the dash board
was actually a voltage meter that was reading down to
11 volts when the car runs. And based on last week's
discussion realized ... ahhhh .... we have a problem
Houston.
(By the way, why does my useless shop manual and
owner's manual tell me I have an ammeter??)
All other systems seem to be running well, and the
battery was replaced this Spring. After some routine
fiddling with wires to ensure that connection are tight I
decided that the problem was either in the alternator or
the voltage regulator. Since I 'm not really interested in
rebuilding the dang thing I purchased a
re-manufactured alternator with voltage regulator. I
was running at 12-13 volts and everything worked
again -- for a week.
On Sunday I took the LBC out with my yard ape (son)
and we were back to ground zero - the car runs great,
but all of the electricals are fizzing out one-by-one, and
the ammeter (sic volt meter) is back down to 11 volts.
Of course, the shop manual isn't real helpful with
diagnostic procedures. I checked around the Web for
information on electrical diagnosis procedures but
didn't find any. I'd appreciate directions to any Web
sites that might have diagnostic information and/or
where to find a manual or guide that discusses
diagnostic procedures, and/or your comments or what
to do next.
Thanks in advance - your help is greatly appreciated.
Scott Coates
scoates@aoac.org
scoates@erols.com
Burtonsville, Maryland
1974 TR 6
|