In a message dated 98-10-04 12:36:24 EDT, brashears@hughes.net writes:
> Driving home from Ridgecrest California last night my dash lights all
> went out and the seat belt light went on and then out. I had to drive
> the 98 miles in the dark, using the door light for the occasional
> glimpse at the gauges. Any ideas about the cause, the fuses are intact
> and the lights went off then on and off again, all exterior lights
> stayed on.
Byron,
It sounds to me like you simply have a loose connection somewhere (in the car,
that is! We all have a loose connection somewhere or we wouldn't be driving a
Triumph in the first place). I don't have a schematic for the TR7, but I'll
assume it's very similar to all the previous Triumphs with respect to color
codes.
Typically, power to the gauge lights come from the headlight switch via a
red/green wire. The red/green wire goes to a fuse, and comes out the other
side of the fuse as a red wire. From there, the red wire goes to the outside
lights, and to the dimmer for the gauge lights.
Since the outside lights stayed on, there most likely is a loose connection
somewhere between the point where the red wire splits from the connection with
the outside lights and goes to the dimmer.
To find the problem, use a test light to look for voltage on the dash light
dimmer. Look first on the red wire. If you don't have voltage here, trace the
red wire back till you do have voltage, and that will show you where the bad
connection is.
If you do have voltage on the red wire, look for voltage on the red/white wire
leaving the dimmer. There is a very good chance that the dimmer is the
problem, and you won't have voltage here. If you don't have voltage here,
remove and repair/replace the dimmer. If you do have voltage on the R/W wire,
using your test lamp, trace the circuit towards the gauges till you find the
point where you no longer have voltage. There will be the loose connection.
If the above color scheme/wire routing doesn't match the TR7, use it as a
guide and follow the same procedure with the TR7 diagram.
Hope this helps.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://www.sky.net/~boballen/mg/Masters/index.html
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition - slated for a V8 soon
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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