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Another weird electrical tale for the Lucas Electrical

To: mgs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Another weird electrical tale for the Lucas Electrical
From: ATWEDITOR@aol.com
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 14:29:43 EST
To all, especially the electrically gifted:
 
I preface this with yet another acknowledgement that I am an electrical  
idiot.  Laugh at the appropriate places.
 
It goes back several months ago, but maybe even longer than that.   Several 
months ago my radio started to briefly blink off, coming right back  on.  After 
a while, as the blinking became more frequent, it was  occasionally accompied 
by the alternator light blinking on and the engine  briefly shuttering.  
Then, after having it parked for about 10 days waiting  to get to the problem, 
the 
starter wouldn't turnover and interior lights  blinked and went out when the 
igition switch was engaged.  I fiddled--this  is what I do with electrical 
problems--and discovered the fuse block connections  were iffy.  I replaced the 
block and--presto!--the lights came on and the  car started and--at 
first--there was no blinking radio or alternator  light.  I thought I had cured 
it.
 
Not so.  I guess I had two concurrent problems.  
The blinking radio, light and hesitating engine had me stumped--I even  
replaced the alternator.  It was a better alternator, but no  improvements in 
the 
blinking, and no clues.  Not until I tried  to blow my horn.  No horn sound, 
but the radio blinked off.   I went to the schematic and traced the lines, but 
all seemed well.  Then I  took off the horn button.
 
I have a Montney steering wheel.  The horn button wouldn't stay in the  
hub--too small for the opening--so I cut a thin strip of aluminum stock to use  
as 
a conducting shim, since it had to conduct from the edge of the horn button  
to the hub.  Then the little metal filaments from the center of the horn  
button that contact the horn "pencil", well, they broke off.  I soldered  three 
bare wires to the center lead and fanned then over the area the pencil  resides 
to make the needed contact.
When I looked in wheel hub this time I couldn't see any problems except it  
looked as if the center wires weren't contacting the pencil.  When I got  that 
sorted out, it seems my blinking radio problem has been solved, too.
 
Is this possible, or an I being fooled again?  Is is possible that the  horn 
was somehow shorting an accessory circuit?  It doesn't look like  they're 
connected, but, as I said, I'm an idiot.
 
And looking further into the past, a couple of years ago I hit a big bump  
one day and the alternator light suddenly flicked on.  It stayed on for a  
while, and then went out.  However, after I parked my car, turned off the  
ignition 
and walked away, the light came on and stayed on.  When I came  back the 
battery was dead.  The car wouldn't keep running on the  alternator, even after 
a 
jump start.  I had it towed back and replaced the  alternator, and it ran 
fine.  Could that a horn circuit short have done  that, as well?
 
I now have an extra alternator that is about 2 years old.  Any  takers?
 
Jay Donoghue
72B-GT
66 Mustang




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