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Re: Electrical Short!!

To: Lancer7676@aol.com, Spridgets@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Electrical Short!!
From: mahney@central.murdoch.edu.au (Greg Mahney)
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 10:53:46 +0800
Reply-to: mahney@central.murdoch.edu.au (Greg Mahney)
Sender: owner-spridgets@autox.team.net
David

I had the same problem a year or so ago.  I got lots of advice from the
list (if you search the archive for MAHNEY and ELECTRICAL you will get all
the responses.

One comprehensive answer appears below BUT... I did it slightly differently.

I bought a 12volt buzzer from Radio Shack soldered on some aligator clips
and connected it across the fuse terminals, after removing the wires that
"go to" the various "appliances" .  I then reconnected the wires one at a
time.  When I plugged in the wiper motor the buzzer started buzzing like
mad - I knew there was a short there.  I connected a wire directly from the
fuse to the wiper motor, replaced the fuse and everything worked fine.

When I traced the original wiper motor wire I could find no obvious shorts
in the unbound area, so I assume the problem is hidden somewhere in the
loom.  I just used a new wire and didn't try to incorporate it in the loom.

Anyway, this worked for me.

Good luck.

Greg


Other Lister's comments:

" In order to track this down there are three approaches I have used with
some success. In order of cost and time.
  1) Replace fuse with a circuit breaker then jiggle wires until the
circuit breaker pops then try to determine which circuit it was.

  2) If you can get it to stay shorted remove the fuse and connect an
ohmmeter from the output side of the fuse connector and look for close to
zero ohms resistance then unplug and reconnect circuits one at a time
until the reading jumps ups you have probably found the circuit with the
short remember to account for the circuits with light bulbs which will
alwasy show some continuity.

 3) get some spare bullet connectors and wire up a few inline fuses tothem
and plug these into all the circuits then drive along and see which  one
blows and that is the circuit with the problem.

>From experience the most likely culprits are.

  1) Instrument panel lights if one os the lights pops out of its socket
and touches a metal part under the dash it wil short intermittently.

 2) If you have the type of heater control that you rotate to turn on the
fan it sometimes twists around in the dash and shorts out the wires.

  3) Loose wires dangling around under the dash and shorting  intermittently.

 4) Bare wires in the trunk where something has pinched or cut the insulation.

 5) Anywhere wires pass through a hole in the firewall or fenders etc.  and
the rubber grommets are missing and a bare spot has been worn into the
insulation. "



At 4:14 PM 17/11/99, Lancer7676@aol.com wrote:
>Developed a little problem.  Any insight will be appreciated.   My '79 Midget
>blew a fuse which took out my tach, fuel guage, turn signals, winshield
>wipers, and the engine temp guage.   Tomorrow I am going to tackle the chore
>of tracing and searching for the short (I replaced the fuse and it
>immediately blew again).
>
>Any ideas as to where the most likely place for a short is would be
>appreciated.  Like is it unlikely to be inside a wrapped section or harness
>and more likely to be in the section running from the wrapped section to the
>guage (that makes sense)? Anything that might shorten the search.  Thanks!!
>
>--David C.


Greg Mahney

Sprite Mk 2A
Perth, Western Australia



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