John,
It sounds chaotic, but this sort of thing can be worked through. Think
of it as a bonding experience with the TF.
Since the battery has been switched around, we don't know now how the
system is set up, whether it's Pos earth or Neg earth. You can choose
your preference, since the next steps are the same anyway.
Choose it, hook up the battery as you want it. Polarise the dynamo.
There's a description of the sparking procedure in the shop manual, but
it's same as any other car. No harm will be done by doing it twice, but
doing it is necessary if the system os presently polarised the 'other'
way, in order to get it to make electricity for the battery. Once that's
done, start the engine and see if ammeter swings to positive side at 1500
rpm. If it swings negative, simply reverse the leads to the ammeter.
Starter doesn't care about polarity, but it does care about good
connections. These starter switches have been known to fail. My first
one only lasted about 25 years, so it's possible that it has died. You
will know for sure when the expensive new one is installed.
Since you are messing around with the battery wires anyway, I would
run the cable to the starter and the braided (if you wanted to use
braided because it looks like a ground) to the battery box. There is a
ground wire that runs from one of the bell-housing bolts, say about 10
o'clock when you are underneath and looking forward, to the chassis. Undo
the bolts, clean and refasten them to assure a good ground, not simply
one that appears to be good.
You asked about hooking up the horns--did you get a workshop manual or
even the driver handbook with the car? Both have wiring diagrams that are
marvels of simplicity, except that they show wires in different colors
and your TF probably has all wires wearing a handsome toast-brown color
code. But if you need a diagram, let me know so I can xerox and mail or
fax one to you.
After you get the starting circuit sorted, the turn signal circuit can
be methodically checked out. Sounds like a bad connection (haven't we
heard that diagnosis before?) or, as you suspect, a bad socket. Once
you get all these connections sorted, consider a dab of dilectric grease
on each of them to prevent the invisible corrosion that attacks under
cover of darkness.
Gunk is effective stuff, and I've used my share of it, but only
occasionally have I been able to keep everything dry enough to work
properly after the cleaning. Now I keep cheap paint thinner in a spray
bottle and use it with plenty of rags.
Bob
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