Alan,
When I took mine apart to paint it I found a number of grommets that the
wires pass through. You may have to drill out the rivits that hold the
headlight "bucket" to the car. Look on the bright side what an excuse to
put in new gaskets around the headlights and replace all the grommets and
splice points.
Seriously, I'd look at the point on the wiring that was furthest down the
melted section, towards the end of the harness. Additionally look at the
body/frame near the wire. In all probibility you'll never find the bad
spot, the point of the short would be the first place that got hot enough
to melt. I'd take a WAG (Wild A#@ Guess) that it was near one of the metal
tabs that hold the wiring harness in place.
I'm going to re-wire mine to new fuse holders with each lamp (and filsmant)
wired back to the fuse block with new wire. Except for my distrust of
relays I was going to wire both high and low beams through relays. I think
I'm going to do the high beams through a relay, but not the low beams.
When you re-wire, if you can, carefully crimp then solder the connections.
Soldering is said to release some of the crimp strength, but it also gives
both improved conductivity and mechanical strength.
Anyway just my two cents worth.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan [mailto:asalvato@tampabay.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 6:53 PM
To: Stephen Hanselman
Subject: Re: holy wire meltdown batman
Steve
That seems to be the general consensus.
Everything is working again but I haven't found the cause yet.
My next day off I'll take a closer look at the wiring on the right side
thanks
al
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Hanselman" <tr6@kc4sw.com>
To: "Alan" <asalvato@tampabay.rr.com>; "6pack" <6pack@autox.team.net>;
<triumphs@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 12:29 PM
Subject: RE: holy wire meltdown batman
> Al,
>
> If I understand you question the Red/Blue wire was burned out of the
> harness in the area between the headlights at the very front of the car.
> If this is the case I suspect that your problem had nothing to do with the
> A/C but more to do with a short somewhere on the Right side of the car.
> You should probably inspect the all of the wiring for both of the
> headlights (more attention to the right side) looking for shorts. Also
> the small bullet splices can slip around in their insulator and expose the
> "splice" part allowing it to short.
>
> While it looks good a vlotmeter is not real usefule for troubleshooting
> these problems. If you can get a Volt-Ohm Meter (VOM) or a digital
> Voltmeter (DVM) and use the ohms scale (low ohms) to look at the wiring to
> ground (be sure and disconnect the minus lead on the battery). You should
> be able to see the lamp filaments at about 4 to 5 ohms (if you want I'll
> get some readings on mine and get them to you).
>
> As far as running both lights and AC you really need to get an Ampmeter
> and watch that. If, with both units on, the guage sits at zero you're
> probably OK. If not then you need a bigger alternator.
>
> Steve Hansleman
> tr6@kc4sw.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net]On
> Behalf Of Alan
> Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 4:46 PM
> To: 6pack; triumphs@autox.team.net
> Subject: holy wire meltdown batman
>
>
> My 76 TR6 has ac and the volt meter always dipped down when the air and
> lights were run together. I had never run both for more than an hour.
> On the way home from TRF summer party I ran them both for over two hours
> when
> smoke came out of the steering column.
> The light switch on the column burned out fusing it in the low position
> but
> only operable when pulled back in high beam.
> I replaced the switch and now the lights work.
> I pulled the radiator shield off and noticed that the blue and red wire
> burned its way out of the wire harness (controls dip beam lights) I cut it
> out
> and replaced the wire.
> Question, if anyone knows:
> Is it normal for the extra load of ac, condenser fan , and head lights to
> drop
> volts to 13 or less. Or is that the cause of the melt down.
> The car has the standard alternator. As far as I know when the dealers
> added
> ac they did not change the alternator. The Fan and ac power leads are
> connected to the bottom fuse; on opposite sides. The fan was grounded
> to
> the front ground tab. The headlights alone do not cause volt drop, ac
> alone
> w/fan will run at 13 1/2 to 3/4.
> I know the alternator could be upgraded, but is there something else I
> should
> look at for the cause of the melt down?
> This is not covered in Dans book.
> Thanks in advanced
> al salvatore
> 76TR6
>
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