The box under the steering column is not a relay, but a voltage regulator.
The wire that is wrapped around the spring in the "relay" is a heater. The
spring is made out of two metals that expand at different rates, causing
the spring to bend as heat is applied, until the contacts open, which
turns the heater off. The spring then cools, causing the contacts to close
again. This causes the output voltage to turn on and off with the average
voltage being about 6 Volts. If the fuel gauge is goihng to full, then
dropping to zero, and then stays there until after te key is turned off
for a bit, the two wires connected to the regulator need to be reversed.
That should take care of the problem.
Reversing the battery will not harm the instrument regulator.
The horn problem is not related. I don't have a wiring diagram here to
refer to, but on the left fender well there are two metal boxes, one with
3 terminals and one with 4. The one with 3 is the horn relay. One of the
wires goes to the fuse box, getting 12 volts whether the key is on or off.
The second wire goes to the horns. The last one goes to the horn button.
Once you figure out which one goes to the steering column try grounding
the pin on the relay which connects to the horn button. You should be able
to feel the relay click and the horns should blow. If that happens the
problem is between the relay and the horn button. There is a slip ring
between the column and the steering wheel that could be not making good
contact. (I also had trouble once with the steering column not grounding
through the steering box as it should have been which caused the horn to
not work). If the relay clicks but the horns don't sound it could be
either a bad relay or bad horns. Try connecting a wire from the one
connection on the back of the horns to the battery. The horn should blow.
If it doesn't, the horn is defective. They can be opened and cleaned. If
they do blow and the relay clicks when the horn button is pressed, or the
button wire is grounded, the relay is at fault. It is also possible to
remove the relay cover and the contacts cleaned.
Give those a try and let us know how things go.
Peace, Pat
- Support Habitat for Humanity, A "hand up", not a "hand out" -
Pat Horne, Network Manager, Shop Supervisor, Future planner
CS Dept, University of Texas, Austin, Tx. 78712 USA
voice (512)471-9730, fax (512)471-8885, horne@cs.utexas.edu
On Sat, 16 Mar 2002, Alex Avery wrote:
> I've been puzzling over this problem for a while: Fuel gauge and
> temperature gauge don't work properly. When I turn the ignition on, the
> fuel gauge went all the way past full, then slowly dropped all the way past
> empty and stayed there. Temp gauge didn't do anything.
>
> Some mentioned the relay on the steering column, so I took that off, took
> it apart, cleaned the contacts and separated them seeing as they were in
> constant contact. Well, now the fuel gauge doesn't even move, so I assume
> the contacts were supposed to be in light contact. Is that right? I don't
> understand this relay, but I'm pretty ignorant about electrical stuff.
> Before I took it off and rebent the spring contact, I thought I'd ask how
> it is supposed to work.
>
> Some mentioned that the ground could be bad and to check the ground on the
> temp sensor housing--something about a wire or gasket or something on the
> housing contacting block. I don't see a ground wire/strap or anything like
> it on the thermostat/sensor housing. Am I missing it or is it missing and
> should be rebuilt?
>
> Also, horn doesn't work. Could this be related?
>
> History: I accidently hooked the battery backwards several months ago which
> may have precipitated the problem, however, the ground strap broke around
> that same time, and fried the throttle cable. I rebuilt the throttle cable
> (*bike cable worked great and I was even able to reuse all fittings, etc)
> and rewired the ground and double-grounded the block to the frame. Have I
> missed a fried ground wire for the gauge cluster? Please help--everything
> else is running great and I want to get the car inspected so my father (and
> I) can legally drive the car. I can't do that without the horn and I'd
> prefer to have the gauges working properly, which they did prior to having
> dash recovered.
>
> Any help greatly appreciated. Also, please cc responses to my email
> address <aavery@rica.net>
>
> Alex Avery, Staunton, VA
> '69 2000, '78 280Z
>
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