How many amps is your alternator rated at and how much juice are you pulling
with the light, ignition, and everything else you had on that night? You
may not be left with enough to charge the darn thing. Did you check the
condition of your battery - how is the acid level, and will it hold a
charge?
If the problem wasn't there before you hooked the Crane system up, then the
culprit is probably associated with what you did during the installation.
Check the ground for the XR700, make sure you didn't bypass the ballast
resistor and that the red wire is on the right location on the starter
solenoid, obviously you have the wires hooked correctly to the optical
trigger and haven't cross wired the + and - on the coil, otherwise you
wouldn't get any spark at all. Depending on the coil you used, it may be
either internally or externally ballasted (and the ballast may be a specific
length of wire or a traditional big resistor (usually rectangular with a
lead on both ends) - it will get full juice for initial start, but after the
starter solenoid releases, current should flow through the ballast dropping
voltage to the ignition system and reducing drain to the electrics. I My
understanding is that the XR700 must be used with a ballast resistor unless
using it in conjunction with one of the Crane HI-6 series of ignition
control units. I'm using an XR700 with a HI-6 ignition control unit and a
PS-92 coil, this setup gives me the optical trigger from the XR700, multiple
spark at low RPM to ensure good burn of the fuel air mix, a rev limiter that
can be set anywhere from 600-9900 RPM in 100 RPM increments, and a nice hot
spark to help keep everything going good. BTW, I also rewired the car with
a PAINLESS wiring harness (pre-assembled pre-wired blade type fuse block,
labeled wire bundles, outstanding instructions, and available in a variety
of circuits i.e. do you want a 12 fuse system - good setup for our LBCs an
some kit cars on up to 18 fuses which include provision for radio w/power
antenna, electric locks/windows, electric fan for the radiator, 3d brake
light etc.) I also switched to a GM 105 AMP alternator that is internally
regulated - the guys at the local NAPA store let me search through the
catalogue, then rifle the boxes until I found one that works (I sucked up
the core charge to keep the LUCAS unit as a paperweight)
Maybe some of this will help, trouble shooting electrics is my least
favorite thing - that's why I finally rewired my GT-6 (it also cost less to
go this route than buying a Lucas unit and seeing the problems that cause
DPOs to use trained marmots to "repair" wiring harnesses) If and when I do
sell the car, I'll probably let the buyer talk me down a small amount for
the non-original wiring, but I feel that it was a bargain in the piece of
mind department, my only Lucas units are the things you can readily see -
lights and switches
Dave Korzun
'69 GT6+
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Massey <105671.471@compuserve.com>
To: TR List <triumphs@autox.team.net>; St. Lupus <st_lupus@email.msn.com>
Date: Friday, July 10, 1998 6:53 PM
Subject: Re: TR6 Charging Problem
St. Lupus writes:
<<<<<<<<<<<< Snip >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Okay, I think I've calmed down enough to ask for help on this problem
without using any swear words. Basically the problem is this: Last
Friday,
I replaced my points ignition on my 74 TR6 with a Crane electronic
ignition.
It seemed to run beautifully, no hesitation and didn't miss once. However
that night, while driving home I noticed that all the lights seemed pretty
dim and that the volt meter was rapidly dropping. The solution was
obvious,
drive w/o the lights and pray I made it home. With the aid of a little
luck
and a sympathetic policeman, I was able to coast the last few feet into my
parking spot.
Basically when running the car I am not getting any charge into the battery
at all. The voltage across the battery drops when the car is running.
I've
spent the last week trying to figure out what the problem is and can't
figure the damn (oops there I go) thing out. The obvious culprit was the
alternator (lucas 2 wire regulator), but having it rebuilt (twice) didn't
help at all. The Ign light comes on when the key is in the on position, but
goes off as soon as the car is started.
Please help!
Thanks
<<<<<<<<<<<<<< End Snip >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Check your big brown wire. It runs from the alternator output
to the multi-tap on your red battery cable. If this wire is not
making good contact than your Alternator may be working just fine
but the current is not making it to the rest of the electrical system.
And I've seen this before.
If you have a voltmeter, unplug the brown wire from the alternator and
measure the voltage at the tab. Compare it to the battery voltage
with the wire hooked up. Is it the same?
The problem may be (fingers crossed) that the multi-tap (or whatever
it is called) gets corroded (being close to the battery) and current
doesn't flow.
If this doesn't fix it you just might have to spend some money. ;-(
Dave
|