Don't worry, it wasn't anything like nearly getting flattened by an out of
control, oversized SUV or anything. I do wonder sometimes what would happen
to the multitude of lists if I did suddenly cease to exist, but that's another
discussion. All I'm talking about here is saving many hours of unwanted labor.
A friend of mine here in Salt Lake has a '71 TR6, which I've worked on here and
there over the past few years. It is currently down at the shop where it has
been waiting for some attention to be given various electrical circuits. And
tonight I finally dedicated some time to look into it. The easiest item was
just putting in a new voltage stabilizer to get the temp and fuel gauges back
to the general area of reality. So I yank the speedo, plug in the new unit,
check things out. And while the speedo is hanging out of the dash and I'm
waiting for the gas gauge reading to stabilize, I'm thinking about the task I
have been dreading.
One of his complaints was a very weak heater/demister fan. The one in there
works, sort of, since you can pull the switch and if you listen closely and
put your hand real close to one of the eyeball vents, activity can be detected.
And yes, the vent flap was open to let air in, on the assumption air would
come out.
No problem, I have a heater fan in good working order on the shelf. I just do
NOT want to pull the dash apart to make the swap. So while waiting for the
gas gauge, I pull on the heater fan switch and contemplate my immediate future.
The fan does come on, true to its barely discernible and functionally useless
fashion. And oddly enough, the turn signal indicator light which had popped
out of the dangling speedo glows dimly. I pull the fan control to high, and
the turn signal indicator glows a bit more brightly. This is odd, I think,
and head for the wiring diagrams.
Now, if you own a TR250 or a TR6 and do not have one of Dan Master's wiring
guides, I strongly suggest you remedy that situation. He sent me one a couple
of years ago as a gift of appreciation for the lists. I actually remembered
where I last saw it and dug it out, thumbing through to the wiring diagrams.
Now, as anyone who has done a fair bit of electrical troubleshooting on stuff
like old cars or whatever would guess, having some unrelated circuit do
something when you activate another circuit is usually a sign of a wayward
path to ground.
Well, this saga is already getting too long, so I'll make it quick. I finally
found that someone had plugged the ground wire for the heater fan into the 4
way bullet conector for the right side turn signal. Cute. You should hear
that sucker scream now, the tail light bulbs made a pretty effective rev
limiter. I wonder what I would have done had I spent the hours swapping fans,
and had the new one behave exactly as the old one?
Thanks Dan, perusing your book and thinking for a moment instead of just
ripping into the wiring paid off.
mjb.
ps: For those who don't have it handy, Dan Masters - danmas@aol.com
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