Re: Lucas shorts

Ron tebo (tebomr(at)cadvision.com)
Mon, 04 May 1998 08:58:33 -0400

K. Patrick Wheeler wrote: >
> Any advice on how one attempts to track down an apparent short in the
> Lucas electrical system?
>
> On a recent rainy early morning commute my gauge lights started dimming
> with each beat of the wiper, then the tach maxed out, and all was dark
> across the dash, the pitch black interior of my 1967 Alpine Series V was
> relieved only by my high beam indicator which was now flashing and
> keeping time to the slap of the wiper blades. My apologies to
> Bulwer-Lytton (sp?) of "It was a dark and stormy night" fame, but I am
> quite at a loss as to how to even try and track this little fiend down.
> To make it worse, if I accidentally leave the panel light switch on,
> after a period of time, the temp and fuel gauges will drop to zero,
> causing momentary cardiac arrest. The remainder of the electrical
> system seems to work ok. The electrical system appears relatively in
> good shape (or at least orginal shape) with things all nice and tidily
> wrapped up and terribly confusing. Any suggestions would be very much
> appreciated . . .
>
> Patrick Wheeler

Patrick:

First, you do not have a "short". If you did, you would likely a) smell something burning, b) have something permanently not working, and/or experience battery power draining. What you have is likely (as memtioned by someone else) an intermittent loss of ground to your instrument panel associated mechanically to your wiper mechanism. To check this out, look at your wiring diagram (in manual or on-line ) and locate the various panel grounds. You are looking for a loose connection or broken wire that is somehow associated with your wiper, and can check this out by running a jumper wire from one of your guage ground-points to a good known ground. This should clear up one or more problems. I would also check all wiring close to the operating parts of the wiper or sharing its ground. Hope this helps.

Ron Tebo - Series I - B9000627