Thread: Thats a little interesting

Originally Posted by magilla

----- I noticed that on low beam the high beam indicator light was faintly glowing. I got about 300 metres up the road and she cut out, turned everything off and she fired up again, another few hundred metres she cuts out again, park it turn the lights off and the fuel pump starts up again. Agian I fired her up and took off, and yup she went to cut out......this time I turned the lights onto park , and the fuel pump fired up and I ran home on the park lights no worries.
Having parked it up in the shed and switched the lights back on I let it idle til it died again, at this point I notice the driver light is dim so I twiddle with the loom a bit and the light comes back to life the dim lit high beam indicator went out and the fuel pump came back to life.
The wire I have for the fuel pump goes no where near the head lights, any suggestions before I uncover the wiring at the headlight to see what is going on there

Hi

What you have described there is the symptoms of the earthing not being right.

You have got away without a cooked wiring loam, so it's important that you fix that problem ASAP.

Using the wiring diagram look at all the earthing points, I would say there is a problem with the head light (diagram 35, 36) earth point (black) behind the grill in the radiator panel.
It can pay to run an additional earth from that bolt for the lugs, into the earth of the battery, that front panel is attached to the mudguards that sometimes gets a bit of rubbish between them and the fire wall, the bolts down through the radiator panel can get rusty and so on, ending up with a poor or no earth path.

Another earth to find and check, is the one that has two wires (black) crimped into the lug near the back of the fuel pump (diagram 24) that wire is also the ground wire for the voltage regulator (E, diagram 20)

Crimps must tight, the lugs need to be cleaned to bright metal and fastened down on bare metal, the fittings then need to be painted or have grease spread over the clean finished fitting to prevent further corrosion.





Flasher wiring diagram---- 1954-58 models
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Thanks Wrinklearthur,
One very dodgy earth was found, and rectified, straight to the battery

Originally Posted by magilla

Thanks Wrinklearthur,
One very dodgy earth was found, and rectified, straight to the battery

That's Good Sandy.

The main earth leads may need a bit of TLC as well, check your heavy lead from the battery to the chassis or engine for spotless connection were it is terminated especially the solder inside the fittings, the solder maybe cracked and oxidised, reheat them and run some fresh solder in.

The other lugs to look at and do a bit of maintenance on , is the lugs on the braided cable ( Part Number 219649 ) that goes from the gearbox bell housing to the left hand side chassis rail, that braided cable failing is a known reason why the choke cable sheath suddenly starts to smoke and glow when starting the engine and the reason why is it becomes the current path for the starter earth.

That braided cable is prone to disintegrating with time and when the wires become less as they break, it can reach a point were there isn't enough of them to carry the starting current, it then can heat up due to the increase in resistance and burns apart leading to the choke cable smoking as well.

So anyone else reading this posting should do a look and fix on these points, it is the best type of preventive maintenance and if after having a look, you find no problems then that's the best thing that can happen, go clean up and enjoy a beer.
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Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

The other lugs to look at and do a bit of maintenance on , is the lugs on the braided cable ( Part Number 219649 ) that goes from the gearbox bell housing to the left hand side chassis rail, that braided cable failing is a known reason why the choke cable sheath suddenly starts to smoke and glow when starting the engine and the reason why is it becomes the current path for the starter earth.

That braided cable is prone to disintegrating with time and when the wires become less as they break, it can reach a point were there isn't enough of them to carry the starting current, it then can heat up due to the increase in resistance and burns apart leading to the choke cable smoking as well.

enjoy a beer.
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Holey crap!!, does it start spinning its head on its shoulders and spewing forth green vomit at the same time