[T3] Lack of high beam and turn signals

[Bobsnotch at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/14/2011 12:46:25 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
dmoller9 at earthlink.net writes:

x the  ground issue first. Bad grounds will cause all kinds of funky 
behavior. I  don't have any experience with a 71,  but if the car is wired like 
the  Bentley schematic with a single ground point for all the idiot, dash 
lights,  the turn signal switch and the various light switches,  a 54 ohm  
resistance in the main ground to body could definitely cause most of the  issues. 

I've done the following fixing ground issues:

1. Remove  the octopus terminal or whatever the ground termination hardware 
is and clean  all the spades and body ground location of all corrosion with 
fine steel wool.  
2. Clean the ground body location to bare metal with fine sand paper,  
steel wool, scotch brite, etc. 
3 Reassemble ground termination hardware  and check resistance from a spade 
to the body.  If less than 1 ohm, you  are good. If not take the thing 
apart again and work on more virgin bare metal  at the ground point.
3. Clean the terminals and check each of the ground  wires individually 
terminal to terminal. Be sure to wiggle the wire near each  terminal looking 
for changes in resistance. Any momentary change in resistance  needs to be 
fixed by replacing the terminal or the whole wire.     
4. Reassemble all the wires to the ground and check the resistance from  
the head end of the wire to the body. Again 1 ohm or less is what you  want.  
5. When you are all done fixing the grounds make sure to seal  the ground 
octopus or ground hardware and the body seam to prevent  corrosion.

Its always a nasty job to fix ground  issues.

Dave




Yes, this is very good advice. I too have found grounds to cause funky  
things to happen. Also I've found "inactivity" another cause. Remember, these  
cars were designed to be driven, not parked. Go thru the examples Dave 
listed  above, and also find a couple of screws for the fuse box, as I know it 
needs to  be grounded as well. Same applies to the hazard switch. Get ALL of 
your grounds  as close to "0"ohms as you can. More than likely, you bumped 
the wire off the  center black plug on the fuel gauge cluster (to the fuse 
box), which is what  supplies ALL of the 12 volts to the entire cluster.
 
As for the turn signal switch, you've probably got the column head too  
close to the steering wheel for it to work the high beams correctly. Loosen up  
the 2 screws (6mm allen wrench), and the clamp at the base of the  column 
head, and push it away from the steering wheel. You need a 2 to 3mm  gap 
between the steering wheel and the column head (page 31 Brown Bentley). I  hope 
this helps.  

Bob 65 Notch  S with sunroof and IRS (Krusty)
71 Notch (Krunchy)
64 T-34 Ghia  (Wolfie)
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