Rory,
It look like you may have found what killed your first
stabilizer -- a short circuit in one of the instruments or
senders. I would suggest disconnecting the power then
putting an ohmmeter on the line to the instruments (where
the output of the stabilizer connects) and measuring the
resistance while moving a few wires around and then
disconnecting each gauge that runs off of the stabilized
voltage looking for a 'reasonable' resistance.
As I understand it, the stabilizer is NOT a resistor
divider as is used in other cars but rather a s_l_o_w
vibrator that pulses voltage to highly damped gauges.
It should NOT smoke under any circumstances unless
the load on the circuit is way too high. I=E/R still. Current
is inversely related to resistance or load. If 'R' gets low, as in
a short circuit, then 'I' gets large and invents smoke. :-]
Best,
rick
The Sinclairs wrote:
> You may remember I've had trouble with this before, but I
> think I'm close to finding the answer. I just got a new one
> from Moss, and hooked it up, (though without attaching it to
> the bulkhead, thus not giving it a ground), and it started
> smoking. I got it disconnected before it was hurt (I think),
> but now I'm afraid to reconnect it. I read on the archives
> that connecting the wires to it without grounding it will
> cause 13 volts to go through it, but is that enough to burn
> it up?
> Thanks for the help.
> Rory
> '68 B
--
Rick Lindsay
Diamond Geoscience Research
5727 S. Lewis Ave., Tulsa, OK
Voice: +1 918-747-3456
Fax: +1 918-747-8599
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