Me and electricity don't get along.
Thanks to some helpful suggestions from Paul Bauman, I have isolated the
"blowing fuse" cause to the front running lights.
Currently, I am fine when daytime running, but with headlites on the
park/tail fuse lasts ~4-5 minutes. If I turn on the blinkers with
headlites on the blinker fuse lasts 2-3 minutes.
I removed the front running lite bulbs and the fuse doesn't blow in 10
minutes. I'll try a run to work this week to see if it blows in 30
minutes or so.
When I dis-assembled the front blinkers, I found horribly rusty bulb
sockets, but the two elec connections in the bottom were clean. I
sanded the insides and re-installed, but no change of fuse life.
Not sure if it is related, but my blinkers flash on the right side,
(they act normal) but when left hand side is chosen, the right side tail
bulbs dim and left dash indicator just comes on, doesn't flash. I tried
replacing the old blinker modules with new ones, no change except the
right side has a quicker, more regular pace. The pace of them used to
be engine speed related.
I suspect that for some time my old alt/volt reg set-up was putting out
low voltage, (yellow headlites, variable blinker rate) so when I swapped
to 55 amp GM alt (wired with 30 amp fuse into stock alt wire, per
311.org) now I have full voltage, making my lites brighter but also
blowing my blinker and park/tail fuses. Park/tail fuse runs REALLY HOT
- well, unti it blows and gets thrown out.
Amp gauge is functioning, and reads ~+10 with lites on and +1-2 with
lites off. When alt was first swapped, it would run +10 after starting
for a few minutes, then go back to 0 unless lites were turned on.
Battery is new.
So my question:
Do the 2-filament lite bulb sockets (the cylindrical portion) serve an
electrical function (ground) or just a physical function (hold the
bulb). I could scrub them till winter, but if I am still going to have
a bad connection, time is better spent chasing that. There are 2
connections, and 2 filaments, so they must be grounding thru the bulb
socket, yes?
Help and suggestions (other than 'have you thought of a Miata') are
welcomed. Have my multimeter ready and waiting.
Fergus O, 69 2L, can still go on Mini Iron Btm Run, as long as the drive
up I don't use my blinkers on the drive to the start..... Most in LA
don't anyway)
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