[TR] my TR3's control head

Paul Dorsey dorpaul at negia.net
Mon Jan 14 19:30:08 MST 2008


List,
I spent this weekend working on my steering.  I only got out 2 of the 3 tiny
setscrews that must hold the control head to the steering wheel.  I drilled
out the third screw, however, the control head still did not want to seperate
and after limited prying on the pretty brown plastic, I decided to  just leave
it on  the steering wheel (without removing it).
     I had seen where (hopefully just) the brown wire was making metal to
metal  contact with the bottom end of the stator tube (as it emerges the tube
beyond the steering box).  Wrapping this naked spot with electrical tape had
been my best reason for wanting to remove the control head, to begin with
    Since I had given up on the control head.  I decided to run up the
4-strand control head's wiring with a 2" piece of 'shrink tubing' that just
might insulate the naked wire from the stator tube.  I managed to slide it up
all the strands (togather) and into the tube and partially out-of-sight (half
in- half out of the bottom end of the stator tube).
    To find out if I had achieved success, I tested each of the 4 wires with a
AA- powered short circuit tester.  Not really knowing what wires go where, I
found several wires that made a circuit when the turn signals were activated.
The one that I was most concerned about was the brown wire which made a strong
circuit when it was touched with the metal stator tube.  Does this mean that
my 'shrink tubing' fix did not work?  Or is this suppose to happen?  I am
hoping someone can tell me how to check for other electrical problems, or
electrical 'symptoms' before I insert the stator tube through the steering
column.  Please tell me (by understanding what I have said, IF you think it's
worth risking harm to an intact plastic control head to risk somehow removing
it.  I am ok with my 'patch job' using shrink tubing only IF this repair
works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    It may be that others think I need to wait till I get more of my car's
wiring working so that I can test the control head wiring for horns and
blinker.  These are the only things a control head do aren't they?

I'm hoping someone can tell me how to do a reliable test of these 4 wires so
that I don't have to remove a difficult-and-reluctant control head.

Thanks,
Paul Dorsey
60 TR3A


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