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Q & A: Electrical

Mr. Twist,
1. I have a 1980 MGB. For quite some time now I have been having an electrical problem. It started out being a very little problem, but have very slowly, been becoming worse. In order to explain my problem, I will give some senarios.....

When I turn my heater fan on, the turn signals do not work, the blinking light just stays on.
When I have my windsheild wipers on, and I turn my headlights on, the wiper speed slows down.
If I have my headlights on, the turnsignal works very slowly.
When I have the headlights and the wipers on, the turnsignals dont work at all unless I turn the dash-lights all the way down.
When at a stop light with multiple devices running, the turnsignals do not work although when I rev the engine up, they start blinking slowly.



These are a few observations that I have made although that is not all the instances.Now here's what I have done in my quest to solve this problem.

I have replaced both the positive and negetive cables coming from the battery.
I have checked my motor-mount ground and it's fine.
My father, an electrician, checked my grounds and the multimeter determined that my grounds are fine.
I have a 1 to 2 volt drop at the fuse box. we noticed that some of the power-carrying lines at the fuse box didn't look very good so we replaced those connectors and it sped the blinker up, but did not solve the problem.
My battery is fine. It doesn't have a bad cell.
When I replaced the Battery cables, once again, it helped but did not fix the problem. It sped my starter(revs) too.



My father believes that the problem lies somewhere near the power wire that leaves the starter solinoid and that powers the components. He says that the wire is so small and carries so much that it might need to be replaced, or the terminals at the starter are also bad.

What is your opinion? Have you run accross this problem before? Do you have any advise?

Thank you very much for your help.

2. I checked the belt for tightness and it was fine. I removed the fusebox and cleaned it. It didn't look that dirty but I cleaned it up and it helped, but didn't cure the problem.

When I checked the voltage, I checked it a the fusebox, at the bottom fuse (since it was hot even when the ignition was off) and found that when the car was turned off, I had aprox. 12.47 volts. When I first started the car though the auto-choke was engaged and the idle was higher I don't know how high it was but the voltage reading was approx. 14.00 volts. when I blipped the accelerator and the Idle went down, to 500 rpm, I got the reading of 12.96.

About the ignition light on the dash. At night for example, I start the car, the light is on until i rev the engine up to 800-1000 rpm, and then the light goes off. When I turn the headlights on and rev the engine or just drive the car around. The ignition light is barely on, but as the rev's go up, the light gets much brighter. Then, when I drop back down into idle, the light fades back down to barely visible.


Sincerely,
Mike

Mike!
1. The turn signals are very voltage sensitive -- their slow blink rate or no blinking indicates that the voltage in the electrical circuit is too low. Here are some things to do:

Clean the fusebox -- actually remo... read more