Hey guys, Seem to have 2 pins which are giving me a problem when it comes to having a good connection (arching and generating heat) which fry part of the white connector that holds them in place (i know this is common with TR's) My question : should i remove the two pins - strip the wires and install some new (stronger) female lugs - connecting them directly to the male pins in the fuse panel? Getting rid of the small (inadequate pins) that the factory installed ? Any help would be appreciated
I think it certainly can't hurt -- and IMO you're in a situation where doing nothing really isn't an option. The male pins on the PWB might be somewhat embrittled (and/or the surrounding PWB traces/solder) from the heat so it might fail completely eventually anyway (where you're then stuck with either adding a patch from the wire with the female socket in the white connector directly to the appropriate relay output tab or buying a new fusepanel) -- good luck (I've bypassed three of the high current paths on my TR fusepanel so far -- the main AC +12V power and the 2 coolant radiator fan circuits)...
This post: http://www.ferrarichat.com/discus/messages/256120/10152.html#POST41416 shows the added wire patches (and I added individual in-line connectors so that the fusepanel could still be completely unplugged). But go to the old FChat site and search on "TR white connectors" (and mode, whole words only) -- you should get 13 relevant posts.
My 87 had fuse board issues...which caused me to replace the board 2X in 10 years. Now....every 4-6 months....I take the offending connectors apart and clean them and put some dielectric grease on them and I haven't had a problem in 4 years. The circuits that give me problem are the AC (not fun in AZ) and the fuel pump. Ciao...Dino
Every 6 months is a lot of work. Seems too much. Put a small bag of dessicant near the fuse panel to dry it up. I thought AZ was dry already?
i tried the dielectric grease idea - clean them periodically, but still they still seem to generate some heat - live in Florida (you know how wet we are )
Sorry to ask this of you Steve. I appreciate you posted this a long time ago but the URL you quoted above points to what looks like an archived part of the site. Whilst the text is readable, the attached images are not. I would be love to see the pics you took of bypassing the white connector using the wire patches. Do you still have them by chance?
These jpegs show how I did the AC and water fan repair (I eventually did the fuel pump circuits too) -- essentially just adding a high-current capable connection from the relay output tab of interest to the corresponding downstream side wire of the white connector: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login I do sort of like this "external" repair that someone posted -- doesn't do anything electrial directly for the white connector, but just soldering a wire onto the back of the PWB pin would act like a heat sink and help conduct heat away. Not something that can be applied as a "fix" after a serious problem has occurred (unless the problem was between the PCB trace and the male pin), but would guess that it would help prolong the time to failure by just lowering the temp -- now if I only had a virgin TR to experiment with ... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks Steve, you are a star! I thought I understood what you had done from the text but the jpegs just helped confirm it. Whilst my AC connection on the white k connector looks seriously frazzled, my AC has started working again bizarrely (perhaps because I disconnected and reconnected the white k connector and managed to restore a bit of contact) but I need to check those radiator fans - that's a worry. Anyone know if there is a way of testing the radiator fans other than warming engine up until they are supposed to kick in?
Just unplug each water fan relay and use a jumper wire to connect the female terminal 30 spade connector to the female terminal 87 spade connector in the relay socket as shown in this jpeg: Image Unavailable, Please Login The corresponding water radiator fan should run -- if the white connector is OK (even with the key "off").
