GTE electrical whine

Hi Graham,

my first guess would be the regulator in the upper right footwell (on a lhd car) as you say it is when you turn the ignition circuit on. Not sure if yours is rhd or lhd. If it is not tge approach you plan makes sense to me. Not sure if it helps.

Christopher

 

Perhaps an interior fan motor switch/lever is "on", and it is energized upon employment of the key?

RF.

 

Graham, I was writing my first post while your second appeared with myself not noticing it. If it comes from the outside it will not be the regulator.
This is located in the upper footwell on the right side in a lhd car behind the air hoses, but inside the car. You do have the ventilator on the bulkhead in the engine compartement and the wiper motor. Both should be easy to separate in terms of the noise. The starter solenoid is operated by pressing the key and again easy to separate.
So you say it stops when you take out the top left hand fuse. Will take a look at my wiring diagram tomorrow.

 

Hi Graham,

just checked on my car and wiring diagramm. Fuse you mention is wired to alternator/generator controller. Beside this to ignition coils. So as suggested above I would check for the controller. For position please refer to my post above and enclosed picture. Hope you find the noise as something like this can run oneself mad.

Christopher
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Just one thing. Mine is a Series 3 and my wiring diagramm from Kerry is also for a S3 and America. Yours is a Series 1 but I assume wiring to be not so much different.

 

serie 1 has an alternator, serie 3 a generator

 

I know. But I believe both should have the regulator in the right hand side footwell for a lhd car and the wiring should be comparable

 

Graham. did you find the source?

 

Not much point in trying to figure out an electrical problem in a 60-year-old car, without knowing at all which version we are talking about and what type of modifications have been done to electrical circuitry. In an original S.1-2 car there is harly anything inside that could keep noise, except blower motor maybe. On late cars the alternator controller is inside if I recall right, but I would presume a transistor unit would just die quietly and the relay is still on the main circuit board in the engine compartment. It should be relatively easy to listen if the noise comes from the inside of the car, engine compartment, inside main circuit board, behind it (wiper motor), under the car (overdrive-plunger), inside left rear wheel well (electric fuel pump) and it should also be relatively easy to disconnet a few fuses/wires to eliminate components under suspicion. My main suspect is an added relay inside dashboard or center console, which has a loose wire and therefore rattles til it dies. I'd try a stetoscope to trace down a sound, a piece of hard plastic hose works fine especially if you put a plug to your other ear.

I would be particularly concerned that it is not battery plus that is "whining". My GTE, likely being one of the first cars built with bigger 400-watt generator (DN63), had the circuit board revised for a larger voltage regulator (IR50A) and it was installed with a very small space separating the three terminals from the bodywork, including terminal 30+ a.k.a. battery plus. As soon as the carbs flooded, the regulator ignited the car like a torch.

 

You might also try contacting Tom Yang at tom@tomyang.net.. He has worked on a lot of GTEs.

 

Ser 1 has a generater and the later ser 3 has a Marelli alternater

 

don´t think so
a generator has 3 phase AC with diodes to get DC, and an alternator produce AC ( as I know, the translator is not 100% )

 

I would check any electrical connection on the coils and the distributors. Also the capacitors itself. Check the coils resistances. Check the ignition points.

 

this could be the problem

disconnect from each coil the + wire and see from what coil the noise comes

 

I agree. By removing the HT leads without having the engine run it is clear that nothing happens. As Romano suggest remove the positive feed of the coils one after the other and look if something changes.