Signs of a short?

I had exactly the same thing . Its a relay. My problem was the alternator was giving to much power to the relay and blew it. Relay went eventually, changed it only to have the same thing again. Put a newer style regulator in rather than the original and this seemed to have solved it. The older type of regulators don't seem very good at coping with excess voltage although it is / was probably the alternator at fault in my case ie overcharging.

 

Many - if I remember correctly, there are two relays for the lights. When you turn the stalk to turn on the parking lights, you will hear a click. When you move the stalk down to activate the main beams and brights an additional relay comes into play.

The relay may be pulling the armature, but the high-current connection in the relay may be burnt. You will hear the click but no current will pass through the relay to the lights.

On the light relay check to make sure that C1 and C4 are connected. These are stamped on the bottom of the relay. C2 brings current to the relay, and the clicking suggests that you have a live connector at the electromagnet pulling the armature (C2). Any 12-volt inexpensive light relay can be used to test the system. These can be purchased at any auto parts store or electronic surplus shop. If you get such a relay let me know and I can walk you through how to connect it.

The problem is not the alternator or regulator.

Jim S.

 

Make a point of checking the connections at the back of the Amp gauge. When those connections go, none of the systems get full voltage and strange gremilns start to show up.

Of the last 4 in, 2 were at full melt down and 1 was very near.

 

Manny and Dave - loose amp meter connection is a serious issue. However, the symptom would not be as you described with the lights. The amp meter connections should be checked periodically and the brass nuts snugged up. The symptom of loose amp meter connection is heat. The back of the gauge will get quite hot, and can lead to fire or damaged gauge.

Jim S.

 

hat the problem area is the contacts at the base of the stalk on the steering column. A difficult place to get to and you'll need a special ring nut socket (38mm I think) to remove it.

I don't ever mean to jump Dave's posting but I believe he means to make sure
- the contact faces are clean so they make electrical contact
- the securing nuts are tight to make good mechanical contact

I believe the gauge needle might be jumping around if the contacts were loose and able to bounce around.

 

Nope. Consistantly low readings perhaps but none of the owners had a complaint of gauge readings being off.

High resistance causes high heat and low voltage/current available to everything down stream that is fed off of the circuit... a snowball sitting atop a big hill.

Make this a "first thing to check" when electrical problems show up on a 246. So many out there have come so close to burning from this situation and it only takes a few moments to look at it in a mirror. If it is starting to fail, a visual inspection will leave no question if it is a required repair.

The sympton's described are exactly what I have chased and found to be caused by failed connections at the gauge in the past. Surely it was the case on my 74GTS