Electrical problem from hell, divine guidance required.

[type26owner]

Berni,
It may be little comfort for you but Dave Bean shares your pain. He also has been plagued for a lifetime of electrical gremlins. He is quite the humorist and a blurb is included in Ken's paper.

I'm feeling lucky cause I also have only had the seat break on me numerous times too. I've got massive gussets on that sucker this time! You'll have to read it to understand.
'May the force be with you.'

[type26owner]

WTF? Nobody is going to tell me I'm wrong on this subject too? I'm disappointed.

[twincamman]

sorry Kieth I have been away today ------YOUR WRONG -------- --[feel better?]- ed

[type26owner]

Thanks Ed, you've come through for me again!

[Si_130/5]

Hi Berni,

I haven't got a wiring diagram for the +2S to hand but the fact you get the hazard warning lamp glowing on the dash could pinpoint the location of the bad earth.


Si

[type26owner]

Berni,
If you want to improve the headlights then here is the way to go. The limit is either the current output of the alternator/generator or the law governing the allowed highest brightness the lights can be. Alternators don't live very long when forced to output close to their limit continuously so keep that in mind.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

Check out the tiny gauge wire Lotus used on the bit going to the light pods. Little wonder everyone's lights are so pathetic. Gotta love the finest engineering work! If they didn't scrimp and save here and there they would have gone out of business though.

[type26owner]

Suppose I've been a little unkind to Lotus. Since that wiring is upstream of the radiator it is in cooler air and the electrical resistance is lower therefore the voltage drop would be less..... I do love the fact they stripped the car of most unnecessary weight and should shut my cakehole.

[M100]

For about 250 quid you can get a HID conversion - low current so the wiring can cope and high light output so you can see where you are going. Not sure how exactly they cope with the two HID's capsules in the space of the standard H4 filament lamp though.

[john.p.clegg]

Come on then Martin HID?,back at school following ohms law either the current or voltage has to be increased to increase power,unless you use different technology-HID?
John

[M100]

HID = High Intensity Discharge the same blue-white lights as you get on the German barges. The 12v is stepped up to a few kV and then an arc is struck between a couple of electrodes in a Xenon gas envelope. Current draw from the battery is about 35W but the conversion efficiency is much higher so the light intensity is about twice to three times that of a conventional headlamp.

[john.p.clegg]

Are they MOT legal as i have some high power bulbs that i suspect are illegal?
John

[M100]

All the MOT checks is light aim not intensity. Strictly speaking the use of non type approved lamps is not legal but as long as the lamp housing is aimed right and the mask optics are ok then it's unlikely you will get pulled.

I've not done the mod on any 7 inch lamps but I have retrofitted some for dipped beam on one of my 90's Elans using 5.75 inch units and it has sailed through the MOT (at least as far as the lighting is concerned!)

[berni29]

Thank you all for the advice.

I now have bright headlamps, and am waiting for some replacement 7" units that take the H4 bulbs. I have not really had the chance to solve the electric window problem becqause when I was doing the wireing in the nose I took the opportunity to move both of the pivot points for one of the pods to get it to sit straight and stop rubbing. I also fitted a bar from a later car so that the pods now move in tandem rather than one at a time (which I think looks really terrible!).

On the electrical front again, the hazard light on the dashboard flashes whenever I open a door or try the windows. Also the relay that connects to the electric windows clicks slightly when pushing the door contact. Something wrong there! Do the windows usually have a relay? I cannot see mention of it in the manual. Hopefully I will get the chance to investigate further tomorrow, and try some of the suggestions mentioned in previous posts.

Thanks again for the help.

Berni