Electric issue

I have an electrical issue I'm not sure about. I think the gauge is faulty but would like other opinions please. At 2000 revs the gauge shows a continuous discharge. Am I right in thinking it's the gauge at fault. Battery shows 13.46 volts at 2000 revs. Thanks for any help/advice. The gauge Never shows a charge.
Regards Terry HWP_20210211_10_56_23_Pro.jpgWP_20210211_10_56_43_Pro.jpg
 
A couple of questions:

  • Does the discharge only show only above 2000rpm?
  • Have you tried pulling any fuses to see if this traces the discharge to a certain circuit?
  • Have you got any additional wiring for things like an electric fan? Might be worth checking these.
The voltage at the battery looks ok, maybe a touch low? - I believe an alternator should output between 13.5 (some say 13.8) and 14.4V when running but could easily be wrong on that! The voltage in itself doesn't really tell you much about the discharge, but does confirm your charging system seems to work ok.
 
"Does the discharge only show only above 2000rpm?"
Always shows a discharge, never shows a charge even with everything turned off. If I turn things on like lights it shows a bigger discharge.

"Have you tried pulling any fuses to see if this traces the discharge to a certain circuit?"
No not tried pulling fuses yet.

"Have you got any additional wiring for things like an electric fan? Might be worth checking these."
No additional wiring. The Alternator was changed by a previous owner in 1987, but is showing a good charge now.

Regards Terry H
 
I have just bought a oil/amp gauge which was supposed to be NOS with no packaging. It turned out to be for a 3.5 V8 car, so no good for me. Anyone interested in buying it.
Regards Terry H
WP_20210128_10_26_05_Pro.jpg
 
I thought the ammeter would be different for the 3.5 as is the oil PSI, but I suppose there's no reason for it to be different, so yes I could. Will have a look when it gets warmer tomorrow, it's bloody freezing down here in South Wales.
Regards Terry H
 
Charging can go as high as 14.7v, but should stabilize close to 14.1v in my experience.
 
Update on this problem. I had a starting and running issue a while back and thought it was the ignition switch connecting block above the cubby hole in the dashboard, because when I pulled the connecting block down the car would start and run properly. Anyway, having removed the block and put spade connectors in it's place the problem didn't go away, so I bought a new ignition switch that only had 4 wires where as the switch on the car had 7 wires and only 4 from the harness. Having spoken to Mark Gray he told me my switch should only have 4 wires as there are only 4 coming out the harness so I went with that. All fitted and connected up now and I now have a fully functioning Ammeter as well. So the fault all along was the ignition switch.
Regards Terry H
 
Just realised that my ignition lock (the bit where the key goes) is upside down. As the switch that was fitted by a PO was for a V8 and the wrong one for the car which is a 2000TC, I can only assume that the switch and lock was taken from a left hand drive car and retrofitted to mine. Maybe it had a problem when the PO used it abroad and a V8 P6 was found in a scrapyard there and used to get them home and forgotten about. Just a theory.
Regards Terry H
 

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