Author Topic: Very poor electrical system from factory.  (Read 5171 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

KAL SPL

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 231
  • Karma: 0
Very poor electrical system from factory.
« on: June 12, 2011, 02:41:42 PM »
For years I have had issues with electrical gremlins that I have never made a concerted effort to fix.
Worse one being the indicators dont flash if my head lights are on and I put my foot on the brake , release the brake pedal and indicators work again.
Changed my car to electronic ignition years ago and wasnt until I wired in a new interior light I notice pulsing the through the globe when engine was running , I assumed it was to do with electronic ignition.
My low beam lights (pretty much all I use) made a noticable drop in brightness as the revs dropped slowing down at night time.

Most of the warning lights on the cluster sort of dim off as others are triggered , the worse one I guess is the actual engine surging cruising at speed , it feels very odd and it was deffinately a unique issue.

Over the last few days I have disected a spare harness I have on my bench in an attempt to construct a new dash for my car , it wasnt until going through the whole thing that I discovered the ignition circut is on 1 big loop.

I always assumed I had bad earths or there was poor joins somewhere in the harness , I wired a relay into the existing ignition feed at the fuse box so it was getting 12V straight from the battery , everything now works as if the car was brand new !
No more dim lights , warning lights are brighter than ever , my indicators work ALL the time , no more pulsing interior light and NO MORE surging which im exstactic about.

Im just wondering if anyone else has the same poor circutry and would be interested in the modification I have done just to rectify the issues listed above.
« Last Edit: June 12, 2011, 02:45:21 PM by KAL SPL »
Aus's cleanest Niki !

drwheetos

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 33
  • Karma: 1
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2011, 03:23:09 PM »
Hell yea! That would be really helpful   :D

Darrell

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1715
  • Karma: 4
    • facebook profile
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2011, 04:31:45 PM »
My indicators stop when I hit the brakes if the headlamps are on. The wipers speed-up and slow down depending on what is on :P
The aircooled did have interesting wiring  :D

That relay you wired in sounds like genius! I've used a relay for my headlamps but will give that a go.
'84 aircooled 126 & 500F still in kit form
Not the only African in the village :)

KAL SPL

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 231
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2011, 12:15:25 AM »
Ohh the wipers I forgot about them , on first speed mine barely move freely , on high they seem to be ok , I will try them now , just another thing that works better :)

I will do a picture guide up with exact wiring , its very very simple actually , dont need any electrical back ground but it may help if you wish to actually understand HOW it works.
Aus's cleanest Niki !

Allan

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 226
  • Karma: 1
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2011, 01:15:40 AM »
Everyone who ever owned a Fiat from this era can tell you stories about electrical problems. A times I began to wonder if Fiat was owned by a world wide consortiun of auto electricians.

124cso

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 158
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2011, 11:43:47 AM »
I wired a relay into the existing ignition feed at the fuse box so it was getting 12V straight from the battery , everything now works as if the car was brand new !
I take it you pulled power from the smaller wire (that attaches to battery terminal) at the fuse box, but where did you feed it to ? light circuits ??

KAL SPL

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 231
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2011, 01:44:01 PM »
I used the existing ignition feed on the base of the realy box , that comes from my key barrel and is the normal source for all the ignition system components , I put that on 85 of the relay , 86 to ground , ran constant power from the battery with a 30 amp fuse inline onto 30 , 87 went to the pin on the fuse box that the ignition came from.
Aus's cleanest Niki !

126bis1997

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 58
  • Karma: 0
Power and circuits.
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2011, 06:26:09 PM »
You must be talking about 126 aircooled i presume! Coz in the case of BIS ,I never encountered such power failure in the circuit. :-)

KAL SPL

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 231
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2011, 01:23:12 AM »
We only get the air cooled in Australia mate :)
Aus's cleanest Niki !

KAL SPL

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 231
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2011, 04:11:20 AM »
Had a bit of a rethink on my solution , it may not work with anyone else as I described above because my car has no key barrel Im running a switch for ignition which is linked with accesories.
If you were to do the way I described above then your instrument cluster will get no ignition power and the there will be no ignition feed to the rear of the car , if anyone is interested in actually doing this then let me know and I will work out the correct wiring so it will work with OEM wiring.

The only real difference will be that you have to bridge pin 87 back to 85
Aus's cleanest Niki !

Darrell

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 1715
  • Karma: 4
    • facebook profile
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2011, 08:27:03 AM »
Yeah but it could work, one would simply leave the power in and out of the ignition switch, pick it up once out of the switch to switch the relay, and wore through the relay directly from the battery to power-up the circuits, sure it can be done and may be a brilliant defence against small leaks off the battery.

I will do some fiddling with that concept when I get a moment ;)
'84 aircooled 126 & 500F still in kit form
Not the only African in the village :)

AlleyNiki

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 163
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #11 on: June 18, 2011, 04:22:38 AM »
Had a bit of a rethink on my solution , it may not work with anyone else as I described above because my car has no key barrel Im running a switch for ignition which is linked with accesories.
If you were to do the way I described above then your instrument cluster will get no ignition power and the there will be no ignition feed to the rear of the car , if anyone is interested in actually doing this then let me know and I will work out the correct wiring so it will work with OEM wiring.

The only real difference will be that you have to bridge pin 87 back to 85

I'm DEFINITELY interested! Although my lights don't work too badly the indicators could be brighter, and I've already checked the earths. I get the exact same problems you've described but I have an ignition key. Any help would be fantastic, mate especially as no one knows anything about these cars here!

KAL SPL

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 231
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #12 on: June 18, 2011, 04:36:13 AM »
Theres nothing I DONT know about these cars now , having rebuilt mine from scratch in every aspect to wrecking 3 other cars im full bottle on every niggling problem you can think of !
Aus's cleanest Niki !

AlleyNiki

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 163
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #13 on: June 18, 2011, 07:02:30 AM »
I do need to ask this though:

What's the actual cause of the problem here? Not enough current?

Is the car trying to power too many things off a circuit that just can't deliver the goodies?  :-


KAL SPL

  • Super Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 231
  • Karma: 0
Re: Very poor electrical system from factory.
« Reply #14 on: June 18, 2011, 08:38:25 AM »
Given that everything tries to run off 1 continual loop wire I would say yes , primarily it was to small and add to that 20 years of corrosion it just cant cut it anymore.
Cermaic fuses are also not known for there lasting efforts.
Aus's cleanest Niki !