Electrical Gremlin

[RogerU]

I have a '72 1.7 liter that I bought from the original owner 2 years ago. Friday I was taking her to work when I came to an intersection where I was turning left. I had the turn signal and I noticed the tach bouncing around, but the engine remained at idle. The alternator light came on. When I took off, the alt light went out. If I engaged the turn signals, the tach would bounce from "0" to "3-5,000", the alt light came on but the signal lights in the tach did not come on. When I applied the brakes, the tach went to "0" and the alt light came on. I don't think the brake lights were working because a Caddy nearly ran up my tail pipe! So, I took the car home and drove the Camry to work.

That night my neighbor came over and we started trying to figure out what was wrong. Discovered the #9 fuse was toasted (brake lights, turn signals, back-up lights). He thought it was the brake light switch. So, I pulled out the floorboard and found the remains of a rat's nest. Cleaning it out, I found a couple of foil chewing gum wrappers. Because the brake light switch appeared to be in tight and the connections looked good, we figured that a wrapper found its way to one or both of the connectors causing a short. Cleaned everything up, wrapped the connectors in electrical tape, replaced the fuse and everything worked!

Today, I'm driving around and just as I get home the turn signals don't work, the tach bounces and the alt light comes on dim. I pull into the garage and turn the engine off. With the engine off, the signals and all the other lights work fine.

Any ideas were I should be looking?

Thanks,

Roger

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Polly's Patron
Chrome Yellow '72 1.7

[green71]

Roger,

I'm kinda new to this 914 stuff, but I can tell you that I've had similar poltergeist-like symptoms that seemed to be caused by a loose battery ground strap. One gauge went haywire, giving false temperature and fuel level readings; the alternator lamp came on & off intermittantly, too. I simply removed & reattached the ground strap & it's been fine since. I've also heard that straps can develop excessive resistance over time, causing them to lose effectiveness.

This may be grossly oversimplified, but it's cheap to check!

Good luck,

Mark

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1971 1.7l 914
Willow Green

[RogerU]

Thanks for the reply. I think I found the problem. When I first got the car, I removed the radio. It was a piece of junk that didn't work and missing knobs. I thought a hole in the dash looked better. Instead of pulling the power supply out completely, I just tucked it up under the dash for the day I would put a new radio in.

Well, I pulled the fuse box out and noticed the wire coiled up near the silver box plugged into the back-side of the fuse box with the relays that makes the turn signals and hazards "blink". It was connected to the #9 fuse - the one that blew. And the end was still stripped of insulation. I think it fell into the gap between the silver "blinker box" and the board causing an intermittent short. Needless to say, it came out. So far, no problems. I hope this was it.

Thanks,

Roger

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Polly's Patron
Chrome Yellow '72 1.7

[John Rogers]

Does your fuse panel have one of the covers? If not it is a good idea to get one since you can accidentally kick the fuse(s) and knock them loose or break them. There is one of the fuses near the right side that if blown or has bad contact will cause the symptoms you have (forget which one). We have had this happen to both our 914s, especially Julia's as she used to hit the fuses when getting in/out with a dress on! Of course it'll scare the hell out of you, especially if you are in traffic, etc. Good luck.