Lately, I noticed that if I haven't started\driven the X for a few days, the battery has mysteriously lost enough charge to be no longer able to activate the starter. Or it just darn flat as the proverbial. While a battery pack immediately addresses that malady, it was time to figure out the what.
Suspecting the lighting circuit - I had made some recent changes in that area - I disconnected the rheostat - that thumbwheel switch in the middle of the center console panel and the dash panel rocker switch. After a week, the battery hadn't lost it's charge so there was the culprit on one or both of those items.
My X is a June 1980 build. There seems to have been some crossover change made to the dash and fiber optic lighting at about that build time; I'm sure we could likely narrow it down but there is some disparity in how the dash\fiber lighting can be controlled.
As others might attest (Mac you may remember back to 2001), some X's of this timeframe have only the rheostat to brighten\dim all dash\fiber lighting; where as others have the rheostat and a 3 position dash panel rocker switch - the rheostat controls the fiber, the rocker switch controls off/on for dash lights. Mine originally came only with the rheostat. I added the dash panel rocker switch and wired that up later. The 3 position rocker switch really is functional for two positions - off and on.
On my X, I have a 3 wire connector for the rheostat - no drama there in figuring out which color coded wire connect to which terminal - and two additional wires (black + yellow/red) for the rocker switch, which I had figured out which one connected to which terminal. The attached image shows the current switch layout and the offending wiring ... yes, that fog light switch is for rear fog lights; I use it for front frog lights.
Now when I was connecting this arrangement back and doing some additional troubleshooting, I noticed that with the ignition on or engine running, smoke was escaping from the rheostat. As an aside, in the silicon chip world, letting the smoke out of a silicon chip usually is a bad thing and means one has to replace said smoke free silicon chip with another chip that has the smoke still trapped (this is a funny comment, of course!). So I assume that this meant the same and have ordered a new rheostat from C.Obert and clan.
So now I am a-wondering, if somehow the rheostat was u/s to start with, or my electrical shenanighans caused said failure.
Questions:
If you have a 6/80 build X, how is your dash\fiber lighting controlled.
For those with a dash panel rocker switch - 6/80 build or not - are there just two wires connected - black (grd) + yellow\red.
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thanks for reading!
Suspecting the lighting circuit - I had made some recent changes in that area - I disconnected the rheostat - that thumbwheel switch in the middle of the center console panel and the dash panel rocker switch. After a week, the battery hadn't lost it's charge so there was the culprit on one or both of those items.
My X is a June 1980 build. There seems to have been some crossover change made to the dash and fiber optic lighting at about that build time; I'm sure we could likely narrow it down but there is some disparity in how the dash\fiber lighting can be controlled.
As others might attest (Mac you may remember back to 2001), some X's of this timeframe have only the rheostat to brighten\dim all dash\fiber lighting; where as others have the rheostat and a 3 position dash panel rocker switch - the rheostat controls the fiber, the rocker switch controls off/on for dash lights. Mine originally came only with the rheostat. I added the dash panel rocker switch and wired that up later. The 3 position rocker switch really is functional for two positions - off and on.
On my X, I have a 3 wire connector for the rheostat - no drama there in figuring out which color coded wire connect to which terminal - and two additional wires (black + yellow/red) for the rocker switch, which I had figured out which one connected to which terminal. The attached image shows the current switch layout and the offending wiring ... yes, that fog light switch is for rear fog lights; I use it for front frog lights.
Now when I was connecting this arrangement back and doing some additional troubleshooting, I noticed that with the ignition on or engine running, smoke was escaping from the rheostat. As an aside, in the silicon chip world, letting the smoke out of a silicon chip usually is a bad thing and means one has to replace said smoke free silicon chip with another chip that has the smoke still trapped (this is a funny comment, of course!). So I assume that this meant the same and have ordered a new rheostat from C.Obert and clan.
So now I am a-wondering, if somehow the rheostat was u/s to start with, or my electrical shenanighans caused said failure.
Questions:
If you have a 6/80 build X, how is your dash\fiber lighting controlled.
For those with a dash panel rocker switch - 6/80 build or not - are there just two wires connected - black (grd) + yellow\red.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
thanks for reading!
