[alfa] Speedo Electrical Gremlin Found!

["Kenneth Casper" <iflyfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

I posted a note about a month ago asking for some help diagnosing an
electrical glitch that caused the fuse controlling my speedo to blow when I
reached speeds of 75-80 mph. I got a fair number of individual responses from
many of you with some great suggestions. I checked many of the items you
suggested and finally found what I believe to be the source of my woes over
the weekend.

I crawled under the car and found a pair of exposed spade lugs just dangling
high up on the side of the bell housing on the tranny. After investigating, it
looks like the previous owner had had the housing off at one point and failed
to hook up the backup lights. I checked, and I have no backup lights. The way
the lugs were just dangling, I thought, "Man, I'll bet that is my problem!" I
knew the backup lights were part of the circuit in question. I could see no
way of hooking these up without removing the bell housing. So I put some
electrical tape over each wire, taped them together, then secured them to the
frame.  I guess I'll be without backup lights until I do some tranny work.

Afterwards I took the Spider out for a spin. I ran a pretty long stretch in
excess of 80 mph, and the speedo held strong! No shorting. I drove long enough
that in the past the fuse would have blown, so I am very hopeful I have found
the problem. I guess at speed, the wires were being pushed up by the wind to
short out against the bell housing or something else.

Next up: my tach, which some days reads correctly and other days reads 1-1.5K
too low. I've read the "how to" on adjusting a lazy tach, but mine seems to be
more than lazy as some days it reads fine. If any of you have any good tips on
this one, drop me an email!

Thanks again for all your input and help!

Ken Casper

93 Yellow Spider Veloce (with a working speedo)
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided