Lighting electrical gremlin... (Page 1/1)
California Kid MAY 28, 12:12 AM
Hey everyone,

Dave Tracy and I are making some progress. We did a temp wire job to test the new MSD Digial 6AL box and that does indeed fix the issue with the motor. However we're not sure how to go about finding a solution to this odd blinking issue.

Sadly, in an old post Dad said he had this problem and solved it before, but he didn't post or write down his solution. Any help on where to start would be appreciated. Check out the quick video below.

https://youtu.be/Haur4PKpLSE
theogre MAY 28, 01:16 AM
Can barely hear what is making noise but no idea should be normal or your problem so I'm guessing.

HL have a auto reset breaker in the switch. Rest should be on fuses.
Unplug HL switch. Switch may have broken parts in it and tripping the breaker. Often Can hear this happening plus the switch can get warm to hot too because breaker is thermal type.

Pull out hazard switch on S Column and/or unplug hazard can next to blue dingy thingy.
H switch can break inside of column and stay on.
Amber Turns should blink too but just check it anyway.

1 Left Taillight is out... maybe bad "bulb" or iffy socket. See my Cave, Sneak Path and Lighbulbs
Weird taillight pattern... Camera can do odd things but If has LED in them then very likely won't help. Worse if has resistors too. See my Cave, LED poisoning

Dash dimmer and LEDs often do not play well but likely not the main problem here.

More then pull fuses one at a time to try to find the culprit.
No luck then disconnect aftermarket stuff.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

California Kid JUN 12, 10:41 PM

quote
Originally posted by theogre:

Can barely hear what is making noise but no idea should be normal or your problem so I'm guessing.

HL have a auto reset breaker in the switch. Rest should be on fuses.
Unplug HL switch. Switch may have broken parts in it and tripping the breaker. Often Can hear this happening plus the switch can get warm to hot too because breaker is thermal type.

Pull out hazard switch on S Column and/or unplug hazard can next to blue dingy thingy.
H switch can break inside of column and stay on.
Amber Turns should blink too but just check it anyway.

1 Left Taillight is out... maybe bad "bulb" or iffy socket. See my Cave, Sneak Path and Lighbulbs
Weird taillight pattern... Camera can do odd things but If has LED in them then very likely won't help. Worse if has resistors too. See my Cave, LED poisoning

Dash dimmer and LEDs often do not play well but likely not the main problem here.

More then pull fuses one at a time to try to find the culprit.
No luck then disconnect aftermarket stuff.




Thanks so much for the assistance.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the culprit: The Derringer 2: 2 way RF remote security system.



This thing is so old that searching for the model number only yields two pages of results. Most of them being forum posts asking, "WTF is this thing?" There is next to no documentation I can find, so I just unplugged everything running to it. No issues with the lights now, car starts and runs just fine. Can anyone think of a reason I should troubleshoot further?

D

[This message has been edited by California Kid (edited 06-12-2019).]

theogre JUN 12, 11:37 PM
No surprise... many have old crap like that in a car.
I would follow the wires to cut power at minimum. Rest doesn't matter much but make sure any plugs to it can't short to ground.
Besides power likely has horn and lights attach to it that causing problems and could blow fuses etc on other circuits.

I had a Very old Car Cell phone w/ main unit under the carpet on rear firewall behind P side seat.
I Cut power wire to it 20+ years ago but finally had to pull the seat to dry the carpet so I removed it last year.