Assistance with '73 Femsatronic Rally 200 wiring please

[cgt75b]

Happy days, really pleased you got to the route of the problem, champion

[storkfoot]

Happy days, really pleased you got to the route of the problem...

.... without having to take that loom out again

Thanks for your help, Paddy.

Paul

[storkfoot]

Don't throw old original stuff out. You never know when you'll need it!

When I was re-wiring the Rally, I managed to break in two the rear brake light switch. Basically, it was just the plastic casing that was broken. Anyway, I threw it in the bottom of a box and bought another. I bought what I believed to be about the best quality I could find, however, it was a bit flimsy inside.

Suffice to say, it's been rubbish. The internal mechanism has all the build quality of some of the Airfix models I made when I was 8

So, I found the old one in the bottom of the box and rebuilt the original switch internal parts into the new casing. It all works fine now.

I know that most of us seasoned tinkerers will be well aware of this type of event. I just thought I'd share it for any new tinkerers on the forum

[cgt75b]

Hi Paul

I never throw anything out

How are you getting on with that speedo ?

[storkfoot]

It's going in the post to the lad in Holland tomorrow. He replied to the emails I sent and gave me the distinct impression he knows what he is doing. If only some UK dealers would appreciate the value of communication.

[storkfoot]

Again, I have a few lighting and horn issues so I have been out checking continuity with a multimeter.

A question. The rectifier is clearly ancient (it's the circular thing in the middle of the junction box as far as I can tell) Is there anyway of checking whether it works ok?

[coaster]

Again, I have a few lighting and horn issues so I have been out checking continuity with a multimeter.

A question. The rectifier is clearly ancient (it's the circular thing in the middle of the junction box as far as I can tell) Is there anyway of checking whether it works ok?

Should be fairly straight forward, it's only a half wave rectifier. If you disconnect the battery you should be able to read DC volts with the engine running on one of the terminals. If you don't get DC then further investigation is needed but I think you will need to disconnect that capacitor that connected in parallel to it. With the capacitor disconnected and all other wired removed, a healthy single phase rectifier will give a very low resistance reading one way and a very high one (infinity) the other way when tested on ohms. A rectifier is basically a one way valve which only passes positive pulses from the AC feed......it might be easier to chat on the phone

[storkfoot]

Again, I have a few lighting and horn issues so I have been out checking continuity with a multimeter.

A question. The rectifier is clearly ancient (it's the circular thing in the middle of the junction box as far as I can tell) Is there anyway of checking whether it works ok?

Should be fairly straight forward, it's only a half wave rectifier. If you disconnect the battery you should be able to read DC volts with the engine running on one of the terminals. If you don't get DC then further investigation is needed but I think you will need to disconnect that capacitor that connected in parallel to it. With the capacitor disconnected and all other wired removed, a healthy single phase rectifier will give a very low resistance reading one way and a very high one (infinity) the other way when tested on ohms. A rectifier is basically a one way valve which only passes positive pulses from the AC feed......it might be easier to chat on the phone

Thanks for your help, Col. I'll give you a call later in the week, mate.

[storkfoot]

I haven't got round to trying to check the rectifier yet but I believe I have solved my issues with my Rally 200 electrics.

The clue was in the first post when I referred to a burnt out loom. This I did almost a year ago. At the time I thought that I would have harmed the battery but, as the months have gone by, I forgot about that.

Anyway, new battery, acid and charge and electrics seem all good again.

[coaster]

Does that mean that the horn, side and brake lights are behaving themselves now Paul?