For those who graduated Lucas electrics Generator?

pldflyer

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Car had been running fine...got in car turned the ignition key on, heard the familiar fuel pump sound but noticed NO red ignition light on! Starts right up but ammeter shows no charge?? Now here is the strange part...turn the lights on while running and the tach goes dead, lights off and tach works!!!!! Has petronics ignition not wired with the ballast, stock generator and voltage regulator. Any ideas before rebuilding generator. I swapped voltage regulators with no change.
 
Task #1 - start car then disconnect the battery. If the engine dies your charging system is inop.

Task #2 - clean every ground you can find. There are several ground bolts under the dash that you need to make sure they are clean and tight. Several more in the engine compartment.

90% of Tiger electrical problems can be traced to bad grounds.
 
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Uncle Lucas

Car had been running fine...got in car turned the ignition key on, heard the familiar fuel pump sound but noticed NO red ignition light on! Starts right up but ammeter shows no charge?? Now here is the strange part...turn the lights on while running and the tach goes dead, lights off and tach works!!!!! Has petronics ignition not wired with the ballast, stock generator and voltage regulator. Any ideas before rebuilding generator. I swapped voltage regulators with no change.

See Duke's comments; AND, unplug & replug all the connections. Clean all the small posts and add-ons jumpers on the solenoid. Take care to ISOLATE the battery before cooking what you have extra crispy . . . . .The odds are that a needed light ground is taking a foreign path and is killing the tach.
 
As Theo noted on the Tiger List, you have lost a ground. I had exactly the same thing happen to me. Run a wire from the tach case to ground and everything will probably work.
 
The problem solved...actually 2 problems. A short in the generator armature was burning out the red ignition light, but luckily not the regulator or anything else. As I think back as long as I have owned it, I never had driven the car at night- so had never noticed that the tach would die when I turned the lights on. Only when trying to solve the no charge dilema by turning lights on while running did I discover the tach problem. After generator replaced, I found that the daisy chain ground wires for the instruments under the dash had stopped at the oil pressure gauge and were not attached to the tach, but dangling in space. Once reattached, that problem also solved.
 
The Stink of Victory

The problem solved...actually 2 problems. A short in the generator armature was burning out the red ignition light, but luckily not the regulator or anything else. As I think back as long as I have owned it, I never had driven the car at night- so had never noticed that the tach would die when I turned the lights on. Only when trying to solve the no charge dilema by turning lights on while running did I discover the tach problem. After generator replaced, I found that the daisy chain ground wires for the instruments under the dash had stopped at the oil pressure gauge and were not attached to the tach, but dangling in space. Once reattached, that problem also solved.

Dontcha just luv a success ? Treat yerself to an ice cream . . . . .
 
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