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Smith's Guages Warning Light Question


Guest James24785

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Guest James24785

Are the warning lights grounded to make them operate?

 

Plugged my dash in today for the first time this year and found the oil warning light and battery light don't work. Problem is, I can't remember if they worked before or not. I've only driven it once since I bought it in November.

 

Looking at the wiring though, I can't see that they could of ever worked, but I may be wrong

 

Are all the warning lights in the taco fed via the white connector that's on a fly lead?

 

My alternator light wire is connected to the small black connector, which I think is wrong?

 

 

Also, the resistor across the alternator light pins gets stupidly hot when the ignition is switched on. Is this normal?

 

 

Cheers

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Hi James,

I may be confused by your question, are you asking about the oil pressure and ignition warning lights or the Smiths gauges back lights that should be wired into the side light circuit?

It all depends how the builder of the car has wired them.

 

Regards Martin

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Guest James24785

Hi James,

I may be confused by your question, are you asking about the oil pressure and ignition warning lights or the Smiths gauges back lights that should be wired into the side light circuit?

It all depends how the builder of the car has wired them.

 

Regards Martin

Hi Martin, its the oil and ignition lights built into the smiths gauge
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Another question --- which Smith's gauges are they? Smiths Flight ( stepper motor 270 degree ) or old issue from way back.

 

Smiths Flight are led warning lamps -- the ignition led needs a resistor in parallel to provide exciter current to the alternator --- won't charge battery without it -- shouldn't be hot once engine running & alternator charging as both side s of the resistor & led will have 12 volt positive supplied. ( No earths connected here just 12 volt from battery & t'other side to alternator.) The oil warning led will need a 12 volt positive on one side & t'other side gets its earth from the sender when its operating & showing no oil pressure. Hope my memory is correct on above -- was 7 years ago we wired Florins gauges.

 

For correct resistance in parallel with the ignition led we wired a 5 watt tungsten lamp in -- so we have 2 indicators showing ignition ON.

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Guest James24785

Another question --- which Smith's gauges are they? Smiths Flight ( stepper motor 270 degree ) or old issue from way back.

 

Smiths Flight are led warning lamps -- the ignition led needs a resistor in parallel to provide exciter current to the alternator --- won't charge battery without it -- shouldn't be hot once engine running & alternator charging as both side s of the resistor & led will have 12 volt positive supplied. ( No earths connected here just 12 volt from battery & t'other side to alternator.) The oil warning led will need a 12 volt positive on one side & t'other side gets its earth from the sender when its operating & showing no oil pressure. Hope my memory is correct on above -- was 7 years ago we wired Florins gauges.

 

For correct resistance in parallel with the ignition led we wired a 5 watt tungsten lamp in -- so we have 2 indicators showing ignition ON.

They're the flight guages mate

 

So the ignition wire with engine not running, should show a short to ground? Same for the oil light wire also?

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They're the flight guages mate

 

So the ignition wire with engine not running, should show a short to ground? Same for the oil light wire also?

Should show a very low resistance as it's a coil in the alternator ( other end of coil will be earthed/negative) The oil sender is low/nil resistance when the engine is off i.e no oil pressure available. Just make sure the body of the oil sender is earthed --- no PTFE tape insulating it from the engine block.

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Guest James24785

To answer my own question after a bit of fiddling this morning....yes the warning light input wire needs the be grounded to illuminate the light, and also confirmed that both the oil warning and alternator light were never connected properly!

 

Are those both not an IVA requirement though?

Maybe the builder altered the wiring post IVA maybe

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Guest James24785

Nope, it's still blagging my head lol!

 

Got the alternator light to work fine, but not the oil warning light. Which is the one I really want to work as I was going to use that to illuminate my push button start

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