TR2/3/3A Car won't shut off with generator connected

[mallard]

This should be an easy find for me but it's not. The car is positive ground. At first starting I did not have the generator hooked up. Car starts with the starter solenoid or the push start and then shuts off just fine without the generator with the ignition switch. Hook up the generator, car starts but will not shut off with the ignition switch. It must be a wire somewhere but it eludes me so far. I'm done for the day in the garage, it's already 106 degrees. For now I'll study the diagram and try to find my error.

 

[TR3driver]

First place I would look is the indicator light on the dash. It should be the only place that the charging system and ignition circuit meet. A short there will keep the engine running.

 

[TexasKnucklehead]

I think you have the bare-wire/screws instead of the plug-on connectors. It can be really easy to have a stray strand of wire shorting out at the control box. I'm not sure what problem it would cause, but I think I'd check those connections as well. I soldered the ends of mine because I had some trouble tightening them.

Every few hundred miles, I have to check and re-tighten those screws on the control box. If I didn't like the way it looks, I'd have used the newer style connectors.

 

[mallard]

Thanks Randall that's where I stopped looking for the day. Getting to hot in the garage, and not easy to get to with a heater installed.

 

[mallard]

Thanks TK I'll look into that also, not a bad idea about the solder.

 

[TR3driver]

I've tried the solder trick, and decided it was counter-productive in the long run. The problem is that the surface of the solder creates a point where the least little vibration in the wire (and what TR3 doesn't vibrate?) will flex the copper far enough to work harden and eventually break. I literally wound up with a solder blob trapped under the screw, and nearly all of the strands broken at the surface of the solder. The bare wire seemed to fare better, at least for me. If you still want to use solder, only solder the very tip of the wire (to keep it from fraying) so that part of the pinch screw still rests on bare wire. Adding heat shrink tubing such that it comes right to the edge of the screw seems to help, but of course doesn't look original.

Those 'Lucar' connectors can be troublesome too. Just a few weeks ago, I found that part of my OD failure on the TR3 was caused by one of those quick connects getting loose over time. Had that problem on one of the Stags too, which was a royal pain to find. That quick connect wasn't loose enough to pull off, just loose enough that it could sometimes vibrate and not make good connection. (I'm sure the oil blowing back from the engine didn't help either.) The OD would just randomly jump out of overdrive, then later back in. I was literally in the process of replacing the solenoid (since everything else had checked out good even during the failure), when I noticed there was just a tiny bit of play in the solenoid ground lead.

 

[mallard]

Randall I removed the wire for the indicator light from the ignition switch and the car shuts off. Now I have to remove the light to see what's the problem. Thanks for your help.