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Post-War Other My [Herald] temp. gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

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Andrew Mace

Andrew Mace

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Recently, I've been noticing in the evenings and nights that switching on my headlights makes the temp gauge needle move about one-quarter further up the scale, say from mid- to three-quarters of the way to "H." As I've noted relative to other posts here, I've never had any problems with my original (rebuilt) generator keeping up with demands day or night, and there seems to be no other effect on any aspect of driving the car. I just wonder why this is happening now when I don't recall it happening in the past? Resistance somewhere in the circuits? possible short somewhere? Joseph Lucas angry at me for no reason, especially as I've been such a staunch defender of his through the years? :smile:
 
Re: My fuel gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

i keep one of these in my tool chest for just such an occasion......

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Re: My fuel gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

What car, Andy? I didn't think TR7s had generators, nor Heralds had temperature gauges.
And does your temp gauge have a "hot wire" movement with a voltage stabilizer, or is it a "balanced" type without a VS?
 
Re: My [Herald] temp gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

My apologies, Randall! I have been talking a lot recently about the TR7, but this is the Herald 1200. All Heralds for the US market did have temp. gauges; for the most part 9my car included), they were the "balanced" type without VS.
 
Re: My [Herald] temp gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

I would say you have some type of ground issue in the light circut. What happens if you just turn on the panel lights. Does it jump then. If so maybe it is a short in the bulb holder that goes into the temp gauge.
 
Re: My [Herald] temp gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

My old '68 Rambler used to do that. Turned out to be a bad ground cable connection to the body or block. I forget which, but one of the grounds was bad. Great commuting car. AM listened to KJET-am.
 
Re: My [Herald] temp gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

I'm thinking ground at the gauge itself, but could be any of the above. A quick test might be to run a temporary jumper to one of the gauge mounting studs, with the other end connected to a good body ground. Of course, finding such a ground might be the hard part
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Re: My [Herald] temp gauge doubles as an ammeter!?

"Ground problem" makes a lot of sense; I will check that out. Lights all seem fine, so I don't think it's there. OTOH, I did have to change out the speedometer early last month (still mentally convering KpH back to MpH for distance covered, since the one I put in temporarily happened to be a KpH speedo!), and it's possible that I didn't reconnect all the grounds under the dash.

Thanks, everyone!
 
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