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TR6 Rheostat

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davjac889

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
Hello All,

This little thigamajig is killing me! Sometimes it'll work
other times not!
I've reached under the dash with long nose pliers and
wiggled it a bit.
I see the dash is held together with screws, would I be
inviting a catastrophe if I unscrew the dash and access
the Rheostat.
I saw a link about cleaning a Rheostat and it came up
pretty nice.

Thanks
 
Those things are fire traps
Go here to rebuild it...or just remove it

By the way you seem to ask questions but never respond how things are going
 
Thank you everyone for spot-on advice although much
difficulties prevail.
Heater blower not working, Volt gauge not working as well
as Rheostat.
On the plus side, the temp gauge is working.
Fuel gauge not working either.

Thanks again.
 
My rheostat is shot too but it never worked so I don't miss it. Besides, these dash lights are dim enough as it is - why would you want to use a dimmer?
 
Rheostat: noun- rotating control designed to dim bright lights in theory, but in practice makes dim lights unoperational...until there's a fire, in which case the light is very bright.

In the land of 1970s and 1980s Ferraris, if you'd like to see your gauges at night, you actually MUST bypass the rheostat, because it actually is so poorly designed that even at full setting it has a tremendous amount of resistance in the circuit.
 
davjac889 said:
What exactly is the purpose of the voltage stabilizer?
Thanks
Click to expand...

The temp and fuel gauges need a constant voltage to operate properly. Since the charging system has varying voltages, the gauges would, for the most part, be inaccurate. The voltage stabilizer sends a constant 10 volts to the gauges. Since it affects both the temp and fuel gauges, chances are that's not the problem.

Edit: In case you don't have them, here's a link to the wiring schematics for the TR250/6...

https://www.advanceautowire.com/tr2506.pdf
 
martx-5 said:
The voltage stabilizer sends a constant 10 volts to the gauges.
Click to expand...
Actually, the original voltage stabilizer didn't put out a constant 10 volts. Instead, the output switches between full battery voltage and zero, such that the average is 10 volts. The gauges respond to changes very slowly, so they only "see" the average.

I mention it only because some people see the voltage blinking back and forth (if you hook up a test light, it looks a lot like a turn signal) and think the "stabilizer" is bad. In fact, if it is switching, it is very likely good.

However, most if not all of the aftermarket replacements are solid state, and do deliver a constant 10 volts.

Since you say the temp gauge is working, the stabilizer is probably OK. Or the wiring is really confused, and the temp gauge is no longer wired through the stabilizer. If that is the case, it will appear to work, but read roughly 1/4 scale higher than it should. A quick test is to pull the wire off of the sensor (on the thermostat housing under the hood), and measure the voltage from the wire to ground (with the key on). If you see full battery voltage (12+ volts) all the time, the stabilizer is either bad, not grounded, or not in the circuit.
 
TR3driver said:
Actually, the original voltage stabilizer didn't put out a constant 10 volts. Instead, the output switches between full battery voltage and zero, such that the average is 10 volts. ...
Click to expand...

Did not know that
'nother drink question
Thanks Randall
 
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