Alfa GT Junior - Electrical Questions

[poordecisions]

Hi All,

I have a recently purchased 1600 GT Junior. Before my drive home, I found a live (!) wire earthing against the inside of the car. It looks like it's been wired with a plastic knife and fork, so might have my work cut out for me.

I have a couple of questions if there are any geeks here?

I seem to have two cables (red and black) that are not connected to anything, but trace back through the bulkhead to the passenger side. They don't seem to be live - does anyone know what these are for (without me having to take the dash apart!)? Also, if you look to the rear of the engine, one of the hex plugs between the spark plugs has a connector on it but nothing attached - any ideas?



Secondly, the live wire I disconnected was from the coil, but not plugged in to anything at the other end. You can see it to the left hand side of the coil in this photo, currently a bare male spade connector.



Thirdly, my brake lights aren't working - if there are any common reasons for this I'm all ears, otherwise the ammeter comes out...

[Scalino]

It looks like someone did a lot of uhm... interesting wiring going by the pictures

Disclaimer: Let me state in advance electrics aren't really my expertise, but I have had to do some in the past. So I have some basic knowledge, but not much more.

Regarding the two loose wires; could they have been for an amp meter, with one connected at the battery and one to the voltage regulator?

The sensor next to the plug: no idea, never seen it before, can't imagine what you would use it for.

Live wire near the coil: again no clue, to give something 12V probably.

Regarding the brake lights; find the brake light switch and connect the two wires and see if the brake light turns on (ignition may have to be on, not sure). If they do, get a new switch (same as a fiat 500; £ 3 instead of £ 15). If not, get out the multimeter.

Have fun! I hate electrics

Edited by Scalino on Wednesday 18th October 08:29

[rxe]

Sensor next to the plug - does your temperature gauge work? On my later Alfetta, that is the water temperature sensor. Or it might be the thing that triggers the red light saying ‘Your engine is too hot”.

Edited by rxe on Tuesday 17th October 22:43

[poordecisions]

rxe said:

Sensor next to the plug - does your temperature gauge work? On my later Alfetta, that is the water temperature sensor. Or it might be the thing that triggers the red light saying ‘Your engine is too hot”.

Edited by rxe on Tuesday 17th October 22:43

Yes the gauge seems to work, I suspected it would be water / oil temp, but the gauge sits at around 90 so I wouldn’t know if it worked either way!

[psi310398]

If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest joining, and then posing the question on, the Alfabb forum, too. It is free.

While it has a predominantly American membership, it is also a fantastic resource for 105 owners (among others) and there are some very experienced owners who will doubtless be able and willing to help. Whenever I've encountered a problem with my S4 Spider, someone there has experienced it and has already written up the answer or will answer your question.

A word of warning, though, as with any other forum, some members get a bit short with those who have not made use of the search function.

Peter

[Scalino]

+1 on AlfaBB

psi310398 said:

A word of warning, though, as with any other forum, some members get a bit short with those who have not made use of the search function.

Indeed (though not completely unfounded IMO), but the search funtion isn't brilliant. It's best to use google, with alfabb.com as the only site google searches.

[velocemitch]

Regarding the two wires tracing back to the passenger compartment, its possible these are to power a trip meter or a rally clock on a car which might have been used in historic rallying.
You need a straight feed to those devices from the battery, so it is not corrupted by pulses from the ignition system. Most people just run two wires through via a simple in line fuse system.

Does your car have a bit of competition history you aren't aware of?

[fergus]

rxe said:

Sensor next to the plug - does your temperature gauge work? On my later Alfetta, that is the water temperature sensor. Or it might be the thing that triggers the red light saying ‘Your engine is too hot”.

Edited by rxe on Tuesday 17th October 22:43

The water temp sender is normally in the water rail which runs above the carbs. The sender in the top of the head is for the "engine is too hot" light.

If your coll has 4 spade terminals, the are 2x +ve (i.e. +12v) and 2x GND (earth).

[rxe]

Yes, WFH today, so just confirmed that on my Alfetta. If it helps, the temperature switch on the back of the head is connected with an orange+black wire. It’s a simple earthing switch, if you find something that looks vaguely like it should go on there, earth it and you should be the “i’m too hot” light on the dash.

[Mound Dawg]

rxe said:

Yes, WFH today, so just confirmed that on my Alfetta. If it helps, the temperature switch on the back of the head is connected with an orange+black wire. It’s a simple earthing switch, if you find something that looks vaguely like it should go on there, earth it and you should be the “i’m too hot” light on the dash.

105 series cars don't have that light or the plug which means that you either have an Alfetta engine (common swap) or at least the cylinder head from one.

The brake light switch is a pressure thing mounted on a brass T Piece on the bulkhead just under the servos. As yours has dual circuit brakes there's a second one on the brake regulator which lives under the car just in front of the rear axle. They're cheap enough so just change them.

Don't know what those others wires are but Alfa didn't put them there!

[Elderly]

Mound Dawg said:

.

The brake light switch is a pressure thing .............They're cheap enough so just change them.

Making sure that you get a direct replacement for your particular car;
there's a tapered thread version and a parallel thread type.