Ignition light stays on.

[wtaylor]

The ignition light stays on all the time. Everything in the car works and I put a meatier on the battery cables and it reads 13.2v. I don't think this is the original alternator because the wiring has been changed. Any ideas as to why the light stays on all the time?

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

Just throwing this out from a lesson I learned…by any chance is your ignition light an LED?

 

[wtaylor]

No it s not. This just started back in November. I just haven't had the time to look into it.

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

No it s not. This just started back in November. I just haven't had the time to look into it.

Gotcha…I did use an LED when I rewired my car and found out that it wouldn’t work. Just wanted to mention it in case, so you wouldn’t have to scratch your head as long as I did if you were in the same situation. Lol

 

[loose_electron]

LEDs work just fine if they are in the right direction and have the proper value series resistor. Every single light and gauge in my car uses LEDs.

13.2V i ok, a fully charged battery should be about 13.6V

Can you point me to a wiring diagram for this particular car?

 

[Silver Creek Sunbeam]

LEDs work just fine if they are in the right direction and have the proper value series resistor. Every single light and gauge in my car uses LEDs.

13.2V i ok, a fully charged battery should be about 13.6V

Can you point me to a wiring diagram for this particular car?

My apologies…I should have said that the LED isn’t ‘plug and play’ for the ignition light, which it is not. As you mentioned, it requires a resistor.
Every light in my car is LED, except for that one. It wasn’t with the extra effort for me for a light that stays on a couple of seconds.

 

[wtaylor]

Here is the wiring diagram.

 

[hartmandm]

You need to determine how your current wiring differs from the stock wiring.

Mike

 

[loose_electron]

Here is the wiring diagram.

What a horribly drawn and confusing schematic. (Not your fault!)

IF the car is still wired as shown in the schematic:

My first educated guess would be that the brown-black wire coming off the Ignition Warning Light is getting grounded out somehow when it shouldn't be.

The white wire off the other side of that IWL is just general power when the car is in run mode, fed there from the ignition switch.

Does anyone know the purpose of the "Warning Light Simulator" box?

I would check the voltage of the brown-black wire. If it is under 1V, then it's grounded (as expected) I would then unplug the wire from the WLS box and check the voltage again. If the wire remains under 1V (IWL stays on) then the problem is a short to ground somewheres along the Brown-Black wire.

If the light goes dark with the wire unplugged then the problem is that the WLS box is grounding out the wire somehow when it shouldn't.

Best I got.

 

[wtaylor]

You need to determine how your current wiring differs from the stock wiring.

Mike

It looks like they only replaced the brown\purple and brown\green with Black and White. White goes to F on the control box and Black goes to CW2 on the alternator relay. When I drove the car after posing this the light went out. I got on the car hard after coming out of a turn just for fun. The light flickered then went out. I made a stop and when I started it back up the light stayed out.

 

[wtaylor]

What a horribly drawn and confusing schematic. (Not your fault!)

IF the car is still wired as shown in the schematic:

My first educated guess would be that the brown-black wire coming off the Ignition Warning Light is getting grounded out somehow when it shouldn't be.

The white wire off the other side of that IWL is just general power when the car is in run mode, fed there from the ignition switch.

Does anyone know the purpose of the "Warning Light Simulator" box?

I would check the voltage of the brown-black wire. If it is under 1V, then it's grounded (as expected) I would then unplug the wire from the WLS box and check the voltage again. If the wire remains under 1V (IWL stays on) then the problem is a short to ground somewheres along the Brown-Black wire.

If the light goes dark with the wire unplugged then the problem is that the WLS box is grounding out the wire somehow when it shouldn't.

Best I got.

I might be a minute before I can check this. I had surgery on my back last week so no cowling under the dash for a while. As I mentioned in the other post while I was driving the car today the light went out.

 

[DanR]

I was driving the car today the light went out.

Sounds like a "Loose Connection"

 

[Pete S.]

What a horribly drawn and confusing schematic. (Not your fault!)

IF the car is still wired as shown in the schematic:

My first educated guess would be that the brown-black wire coming off the Ignition Warning Light is getting grounded out somehow when it shouldn't be.

The white wire off the other side of that IWL is just general power when the car is in run mode, fed there from the ignition switch.

Does anyone know the purpose of the "Warning Light Simulator" box?

I would check the voltage of the brown-black wire. If it is under 1V, then it's grounded (as expected) I would then unplug the wire from the WLS box and check the voltage again. If the wire remains under 1V (IWL stays on) then the problem is a short to ground somewheres along the Brown-Black wire.

If the light goes dark with the wire unplugged then the problem is that the WLS box is grounding out the wire somehow when it shouldn't.

Best I got.

A "Warning Light Assimulator" is a small mechanical/electrical component that powers a warning light when there is no direct provision of one from an alternator regulator . It senses alternator voltage, and then when output is above a set value, opens a connection in the assimulator to turn off the warning lamp.

The original mechanical 3AW Lucas units are terrible, but there are many aftermarket ones that are solid state and reliable. If you are still running a 3AW, and the alternator is healthy and your warning lamp won't go out, It's probably the assimilator.

Hope this helps.

ps

 

[hartmandm]

"assimulator" - I've never heard it called that. Funny!

It should be worth checking wiring connections at the 3AW and the brown+yellow wire at the alternator before trying a replacement 3AW.

Mike

 

[loose_electron]

A "Warning Light Assimulator" is a small mechanical/electrical component that powers a warning light when there is no direct provision of one from an alternator regulator . It senses alternator voltage, and then when output is above a set value, opens a connection in the assimulator to turn off the warning lamp.

The original mechanical 3AW Lucas units are terrible, but there are many aftermarket ones that are solid state and reliable. If you are still running a 3AW, and the alternator is healthy and your warning lamp won't go out, It's probably the assimilator.

Hope this helps.

ps

Ah, ok that makes sense here. An intermittent short to ground, or this little box gone bad makes sense.

 

[Pete S.]

"assimulator" - I've never heard it called that. Funny!

It should be worth checking wiring connections at the 3AW and the brown+yellow wire at the alternator before trying a replacement 3AW.

Mike

No doubt a "British" term!

 

[Pete S.]

Ah, ok that makes sense here. An intermittent short to ground, or this little box gone bad makes sense.

Like anything Lucas equipped, check all of the connections. Especially the grounding.

Good luck!

 

[loose_electron]

Like anything Lucas equipped, check all of the connections. Especially the grounding.

Good luck!

Hey!

I'll have you know that fixing
flaky electrical systems in British
cars helped me pay for college back in the day!



But yeah, agreed, go fix the grounds
and check all the connections.

For this particular problem,
it is the presence of an unwanted ground
rather than the lack of a good ground.

 

[Pete S.]

Hey!

I'll have you know that fixing
flaky electrical systems in British
cars helped me pay for college back in the day!



But yeah, agreed, go fix the grounds
and check all the connections.

For this particular problem,
it is the presence of an unwanted ground
rather than the lack of a good ground.

Oh, I've been chasing Lucas wiring since I was a kid. My dad had a S-3 Alpine that needed a lot of electrical attention. After that a succession of Norton motorcycles.

Best wishes!

 

[Pete S.]

"assimulator" - I've never heard it called that. Funny!

It should be worth checking wiring connections at the 3AW and the brown+yellow wire at the alternator before trying a replacement 3AW.

Mike

I agree, isolate before replacing. But a new 3AW is probably dodgy right out of the box. There are several solid state ones out available. Plus some schematics. Components are cheap, so you can solder up a few of them for the price of a single Lucas labelled one.