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Search results

  1. loose_electron

    Ed’s Solid State Gauge Regulator

    Not the best approach, I would have used a 7810 voltage regulator and been done with it.
  2. loose_electron

    Ed’s Solid State Gauge Regulator

    https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/slvs056p/slvs056p.pdf What is inside that little box is most likely a 7810 voltage regulator. Above link is the spec for that. If I had to guess, White is output, Black is input and green is ground. BUT that is just a guess. could be totally wrong. If you can open...
  3. loose_electron

    Possible Ignition Switch Issue?

    A trick here - For cars with original wiring, disconnect the battery and put a 20A fuse in series at the battery while working on things. You pop the fuse instead of melting wires and tachs. Can not crank the engine thru that fuse but you can do everything else. A high current fuse (I use 300A...
  4. loose_electron

    Positive or negative earth; LEDs, USBs and airbeds.

    The USB plug and LEDs in the running lights can all be set up for either negative or positive earth. There are LED bulbs of both + and - polarity. Also, modern light sockets are plastic, and have 2 wires, so those can be substituted as well if you want. My personal preference would be swap to...
  5. loose_electron

    Favorite solvent

    FWIW, Simple Green, Sudsy Ammonia, Acetone are my 3 go-to's for boat cleaning stuff. Barkeepers Friend (oxalyic acid) is good for metals that are lightly oxidized or stained. If you are gluing things together, cleaning with acetone, let dry, right before gluing helps with adhesion a lot.
  6. loose_electron

    Favorite solvent

    Acetone can be useful as a general purpose cleaner.
  7. loose_electron

    Bench Testing Fuel Sender and VDO Gauge

    I used Speed Hut instruments. For those, you program them, once when the tank is empty and once when the tank is full. I'm surprised VDO doesn't do the same.
  8. loose_electron

    Personal Property Security

    Bolt cutters work really well. In the boating world, you frequently end up cutting locks off due to the internal mechanism corroding. (salt water gets into everything) That tool looks cool though, here: https://covertinstruments.com/
  9. loose_electron

    Static Electricity and Gas Pump Fires

    This is probably an urban legend. Modern cell phones really don't have much inside that would ever spark. Some older cell phone used electromechanical buzzers (20+ years ago) and some modern phones have had problems with batteries and charging circuits that caused battery fires (both Apple...
  10. loose_electron

    Series I Rotary Engine Alpine for Sale

    Just a comment on the Wankel - Parts from Mazda are NOT cheap. I got an RX7 up and running for a friend a few years back and the ignition electronics were like $500 from the dealer.
  11. loose_electron

    The Journey Begins - Series I V6 Restomod

    Looks very nice! I used a similar approach with Speed Hut gauges and a GPS speedo. The one thing that you might get annoyed with a little is that the GPS speed sensor takes a few minutes to acquire signal and start to give proper speedo information. So, when you start the car up you may drive...
  12. loose_electron

    Armed Guards or Watch Dogs?

    When I rewired my car, I put a kill switch system in. That said, cars of the era are extremely easy to hot wire. I don't think that the typical Motel 6 with your car parked in front of the room you are staying in is going to be a target for thieves, you are too close to your car. Besides, a...
  13. loose_electron

    Hub Puller

    A suggestion - If someone has the puller, build a plywood box to hold it that just fits inside a USPS flat rate box. The cardboard box become just a skin for shipping and the standard fare USPS box to ship makes it cost effective. Time to get clever!
  14. loose_electron

    Ignition light stays on.

    Hey! I'll have you know that fixing flaky electrical systems in British cars helped me pay for college back in the day! :):cool::confused::D But yeah, agreed, go fix the grounds and check all the connections. For this particular problem, it is the presence of an unwanted ground...
  15. loose_electron

    Ignition light stays on.

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

    Ignition light stays on.

    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...
  17. loose_electron

    Ignition light stays on.

    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?
  18. loose_electron

    Solonoid

    Put the new one in and keep the old one. One less ticking time bomb waiting to fail again.
  19. loose_electron

    New instrument voltage stabilizer problems

    The original poster hasn't been seen in awhile. Hopefully they solved the problem.
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