igntion switch and relief relay troubles

[Graham Thackrah]

Hi list,

Picture the scene, dark and raining and in the middle of Wales on the way to my
parents place. Me with a lovely (!) red leicester and onion sandwich from the
services watching my temp guage ride high until the temp coolant light shines
merrily, no rad fan. No lights either, no leccy windows, heated rear screen or
heater blower. Ignition off. Car cools down and I prod and poke about in the
fuse box a bit. Tried ignition again and back to normal business, quick ride
round the block and rad fan works fine. Repeat three hours later in pub carpark
about 10 miles from home this time and I have to go in convoy with a mate and
no lights but main beams held on physically till I get home, hoping we dont
stop and need the rad fan...

Checking things the next day we work out it's likely to be the relief relay,
but we fall short of the real problem as a known good replacement had all the
same troubles. AA bloke gets the bright spark award for identifying a dodgy
contact in the ignition switch that the relief relay coil takes is juice from.

Now my question, it's not that hard to replace the ignition switch is it? Do I
need to drill the column to remove the ignition barrel to get to the switch or
can I do it without? There's a black plastic connector on the rear of the
barrel that I didn't have time to play with as I had to get the last train back
to Swansea last night, is it as easy as pulling that out?

Secondly, you can identify the fault using the main beams as a diagnostic aid,
back in the archives from '96 Dan Simoes said you can use the main beams to
get a sunroof to shut without the ignition on, or something like that, the
reason is the relief relay takes power from the ignition switch but the wire to
the contact on the ignition is shared with the dipped headlights and main beams,
with the dipped beams on and the main beams flashed it provides power to the
relief relay coil, bypassing the ignition switch, and all works fine until you
release the main beams, check out the wiring diagram on page something or other
in Haynes.

Cheers in advance for any pointers to the ignition switch replacement.

Graham

85 90q

P.S. it was a lot of fun with the glovebox out, fuse box in bits and auxiliary
relay panel scattered all over the passenger side footwell, at least I learnt a
bit watching the AA guy troubleshoot the problem with the wiring diagram from
Haynes and he even said he liked my Fluke 18:)