more on the clicking relay stuff...

[Gerard <gerard@poboxes.com>]

Hi!

Once more, it is me here to irritate you all. Today, pulled into the
driveway about 7:30pm, headlights on, heat gauge indicating about
95 celcius. The relays started to click away under the dash again.
I looked up and at the garage door (housing the Merc) and noticed how
the headlamps waver in brightness as the relays click. So I get out
and go have a look at them, as they dim slightly I also notice how
the engine drops off a bit giving it that rough idle feel. Then the
radiator fan came on at full speed, quite loud. The lights don't go
out, they just dim a bit as the relays click. Anyone experience this
and know whether it would be just a bad earthing point or something
more serious? Another thing, cleaned the distributor cap today, the
contact points were a bit corroded so I cleaned them up, also cleaned
the rotor contact. For the past few days I've also noticed jumps in
the idle when coming to a stop. Quite bad this evening when I pulled
up to a robot, 2 very large skips occured and then the motor ran
fine.

To add more to all of this, I had the hood open, putting the idle
up a bit. It runs a bit different after applying that IC-TB hose
fix. If I rev up the motor a bit I get a loud hum, tried listening
to where it came from left me with 2 points: turbo side and rear of
engine. I think it might even be clearly recordable for people to
listen to. It can also be heard from in the car. Well, whatever it is,
it will have to wait, let me first nail down the electrical thing.

In previous messages mention was made of checking the large earthing
point on the radiator side of the car, a very difficult area to work.
What other earthing points are there that I need to check? The manifold
point is clean.

When the rad-fan came on the idle dropped and the lights dimmed, this
is normal operation, right? Which relay under the dash of the 1990
200 is used to activate the fan, and what are the associated one in
the fuse box? I am thinking the system is trying to activate the fan
and having a tough time getting the relays to work, but have no idea
which relay it is. I think I will also need to remove the fuse box to
look for other types of shorts as suggested to me by a fellow lister
w.r.t to the 3rd brake light that came on with the headlamps (doesn't
anymore).

Sorry for the wasted BW.

G.

PS: just put in 2 new brake bulbs. Takes about 2 every month. I think
    I need to start buying in bulk.
-- 
"a thousand miles from here, there is another person smiling"
1990 Turbo (200t, MAC13A ECU, 1.4-1.6 bar (1.8 bar with faulty WGFV!),
            FWD auto, carrying on a fashion enough to drive one insane!)
name   : gerard van vught
tel    : +27-21-696 0331 (h) / 082 923 9609 (cell)
url    : http://www.poboxes.com/gerard/
e-mail : gerard@poboxes.com  / han.solo@galaxycorp.com