Whaledriver

I am a happy man now! Mike's comment that the four small ground wires attached to the bolt holding the voltage regulator may have been the cause of smoke and not the regulator itself, was a good analysis of a poor ground source. Those small wires were not capable of handling the ground voltage required from the starter and as a result overheated. .Fortunately the wires did not melt. I discovered that the reason for the ground source shift was because the main ground strap from the chassis to the block had disconnected from the block and the disconnect was blocked from view by the intake manifold! Starter spun nicely and the car started right up!

Finally finished most of my work on my2002 and proceeded to take it for a test drive. Every thing seemed OK until I stopped for an errand. When I attempted to start the car, the starter labored to turn the engine over but it finally caught and I drove right home. Once in my garage with the hood up, I tried to start it but the engine would barely turn over and I noticed smoke coming from the voltage regulator. I immediately hit my battery isolator and the smoking stopped. My trunk positioned battery has a full charge and previous starts before have been normal. Any ideas on what my problem is? .

I am still trying to finalize my headlight booster connection issue (open document) I am having difficulty determining the proper wiring connection to the headlight booster kit that I purchased. All of the wiring is laid out but the final connection to the harness from the original harness poses a question mark. The new kit has the final lead that should attached to the original driver's side headlight socket of 3 wires colored Red, Blue & Black as does the new headlight plug in (see below picture). Not only do the plug colors not match but they do not correspond to the slot positions! (see below sketch) Is the position of the wires on the new headlight plug an issue or will it cause a short circuit?Should I ground this blue ringed wirer? note the blue vs white wire connection!Should I ground this blue ringed wire or switch it with the adjacent black wire? wiring question to 2002 FAQ.docx

Sidney TII, The theory behind the headlight boost kit is that it: a. using relays it bypasses the weak panel headlight switch circuit. b. illumination power is now sourced directly from the battery with larger gage wires. c. headlights should provide an increase in brightness. I'll research my long ago purchase resource and provide pics when the install is complete.

I recently purchased a BMW headlight boost kit that came with a confusing a color coded wiring diagram . I guess the manufacturer assumed that it was just a simple plug & play. So far, I have laid out the kits wiring harness but the kit apparently discards the turn signal circuit. As a result, I have retained and connected the original turn signal wiring hoping that it will still work separately from the boost kit. Adding to the wiring confusion is that the kit uses black wire for the ground circuit, blue wire for the "high" beam and red for the "low" beam. In addition, the headlight plug wire positions do not match the original. The original driver's side plug looking from the rear has the brown ground wire in the 9 o'clock insert, the black/yellow in the 12 o'clock insert and the white in the 3 o'clock insert. The new boost kit has both right and left replacement plugs wired with Blue at 9, ground black at 12 and red at 3. I am curious if the original plug brown ground was at 9 and the new kit plug black ground is at 12, will I be short circuiting something or is the position of the old or new plug wires not important as it pertains to the light bulb? Also, the is a short extension coming from the interconnected dual relays with a male insert plug with blue, black and red wires. I don't know what it is suppose to attach to. If anyone has installed this boost kit, I would appreciate some guidance to complete the install. Thanks,

Has anyone considered an alternative installation of a universal (Gear Vendors) electric overdrive unit vs a 245 five speed for their 2002?

It has two connections, labeled "G" and "WK".

I am not clear on how you want me use the ohm meter attachments to measure the resistance of the sender. I'm leaving for a week and will make your directed procedure when I return. Thanks,

With all three wires connected correctly at the gauge, I disconnected the G wire from the sender and when I turned the key on, the gauge pegged out on the high side again?

The gage is pegged, engine off with ignition on or engine running.

That makes sense. I didn't realize the oil pressure went that high. In other words, my installed wiring is ok and that when it goes off scale on the high side, it is probably accurately trying to display a psi beyond the design of the gage that I have installed. Hopefully a replacement solves my issue and I can get on with other improvements to my Roundie.

I apparently assumed wrong that, since the pod lights only illuminate when the key is turned on, just tapping the hot power source to the pod lights was OK. Are you recommending running a separate wire from the ignition to the "+" side of the gage will solve my pegging out issue? Additionally, anyone know what the normal psi range is on this 73 engine? The puzzling thing is, that the needle pegs out when I turn the ignition on without the engine running! How does that relate to gage pressure range capability?