securing the earth

Posted by David Grubbs On 2013/4/14 18:19:04

As our friends across the pond would say, all electrical devices need to go to earth (be grounded). While I was putting things back together on the 51 after the paint job, the horn wouldn't work. I adjusted the contacts at the steering wheel and got it to give a rather sad sounding, sort of Prius wheeze. I then went to look under the hood and noticed that the horn relay had only one of the two screws holding it to the inner fender. I removed the one screw and cleaned it up, and installed a new one, fastening it tightly. Wow, now the horns sound like an ocean liner! Who would have guessed that this little item would make such a difference.

On a similar line, I pulled the instrument panel and pushed all of the copper contacts for the lights out and sanded them. Now I have nice bright dash lights as well as a horn. Life is good....