I wanted to share something with everyone about what I found when I removed my dashboard.
The left and right dashboard anchor points are made of riveted-on sheetmetal struts that fasten to a welded bolt located on stand-offs just below the a-pillars. The nut that held the strut on the driver's side was loose on my car. So loose that you could easily spin the washer.
Why is this important? Well, there are around 5 wires that ground under the washer using ring crimps. The fuseboard and several relays are located there. I haven't looked at the wiring diagram, but the return from the window wind motors must ground to this point. I tightened up the nut and my windows move over twice as fast now. That annoying buzzer is also sounding much more vigorous. I'll soon change that though.
Check this nut next time you're lying upsidedown in the driver's footwell. Its easy to access: lower the fuseboard and shine a flashlight up towards the a-pillar side of the fuseboard. The 10mm nut is visible, with all the ground wires terminated under it's washer.
I've read a lot on the site about what appears to be low voltage issues with our cars. Just keep in mind that sometimes LV is not the issue. If there's a poor return path for the current to get back to ground, it can look like LV.
Dave,Fernando,The whole electrical system is also to blame for the window problems.All the lugs are crimped and with the age of our cars the conductivity at the terminals and lugs are a major problem.Next up is the pathetic alternator in our cars.Ive upgraded to a modern 166/156 140 amp alternator and this is probably the best thing you can do to your car.I still have over 1.6v drop measured at the battery and at the fuse box.What I have done here is use a modern 70 amp relay to supply my fuse box on start up.This has alleviated the problem somewhat,but not totally.If you can get a new harness this helps some-Fernando,I have new for you ,give me a call.Nothing is slower than a Giuliettas windows and mine are realy flying after all the work I did.
The alternator I reckon is your first step.
Alternatively,fit the winder mechanism from the Opel superboss.to uoyr car.Supply power through relays and your windows will fly up and down.The by product of all this is also to be seen at night.No more shitty headlights..
Barry
The alternator I reckon is your first step.
Alternatively,fit the winder mechanism from the Opel superboss.to uoyr car.Supply power through relays and your windows will fly up and down.The by product of all this is also to be seen at night.No more shitty headlights..
Barry
French cars are shit and shit expensive to service and bloody awful and unreliable and expensive and friends don't let friends drive french cars and you wait years for parts.
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John in Denver
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Dave,The relay cuts out your ignition switch .This is also a serious resistor in the circuit.It now supplies the fuse box direct from the batt.A major improvement.When I can , I will be replacing the fuse box with a more modern one at some stage.The type of fuses we have to use are also a problem in the picture.
John,No, The alternator is not direct bolt on.You will have to make everything fit.Its not such a big job,Some inginuity is required though.
The following pic shows the use of a serpentine or poly v belt.Just change your pulley and use a std. deep groove v belt as per normal.
John,No, The alternator is not direct bolt on.You will have to make everything fit.Its not such a big job,Some inginuity is required though.
The following pic shows the use of a serpentine or poly v belt.Just change your pulley and use a std. deep groove v belt as per normal.
French cars are shit and shit expensive to service and bloody awful and unreliable and expensive and friends don't let friends drive french cars and you wait years for parts.
Talking of the main power cable-Have somone start yout engine while you lightly hold the connector wher the starter motor cable connects to the main supply cable.Beware extreme burns in some cases!!This is a major piont of resistance on some cars.I normally solder the lugs to the cables and this solves the problem.The lug is only crimped here......
French cars are shit and shit expensive to service and bloody awful and unreliable and expensive and friends don't let friends drive french cars and you wait years for parts.
Barry and everybody,
One word on connectors and plugs in automotive applications. Wires in these joints should technically never be soldered, but crimped only.The reason is that soldered joints break after a while due to vibration. This is a practice universally followed in MIL-spec products where crimping is used exclusively (and for the curious, without pretinning the wire). I would suggest having good and tight crimps, made with the proper size CRIMPING TOOLS on good wires-no green strands-and you won't have any problems, Trust me, if you solder any wires on the engine especially (grounds etc) you're asking for it!
Jim K.
One word on connectors and plugs in automotive applications. Wires in these joints should technically never be soldered, but crimped only.The reason is that soldered joints break after a while due to vibration. This is a practice universally followed in MIL-spec products where crimping is used exclusively (and for the curious, without pretinning the wire). I would suggest having good and tight crimps, made with the proper size CRIMPING TOOLS on good wires-no green strands-and you won't have any problems, Trust me, if you solder any wires on the engine especially (grounds etc) you're asking for it!
Jim K.
Personally, I would leave it with the crimp and forget about it. I will stress using the proper crimping tools and not pliers as most people do. Crimp terminals come in different sizes noted by the colors. Red,blue,yellow in increasing order. Then and very important, there are two kinds of crimp terminals: the ones seen throughout Alfas (with the twin set of tiny tongues that bite into the wire and the insulation) and the ones with the colored sleeves (as noted above) which rely on sqeezing the ferrule onto the wire-DON'T use these, they're next to useless,even with the proper tools!
What I have seen in Alfas, from 105 to 116 to119, they always (and very stupidly I might dare add!) use the thinnest possible wires for the job!Way to go to save money! They goof up so bad, that sometimes they issue correction orders for replacements with heavier gauge wire (as they did with the 75/Milano pink/white supply wire to the fuel pump, changing it from 1,5mm* to 2,5mm*!! I have found many other routes needing heavier wires and have replaced them. Has anyone ever measured the voltage drop between the battery and a high beam? Drop=heat and heat in bad connectors is accelerated corrosion=more drop! Have you ever crawled under the car to measure the voltage directly on the fuel pump terminals? Would you be surprised to see as low as 8,5V?? (should be over 12V at least!).What about the on-fan voltage those hot summer days? Why lose cooling capacity?
Barry is right about adding relays. They are needed in a lot of places like.....power windows! Switches handling high currents, like window and light switches, have a short life and are expensive! Some cars even drive the rad fan directly through the thermostatic switch-is this ever a crime!
Anyway, not to bore you, take a good look at your wiring, checking for thin wires,loose crimps and loose grounds-there's a whole world of problems you're likely to discover! BTW, did you know that re the fuel pump supply, an auto magazine did some testing and gained 4,5hp by suplying 14,5 directly to the pump (non-Alfa)!
I rest my long-winded case!
Jim K.
What I have seen in Alfas, from 105 to 116 to119, they always (and very stupidly I might dare add!) use the thinnest possible wires for the job!Way to go to save money! They goof up so bad, that sometimes they issue correction orders for replacements with heavier gauge wire (as they did with the 75/Milano pink/white supply wire to the fuel pump, changing it from 1,5mm* to 2,5mm*!! I have found many other routes needing heavier wires and have replaced them. Has anyone ever measured the voltage drop between the battery and a high beam? Drop=heat and heat in bad connectors is accelerated corrosion=more drop! Have you ever crawled under the car to measure the voltage directly on the fuel pump terminals? Would you be surprised to see as low as 8,5V?? (should be over 12V at least!).What about the on-fan voltage those hot summer days? Why lose cooling capacity?
Barry is right about adding relays. They are needed in a lot of places like.....power windows! Switches handling high currents, like window and light switches, have a short life and are expensive! Some cars even drive the rad fan directly through the thermostatic switch-is this ever a crime!
Anyway, not to bore you, take a good look at your wiring, checking for thin wires,loose crimps and loose grounds-there's a whole world of problems you're likely to discover! BTW, did you know that re the fuel pump supply, an auto magazine did some testing and gained 4,5hp by suplying 14,5 directly to the pump (non-Alfa)!
I rest my long-winded case!
Jim K.
Jim, can you make MIL-spec gas tight crimps at home? What's the secret? 
Right tools cost a fortune and needs a factory line.
Note that the high-beams are not wired through a relay, the stalk takes a lot of punishment. Put in a relay and marvel at the improvement.
Right tools cost a fortune and needs a factory line.
Note that the high-beams are not wired through a relay, the stalk takes a lot of punishment. Put in a relay and marvel at the improvement.
Mats Strandberg
-Scuderia Rosso- Now burned to the ground...
-onemanracing.com-
-Strandberg.photography-
GTV 2000 -77 - Died in the fire.
155 V6 Sport -96 - Sold!
-Scuderia Rosso- Now burned to the ground...
-onemanracing.com-
-Strandberg.photography-
GTV 2000 -77 - Died in the fire.
155 V6 Sport -96 - Sold!
There are 4 relays in my engine for the 2 low beams and 2 high beams. Overkill I think. The current draw for the 2 low beams are about 4.3A per beam only. A single relay with a 10 gauge wire should be able to cope easily. Actually 2 relays (1 for both low beams and 1 for both high beams) are plenty for the lighting setup.
As for slow power windows, on newer cars, well at least on my '96 155 V6, the power window motors are connected to relays. Of course for the 75 you have high gauge wires (thin) getting the power from the fusebox (longer routing).
For crimps, probably the best ones are the exposed terminals and at the crimp end there are 2 "flaps". Using a good crimper, you crmp on the 2 "flaps". Then use a shrink wrap to insulate it.
JimK,
Do you mean this type of crimp terminals?
As for slow power windows, on newer cars, well at least on my '96 155 V6, the power window motors are connected to relays. Of course for the 75 you have high gauge wires (thin) getting the power from the fusebox (longer routing).
For crimps, probably the best ones are the exposed terminals and at the crimp end there are 2 "flaps". Using a good crimper, you crmp on the 2 "flaps". Then use a shrink wrap to insulate it.
JimK,
Do you mean this type of crimp terminals?
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Last edited by Zamani on Thu Feb 24, 2005 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jim,Gree with you on soldering terminals-But I have soldered the main batt. wire terminal where it connects to the starter wire and have not had a failure yet-I think the wire is just too thick and does not move in this application..
Z,you can never have overkill as far as Im concerned with relays.I would for argument sake not use a single 70amp relay to power 2x 25 amp electric fans....I would use 2x 70 amp relays with a snubber circuit for these....
The fans are 156 fans by the way-simply superb........
Z,you can never have overkill as far as Im concerned with relays.I would for argument sake not use a single 70amp relay to power 2x 25 amp electric fans....I would use 2x 70 amp relays with a snubber circuit for these....
The fans are 156 fans by the way-simply superb........
French cars are shit and shit expensive to service and bloody awful and unreliable and expensive and friends don't let friends drive french cars and you wait years for parts.
Right-on, Zamani! These are the connectors and the required tool costs no more than $20-30. Heat-shrink tubing is a good finishing touch but not really necessary.
Mats, who said MIL gas-tight stuff?? Most MIL connectors use sockets crimped with the special 'Daniels' tools with 4point adjustable inserts, to cater for wire AWG and are not gas tight. Thats from tanks to subs, F-16's and AAM's (we do it all the time, there's a whole section at work for wiring harnesses) As for the light switch (stack) taking the load, thats why relays should be used, the point in my post.
If you look at the 75 electrical diagrams, there are many relay revisions and the dotted lines are marked "before mod"and "after mod".They discovered mid-term that there's no way around relays!
Zamani, as you said,4 relays are overkill BIG time! You need one for low beams with 2 fuses in the output and a duplicate cct for the highs.
Jim K.
Mats, who said MIL gas-tight stuff?? Most MIL connectors use sockets crimped with the special 'Daniels' tools with 4point adjustable inserts, to cater for wire AWG and are not gas tight. Thats from tanks to subs, F-16's and AAM's (we do it all the time, there's a whole section at work for wiring harnesses) As for the light switch (stack) taking the load, thats why relays should be used, the point in my post.
If you look at the 75 electrical diagrams, there are many relay revisions and the dotted lines are marked "before mod"and "after mod".They discovered mid-term that there's no way around relays!
Zamani, as you said,4 relays are overkill BIG time! You need one for low beams with 2 fuses in the output and a duplicate cct for the highs.
Jim K.