Electrical gremlin!

[Gary Sullivan]

I was wondering if anyone with a 75 Ascona had similar experience with a left rear stop light which repeatedly goes out. I fix it and it is out again the next day.
Additionally, on a different but electrical note. the circuit for the electrical fuel pump runs pretty hot. That sound familiar to anyone?

[hrcollinsjr]

Originally Posted by Gary Sullivan I was wondering if anyone with a 75 Ascona had similar experience with a left rear stop light which repeatedly goes out. I fix it and it is out again the next day.

Shooting the bulb? Have you checked to make sure all of the connections are clean? Any way water is getting to the bulb? I've seen lenses fill up with water and either short the bulb or water get on a hot bulb and cause it to break.

Harold

[Gary Sullivan]

Clean and dry. Spotless actually and the contacts look excellent. Wiring looks good as well. There may be a spot where a wire has rubbed and shorted somewhere. It is bizarre that it is fixed at 2 am and by 9am its not working? Strange one.

[jerseyopel]

Does sound like a bad wire. Cant you jump a new wire in from the other side of the car if it is just the brake light?

[hrcollinsjr]

Originally Posted by jerseyopel Does sound like a bad wire. Cant you jump a new wire in from the other side of the car if it is just the brake light?

Heck no, that's riggin'! Since it's only one side I would think it would be fairly easy to run down. Has anybody been doing any rewiring back there? I worked on a GT where the owner wasn't paying attention and swapped the ground wire and the hot wire on the front turn signals on a GT. The flashers didn't stay on long enough to blow the fuse but they caused a heck of an amp draw when they flashed and blew the fuse when the lights were turned on. I've not started working on my Ascona yet so I'm not all that familar with it yet. Could something in the trunk have pinched a wire and caused a short?

Harold

[2 Fast 4 U]

Originally Posted by Gary Sullivan .....the circuit for the electrical fuel pump runs pretty hot. That sound familiar to anyone?

sounds to me that the wire is not the right gauge, or there is a contact resistance, or that the fuel pump is having problems with its bearings or something else, that would cause a high amp usage

Originally Posted by hrcollinsjr .....Could something in the trunk have pinched a wire and caused a short?

A short wil not brake a light bulb.

[Gordy]

I'm just impressed that at 2 a.m. someone is putting a new bulb in an Opel somewhere, even if it does blow by 9 a.m.

[Gary Sullivan]

Seems I fixed the tail lights. The design isn't a particularly good one. Several pieces are compressed together and it doesn't make for a good ground to the metal casing for the lights. Even if they are clean and lubed. After what seems like a zillion tests, I attached a common ground wire to all the different lamp housings, to the side of the bulb the bulb and ran that to the body and that seems to have fixed the tail light issue and they are much brighter.
Now on to the fuel pump circuit.

[tekenaar]

Originally Posted by Gary Sullivan Seems I fixed the tail lights. The design isn't a particularly good one. Several pieces are compressed together and it doesn't make for a good ground to the metal casing for the lights. Even if they are clean and lubed. After what seems like a zillion tests, I attached a common ground wire to all the different lamp housings, to the side of the bulb the bulb and ran that to the body and that seems to have fixed the tail light issue and they are much brighter. Now on to the fuel pump circuit.

If FI pump wiring is running hot, it means pump is straining - running outside factory design specs! . . . most likely due to restriction at pump intake. REMEMBER!!: high pressure FI fuel pumps are NOT!! designed to suck fuel!! . . . they are designed to pressurize an unlimited and unrestricted fuel volume at their inlets.

That's why modern FI pumps are mostly mounted inside the fuel tank currently and, when a pump "fails", the entire assembly, including the strainer and fuel level sender, is replaced!

As I recall, you went through the whole tank thing a while back, but there's one thing you may have overlooked! If you still have the original Bosch, or direct Bosch replacement, pump . . . it has a small sock-type strainer inside the pump intake pipe! Germans are anal about details . . .

[Gary Sullivan]

Tekenaar. Your note about the fuel pump makes a world of sense.
I owe you. You had just recently given me numerous tips regarding fuel tank issues, for an Ascona I had just purchased and was trying to get to run (It is currently in the garage. I etched the tank and used a tank sealer.)
These electrical issues I was dealing with recently were with my other Ascona which has been a regular driver.
I really appreciate your feedback and that from all the opelers out there. If you can't do the work yourself today, it's increasingly a question as to where you take the cars, as mechanics frequently don't want to go near them.
Thanks all.