Jon continued work on our 1966 Daimler V8 250 by attending to the rear suspension, slackening the spring eye nuts and opening up the chassis mounts to provide the necessary clearance before fully lubricating the assembly and tightening the bolts back into position. He then carried on with the wider repairs to the car, tightening the mounts for the prop centre bearing before moving on to investigate the reverse light fault. During testing, he found the bulb had blown, so he replaced and fitted a new bulb before retesting the system, which then worked perfectly. Jon also tightened the battery terminals while working through the electrical issues.
Attention then turned to the steering column after the indicator tell tales were found not to be functioning. Jon stripped the steering column cowling to investigate further and discovered a small connector strip and spring sitting loose inside the lower section of the cowling once it had been removed. To properly access the fault, he removed the steering wheel and related components before taking the switch assembly from the column. He rebuilt the switch mechanism, lubricated it, then tested and refitted it before rebuilding the steering column and refitting the steering wheel and cowling assembly.
While progressing with the remaining work, Jon finished refitting the trim before investigating the ignition warning light fault. He checked the alternator wiring due to the original dynamo and regulator having previously been replaced and found the wiring arrangement appeared correct. Suspecting the warning bulb itself may have failed, he tightened the lower steering column universal joint before removing the car from the ramp and stripping the under-dash area to gain access to the ignition warning light bulb. Once removed, the bulb was confirmed to have blown, so Jon replaced it and carried out further testing, although the warning light still failed to operate.
To continue diagnosing the issue, Jon removed the fuse and relay board to inspect what had been done with the original regulator wiring. He found the wires had been joined correctly and confirmed there was a 12-volt supply present at the ignition warning light, although it was clearly not earthing through the alternator as expected. He then checked the alternator earth, which appeared satisfactory, before removing the warning light wire from the alternator and manually earthing it out. The warning light then operated correctly, proving the wiring itself was functioning as it should. With this testing completed, Jon suspected a fault within the alternator’s internal regulator and removed the alternator from our Daimler for further investigation.
