Triumph Repair: Interior Lighting, and Fuel Gauge, fuse block, fuel gauge

Question
ok, i recently took off my dash board to re finish it, before i had taken it off
everthing worked fine, except the horn, but anyway i took it apart, and i have
now put it back togther according to the wiring Diagram, everything seems to
work, except the lights, but the head lights work fine, its just the blinkers. i dont
know what is wrong with the dimmer, but i worked, and now it doesent. i dont
know if that was my fault or what, what should i do about that. Ok next, the fuel
gauge isnt working, i think it is the sending unit, but how can i make sure? and
last bu tnot least, my blinkers dont work, the light on the speedomiter dosent
even work, what could be wrong, and the last one i forgot about....
sorry.....where does the Horn Reley go?

Answer
Alex,

What year car?  Which wiring diagram are you looking at?

When you had the dashboard apart did you clean all the connectors?  

On the Triumphs there are several causes for electrical circuits to stop working.  Here's a quick list...

1)  Fuse blown or not seated properly.  Unlike every other fuse box I've seen the Lucas fuse block has SEPARATE contacts at both ends of a fuse, so it's possible to have one SIDE of the contact work and the other not.  

2)  Corroded connectors/connector sockets.  

3)  Failed switches or components

4)  Wiring failure... aka Mickey's revenge.  Mice LOVE the insulation used on Triumph wiring harnesses.  It must be made with old cheese or something... they'll go out of their way to chew it up.  

On the fuel gauge, if you take the sender lead and ground it with the ignition on the gauge should go to "Full".  If it does then it's a sender issue.  If it doesn't it's either the wiring between the tank and the gauge or the gauge itself.

The trick to figuring out the wiring system it to take one problem at a time and work through it thoroughly.


Cheers,

Jim