Jack thanks for the info. The person who owned my car before me damaged the {bright}optic cables i removed the ferrels but cannot seem to make a good clean cut! I have enough extra cable but can't get a good cut. Tried sharp dikes and a new razor blade but it dosen't work the inside cuts but it is fuzzy or shattered: no light transmitted! What am i doing wrong? Help thanks THAD
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Re: To Jack Humphrey: cutting fiber optic cable
Saw your original post and have no explaination on what you're doing wrong. My response was NOT to cut ends of fiber but to clean 'em using solvent and/or SOFT wire brush and to make sure pickup extention from ferrule is correct length + 'look' surfaces are clean.
Another 'explaination' is you're trying to 'fix' the problem in the WRONG place.... Wouldn't be the first time a guy beat his head against the wall trying to get optical conductance with ABSOLUTELY no sucess and finally started to unwrap composite wiring harness cable to find prior owners/mechanics made an 'opps' and accidentally cut the light pipe in mid-run, then re-wrapped the harness without effecting repair.... -
Re: To Jack Humphrey: cutting fiber optic cable
Saw your original post and have no explaination on what you're doing wrong. My response was NOT to cut ends of fiber but to clean 'em using solvent and/or SOFT wire brush and to make sure pickup extention from ferrule is correct length + 'look' surfaces are clean.
Another 'explaination' is you're trying to 'fix' the problem in the WRONG place.... Wouldn't be the first time a guy beat his head against the wall trying to get optical conductance with ABSOLUTELY no sucess and finally started to unwrap composite wiring harness cable to find prior owners/mechanics made an 'opps' and accidentally cut the light pipe in mid-run, then re-wrapped the harness without effecting repair....Comment
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Re: To Jack Humphrey: cutting fiber optic cable
Jack,
You have a valid point about possible problems elsewhere in the fiber optic cable. One thing that I neglected to mention with my previous post on my repair was that I did go through a thorough process of checking the continuity of the fiber cable before and after each step of the repair process. After I installed the new piece of cable to the turn signal housing nipple I put a flash light in front of the turn signal. I then looked at the end of the new cable and sure enough it was emitting light at the end. Also, after cutting the frayed original cable that feeds to the console, I put a flash light at the end of the freshly cut cable and then checked the console for light. The console was lit so I was in good shape from a continuity stand point. I would recommend this approach to anyone BEFORE they start their repair.
RichComment
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Re: To Jack Humphrey: cutting fiber optic cable
Jack,
You have a valid point about possible problems elsewhere in the fiber optic cable. One thing that I neglected to mention with my previous post on my repair was that I did go through a thorough process of checking the continuity of the fiber cable before and after each step of the repair process. After I installed the new piece of cable to the turn signal housing nipple I put a flash light in front of the turn signal. I then looked at the end of the new cable and sure enough it was emitting light at the end. Also, after cutting the frayed original cable that feeds to the console, I put a flash light at the end of the freshly cut cable and then checked the console for light. The console was lit so I was in good shape from a continuity stand point. I would recommend this approach to anyone BEFORE they start their repair.
RichComment
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ATTABOY!
Glad you mention now you did due diligence to check the integrity of the light pipe as well as the gross effect after you trimmed the pickup end. By not mentioning in the first place, we managed to surface another NDB respondant who had this problem too and he educated many on how he 'conquered' it....
There was an article in Restorer (can't quote author/pub date) who fought similar problems with TS lamp pickup. As memory serves, he mentioned doing two things to remedy.
(1) Pulled the TS assy and inspected the inside of the pickup
orfice to find it packed with contaminants which he cleaned
out (read that fiber pickup looking through 'mud').
(2) Observed there was a 'critical' length associated with the
pickup ends (exposed fiber from ferrule) and if this length
wasn't maintained the pickup ends would bend upon insertion
and look 'away' from the light source.
Item two, from memory again, was solved by manually un-crimping the ferrule, removing, stripping light pipe insulation to regain pickup length, and the ferrule re-installed and re-crimped into place. Perhaps dropping the TS lamp housing from the fender so you can see what's going inside and iterate your tests is the next step....Comment
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ATTABOY!
Glad you mention now you did due diligence to check the integrity of the light pipe as well as the gross effect after you trimmed the pickup end. By not mentioning in the first place, we managed to surface another NDB respondant who had this problem too and he educated many on how he 'conquered' it....
There was an article in Restorer (can't quote author/pub date) who fought similar problems with TS lamp pickup. As memory serves, he mentioned doing two things to remedy.
(1) Pulled the TS assy and inspected the inside of the pickup
orfice to find it packed with contaminants which he cleaned
out (read that fiber pickup looking through 'mud').
(2) Observed there was a 'critical' length associated with the
pickup ends (exposed fiber from ferrule) and if this length
wasn't maintained the pickup ends would bend upon insertion
and look 'away' from the light source.
Item two, from memory again, was solved by manually un-crimping the ferrule, removing, stripping light pipe insulation to regain pickup length, and the ferrule re-installed and re-crimped into place. Perhaps dropping the TS lamp housing from the fender so you can see what's going inside and iterate your tests is the next step....Comment
Comment