Fellow Ritmo Owners,
A little history, I bought the car from a friend that imported it to the USA from Italy in 2006. he bought it from a dealer that took it as a trade about 10 years earlier. The car had massive electrical problems when I bought it. I sorted everything except what you will find bellow.
I have a problem with the electrical (big surprise) on my Ritmo Cabrio. My parking light circuit, including the instrument lights, is only getting 10.3 volts. I removed the fuse box to diagnose this issue. I have checked the wiring going into the car at all points and it always shows the battery voltage of 12.5 (with car off). When I pulled the fuse box, I discovered a few interesting things:
This is how the lower bumper fog lights were made to work. As far as I can tell, the yellow wire is the signal wire for the fog light relay and is only on when the parking lights are on. This proves that the car never had the bumper fog lights when purchased and someone installed them afterwards.
Why are these four wires cut? What do they do? I have been looking through the Haynes Strada manual but it has been difficult to make sense of all these wires. I located a plug under the dash that was green and green/black spots that seems to be the other side of these wires.
The plug has a large gauge red wire going to it. The wire is hot at all times. The yellow wire was crammed in there. I removed it and cannot find any difference. It appears to be a Fiat wire.
Here is the cluster as I began to pull it out. Notice that the two wires for the choke light are missing. I found them. They were being used as the ground for the fog light switch. Does everything else look correct? I know its a bad shot.
When I had the cluster out, I noticed this plug on the back of it. It goes into the right side of the cluster where the image if the ritmo and the engine are on the cluster. None of those lights work on my car. On the series one S75 Ritmo, I noticed, had the red and green lights light up as I recall when you were about to start the car. Mine does not. Is there supposed to be a plug that goes in there? I looked on my car and could not find anything. Is is burried under the dash? Maybe it has something to do with the four cut wires?
This is how I have left the car for the night. The final issue is that the fiber optics are very dim. I cannot seem to be able to get access to the light that provides the illumination for them. I think it is right behind the economy gauge. The brightness on the vent controls is only visible on the right side. How can I get access to this area?
This is what I am talking about:
The control panel right above the radio.
These are the specifics about the car:
Ritmo 85S Cabrio
1500CC engine
Year is unknown. The lic. place on the rear of the car is in the bumper BUT this was also added later. The car shows heavy modification in the rear that would suggest the lic. plate was moved from between the tail lights to the bumper area. I think this would indicate a 1984 but I think the Palinuro Cabrio came out in 1985? Maybe it's not a palinuro? The car has been repainted. There is a possibility that the interior door panels were pulled from a palinuro and the exterior was just painted to give the impression. Who knows. Would the VIN give you the year? Let me know.
Thank you all in advance.
Alberto M
pintopower@hotmail.com