Thread: county electrical problems

just brought my self a 85 county so i am a bit of a newbie but i am currently having some electrical problems
the indicators and gages don't work some times and when i was driving back from brisbane to cairns pulled up at a servo and smoke started coming out from behind the dash, the pull cable that turns the engine off was shorting off something and was glowing red hot.

does anyone know what could be causing this?
and does anyone know if you can buy kits to rewire the whole vehicle?

any help would be much appreciated

Originally Posted by nwright

the indicators and gages don't work some times

With a factory loom, they are on different circuits. However, IIRC they share an earth point. If you remove the dash facia you will see each instrument has a black wire going back to a series of earth points on the back of the facia which is then earthed back to the firewall. This is where I'd start. Check for loose wires, broken connectors and burn marks. 9/10 times it is a crap connector that was crap from the beginning. The worst ones are the ones are these:

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/onl...03#Description

If you see any, replace them right away. If they aren't causing you trouble now, they will be soon.

Originally Posted by nwright

when i was driving back from brisbane to cairns pulled up at a servo and smoke started coming out from behind the dash, the pull cable that turns the engine off was shorting off something and was glowing red hot.

in a factory install, there is no pull cable through he firewall, but to a solenoid actuator in a blue bag that sits under the brake master cylinder in the engine bay.

I'd be checking this carefully to see if it is a short or earthing the engine to the chassis. There should be a thick earth cable from the engine to the chassis on / near the passengers side engine mount.

If this breaks, the earth link will be the hand brake cable (which is quite thick). It is also coated in think plastic and will (IMO) melt and smoke long before a thick stop cable could glow red.. but that is just my gut feeling.

Originally Posted by nwright

and does anyone know if you can buy kits to rewire the whole vehicle?

Yes you can - I got mine from Auto-Sparks in the UK. It was expensive ($800 delivered) for both the main and the engine loom. They didn't have a pattern for the engine loom so I worked with them to get a pattern made up.

Originally Posted by steveG

Someone here recently organised a replacement loom (maybe Flagg??). A search should show it up.

Yep that was me

Originally Posted by steveG

The fact that they are old, have the Isuzu vibrator in the engine bay, and have likely been screwed around with by previous owners with as much electrical ability as your average sheep - means that issues are common.

Yes. There electronics are terrible. Mine were OK until I had the A/C serviced and the company rewired them, drawing power from several other circuits and caused all sorts of problems. My main loom was melted and bare in several places and caused no end of greif.

I installed a new loom and a new firewall at the same time. While it took me close to a year (I travel a lot for work) you could do it in a few days without too much trouble.

When I got it out, I found so many broken clips and split wires just waiting to cause a problem... but the real killer is previous owners and dodgy 'auto-electricians' doing stupid things. No one ever thinks about where they are drawing power from, or how the circuites work. I won't get started on this because I will rant forever and Inc will run out of disk space on his server.

Originally Posted by steveG

I'd love to completely rewire mine as its about the only part of the car that I hate, but its a big job and at the moment I'm enjoying using it too much.

Its well worth it. If we weren't so geographically dispersed I'd suggest everyone interested get together for a week and we all do them at the same time. A re-loom-a-thon!

Originally Posted by steveG

At the very least, give your wiring a good looking over and pay particular attention to anything that has insulation tape on it that doesn't look "factory", and any possible rubbing areas for the wires, and carry a fire extinguisher.

Very much so. And get a proper Auto Multi-Meter with a clip for the earth cable and an audio short circuit alarm. Also you can use a magnetic compass to find shorts. Worth through the circuits slowly and methodically to isolate the problem. Take photos of every join before you pull it apart and write down your findings as you go.

Originally Posted by steveG

The glowing stop cable could be that your earth strap from chassis to transfer case is missing or stuffed, and its using the stop cable as an earth. Could also be that its rubbed through on a wire (maybe one from the alternator).
Steve

Yeah - does your handbrake still work? I think it would be wrecked before a stop cable could pull that many amps..