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Thread: So thats the problem or what`s with the smoke?

  1. 2nd April 2011, 04:28 PM #1
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    So thats the problem or what`s with the smoke?

    Was on the way to work yesterday. Not long from home and there was a orange flash and sparks form my digital 24 volt meter. Dam I thought, but not overly surprising as it was a Chinese unit. No other signs of trouble, so continued to work. Today and of to work again. Also not far from home and there is a smell of hot wires and a small spiral of smoke rising from behind my temp gauge. So as the gauge is 24 volt I turned of the 24 volt power to the car and pulled over. Two good points with the ute. It has between the seats a battery isolator for both the 12 volt and the 24 volt power. It will continue to run with the power of. Has a mechanical stop. So disconnected the power to the gauge. Switched the 24 volt power back on. The temp gauge has been erratic recently. Just thought it might have been a earthing problem. Seems like yesterday it shorted a bit and spiked the volt meter. Then to day it passed away completely. Now here`s a odd thing to happen. Since I isolated the 24 volt temp gauge and volt meter the 12 volt fuel gauge has started to work better. The ute was rewired when it was rebuilt some six years ago. So is not the the well noted Lucas wiring that Land rovers are famous for. The 24 volt system has it`s own seperate fuses in the cabin. The 12 volt fuses are under the bonnet. The 24 volt wiring is seperate from the 12 volt as much as posible. So a bit of a puzzle. Will get a 12 volt temp gauge and a new 24 volt meter soon.
    Cheers Hall
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  2. 2nd April 2011, 05:59 PM #2
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    G'day Hall

    There is a possability that both the 12V and 24v shared a common earth and the 24 volt system has been hogging the cable capacity, I would check and make sure that the 12volt system has its own earth cable, and similar with the 24volt system, I would suggest that you upgrade to VDO 24 volt gauges as the quality and spares would be worth it as most European heavy vehicles have VDO instrumentation


    cheers
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  3. 3rd April 2011, 08:14 PM #3
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    It was a VDO gauge that went out with a bang. The 24 volt has a separate earth to the 12 volt.
    Cheers Hall
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  4. 3rd April 2011, 08:45 PM #4
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    Bad engine earth! Both 24V and 12V systems should be securely earthed to the engine/trans, the chassis and body with proper sized cables. None of this earthing via stray bits of chassis. There will be some voltage drops involved.
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  5. 12th April 2011, 06:49 PM #5
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    Found the reason for the early failure of the temp gauge and volt meter. Found after some looking. Under a lot of hoses and other wires ( naturally, would not be in a easy to see place. ) power from the alternator or maybe generator for the gauges had rubbed through and shorted out. Also found that there is a second earth point for the 24 volt and it shares this earth with the 12 volt. But not for long. So yet more to fix.
    Cheers Hall
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