Thread: New Engel Problem

Well the obvious answer is that the turnbuckle is live at either the body end or the fridge end. Since the fridge fuse is blowing and the car body is earth then I'd say it is the fridge that is live.

To just satisfy yourself (eeewwwww) I'd be plugging the fridge into the car and sitting the fridge on the rubber coated marine ply shelf. This should see the fridge insulated from the car body. Then get your multimeter with the earth probe on the car body and the positive probe on various parts of the fridge (including the handle) and just see what is what.

Although I'd say that the real answer is just take it back under warranty.

You hven't reversed the polarity somewhere have you ?

Originally Posted by ladas

You hven't reversed the polarity somewhere have you ?

If the lead light is a fluoro then he should be right as the fluoros don't work reversed. At least mine doesn't.

lead light is fluro and works well..reverse polarity Ladas you know me
black is nothing red is ouch thats right aint it..
Ive removed the fridge for testing , the turnbuckle just goes into wood so it can't be live

Originally Posted by DirtyDawg

Ive removed the fridge for testing , the turnbuckle just goes into wood so it can't be live

If it goes to wood then how is it sparking? The circuit needs to be completed somehow.

Originally Posted by DirtyDawg

lead light is fluro and works well..reverse polarity Ladas you know me
black is nothing red is ouch thats right aint it..
Ive removed the fridge for testing , the turnbuckle just goes into wood so it can't be live

So you have eliminated the 12v socket - as your flouro lead, light works, you have almost eliminated the turnbuckles as they go into wood.

You are left with three options

For the spark between the turnbuckle and the handle to happen the turnbuckle has to be either Live, or it has to be earthed (grounded) - check very carefully to make sure it isn't screwed into either a live or neg lead, or has crimped one of these. It would make no sense otherwise, and as it is unlikely that the fridge would be live - this in my view is the obvious option. Check that there isn't a wire running between the mat and the timber.

However you could also check the following after that.

The lead between the 12v socket is back to front (live to N - and N to lve)

Or it's a fault in the fridge.

You don't have a test meter do you Dawg ? and I know electricity is not your thing.

Is there a place nearby you can have the lead tested to make sure it's poss to poss and neg to neg. It's unlikely to be wrong unless it has been repaired by somebody at some time, but as that is the easy thing to check first.

If it isn't the lead then the fridge need checking, there could be a chaffed or broken wire inside that touching on the metal parts.

Does the fridge run ?

Is there a different supply either in the car, or in your garage you can test the fridge on ?

Ladas Me ol mate I thinks I found it
after removing the fridge I plugged it inside the house runs perfect and using a multimeter(yes me) IT is not live.
Went back to car and found the earthing problem...Stainless steel screws went through the mat through the wood and are 3mm into the aluminium sponson(floor body).
The dual battery is earth off of the same point as the primary Batt,
Well Im going to use shorter screws to see if it eliminates the problem.
thx for your help again Mate and to all you fellas who inputted..cheers

Well the screws into the floor explains how the turn buckles got earth but not how they got a positive connection.

Shorter screws will get rid of your current problem but the turn buckle will still spark whenever it gets earthed by something.

If it blew the fridge fuse then it must be shorting after the fuse. Is the fuse part of the power cable or just part of the fridge i.e moulded into the power socket on the fridge?