The Morbidmobile Blog

[Stephen Edwin]

David, David ....

let's not go there.



Tom,

The other basic thing is, did you actually run a good continuous earth wire all the way to the rear light units, and how did you connect that to earth in the vehicle?

[TomSaintJames]

Hi folks, sorry for not updating this properly - I have done some work over the last two weekends but not yet finished writing it up, life is so busy just now!!

Which lights are working and not working now?
BRAKE LIGHT (FULL BRIGHTNESS) AND FOG

Overall have any lights been got working and if so at what stage, by what method?
BUMPER LIGHTS FULLY FUNCTIONAL POST-NEW EARTH INSTALLED

Have you re-wired from the car itself, alongside the hinges, down the fiberglass tailgate, to the light units?
YES, DRIVERS SIDE ONLY

With continuous wires?
YES, CONNECTED TO THE CABLE INSIDE THE CAR

Where and how did you connect, especially in the car itself?
WATERPROOF 10 PIN CONNECTORS

Is there "power" at the connections that you wired to in the car itself?
YES

Is there power at the connections you wired to at the light units?
YES, ALTHOUGH THERE IS POWER ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FOG LIGHT PCB

Do you have a multimeter and/or test lamp now?
TEST LAMP, YES,

Is someone pushing the brake pedal for testing, or, have you tried an outward i.e. expendaing carpenters clamp between the seat and the brake pedal?
OTHER HALF CONSCRIPTED FOR BUTTON PUSHING.

Does the ignition need to be on for your brake lights to work?
NO, SEEMS TO MAKE NO DIFFERENCE, NOR DOES ENGINE/LIGHTS.

The other basic thing is, did you actually run a good continuous earth wire all the way to the rear light units, and how did you connect that to earth in the vehicle?
YES, SPADE CONNECTOR IN THE SPARE WHEEL WELL WHICH ARE ATTACHED TO THE BUMPER LIGHT EARTH.

The diodes are a tad of a mystery and mysteries are not good when trying to solve problems.
AS FAR AS I CAN SEE, THESE HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE PROPER REAR LIGHT CLUSTERS (APART FROM A NOW SHARED EARTH) AT THE REAR END OF THE CAR, BUT MAY DO SO IN THE DASH/LOOM.

There really might come a time to get an auto electrician to look in to this, checking out the actual wiring on the actual vehicle.
INDEED, THE TIME MAY COME! BUT THERE ARE A FEW THINGS TO TRY YET. AND I'M QUITE STUBBORN.

/questions.

Another thing I have thought of this evening is that I've now discounted the courtesy light switch and so haven't tried any of the lights with the boot open (so switch also open).

Also, post re-wiring the drivers side rear cluster the interior lights now appear to not work... I'm not sure how these are wired, may have to take the roof trim off after all (one huge piece with a metal frame!) which looks to be challenging.

I'll see if i can spare an hour this evening to write up the weekends work, with pictures.

Thanks, Tom.

[TomSaintJames]

I also meant to say that i very much appreciate everyones guidance in this project so far, especially Dave and Stephen. It certainly has been a baptism of fire for me as ive not ever played with electrics before! Thanks chaps.

[TomSaintJames]

OK then, I am now home from work and have a whiskey in-hand, I judge it chilly and dark enough now that it's seasonally appropriate to get the whiskey out.

So, the weekend before last I had a good reccy and also a fiddle with the AAV which had varying successes. I removed the AAV from the car to see how open the valve was at air temperature (about 12 degrees C IIRC at the time), this was the result (sorry for tiny photo, not sure what went wrong here!).



As you can see it's hardly open at all, but then again 12deg is hardy very cold.

Small nut loosened, tiny flat blade screwdriver inserted, opened a bit and nut tightened - could have done with three hands really here.



More open. I also put it in the fridge for an hour whilst I had lunch to check if it actually worked properly, expecting cold idle to be higher than the outside air temp warrants. Result! Cold idle ~1600rpm that audibly decreased to ~950 after 30 secs or so. So, it works!

I thought this a little too high back then, so re-adjusted to this:



However, I think the 1st adjustment may have been better, just falsely high due to being fridged, as now although it isn't very cold, idle is still ~950rpm, although it hasn't stalled immediately after starting recently it is lumpy until you blip the throttle. There is 1L of methylated spirits in the tank though along with just less than 1/8 tank of petrol, just in case there is any water in there. Would meths mask a cold starting problem, or indeed exacerbate it?

On to the wiring! The hinge area of the driver’s side rear light cluster cable was cut, revealing surprisingly healthy-looking wiring - at least to my uninitiated eyes.









New loom made up, using 10-pin waterproof connectors so I could incorporate the new earth into it for complete disconnectability, I also splashed out on an electrical connector set, which I’m sure will come in handy in other areas too in the future.



W connectors attached.





Hinge end, irritatingly the connectors are just too tall to easily fit in the recess behind the hinge area so must be forced. I may have to cut a slot to allow them easy passage.

Earth wire not yet included.


Had to route the earth outside the body cavity as there is no route from above the glass to below it, when campervan-ised it'll be lined anyway, so these wires will be concealed. I have taped it in place for now.



New earth, this earth point solved the bumper light problems, so I routed the new cluster earth here also, it is the fatter green wire.



New hinge arrangement, after copious amounts of moving the bootlid up and down, this seemed the best solution, the small cable ties aren’t tight so allow some movement, but not so much that the cables will end up getting crushed/compressed etc. The cable tie around the hinge attaches to the cable ties around the cables so no compression should happen here either.



Light cluster end, I used bullet connectors so I didn’t have to disturb the white connector and pins but also so I could plug each wire into different colours to see what would happen and to find what wire fed which light.



So, this is where I am just now, a couple of things I think to eliminate before throwing in the towel (amongst other things!) and paying someone to fix it.

1. Install new cluster
2. Install new white bulb holder
3. Rewire passenger side cluster

Interestingly I found that the reverse light (brown wire) and fog light (assumed black wire by process of elimination) on the RHS cluster get power from the LHS cluster, as you can see in the photo's there are only three powered wires entering the RHS cluster from that side.

Nothing has been tidied up yet BTW so forgive the messiness! I do have some trunking so it can all be tidied and fixed in place nicely.

Thanks all.

[TomSaintJames]

BTW sorry for the tiny photo's! They were taken by my other halves old SLR camera that is quite difficult to use, the larger photos were taken by my new/reconditioned samsung S6 and seem to be much better!

[Stephen Edwin]

Tom.

You are methodical and tidy.

A methodical approach is a seriously good foundation when doing electrics. Especially when they are non standard and/or have been inadequately and undocumented repaired by a previous owner. Your methodicalness bodes well for a good outcome.

I'll try to look through the photos when I am less tired.

One thing that occurs to me is, re that parking light socket. Can you inspect the wiring of another care with that type of rear lamp cluster. So as to see how that is wired. In case someone has altered the wiring on yours, and to be sure you get that wired correctly now.


.

[kalstras]

Keep up the good work! Thanks for allowing us to watch!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by TomSaintJames

Light cluster end, I used bullet connectors so I didn’t have to disturb the white connector and pins but also so I could plug each wire into different colours to see what would happen and to find what wire fed which light.



So, this is where I am just now, a couple of things I think to eliminate before throwing in the towel (amongst other things!) and paying someone to fix it.

1. Install new cluster
2. Install new white bulb holder
3. Rewire passenger side cluster

Interestingly I found that the reverse light (brown wire) and fog light (assumed black wire by process of elimination) on the RHS cluster get power from the LHS cluster, as you can see in the photo's there are only three powered wires entering the RHS cluster from that side.

Nothing has been tidied up yet BTW so forgive the messiness! I do have some trunking so it can all be tidied and fixed in place nicely.

Thanks all.

Look very closely at that photo Tom. All the bulb-holders have an "arrow" on them and all (except the stop/tail) point towards the same direction. If you fit that white bulbholder that you have for the right hand cluster, does that end up with the arrow pointing the same way?

[TomSaintJames]

Sorry Dave, I’ve had a look at each bulb holder but can't see any arrows! The white holder sits in the same orientation as the black one pictured here - it can only go in one way as there are 2 small and one large locator nubs.

So my new light cluster arrived today, hooray! It's quite nice and shiny although the chrome bit is just very thin (and cheap looking) tape which was half off in the box. I'll have to get some better, thicker stuff and then can do both sides. There is no circuit board with the light cluster though! Looking back at the advert it doesn’t show one, I must have just assumed one was coming.





Off with the old cluster, and also off with the circuit board (CB). I think it's high time I actually understood how it works, which wires where etc.



The white connector block is labelled 1 to 8, with 1 being on the inside (nearest number plate), and 8 the outside. On my car it is this:





1. Empty (Pin on CB goes nowhere)
2. Empty (Reverse light circuit)
3. Black wire (Reverse light circuit)
4. Green wire (Indicator light circuit)
5. Brown wire (Fog light circuit)
6. Empty (also fog light circuit)
7. White wire (tail light and brake light circuits)
8. Yellow wire (Brake light circuit only)

As far as the condition of the CB geos it is less than brilliant, there are a couple of folds and creases that may cause a 'break' in the electrical circuit. Interestingly both of the most significant ones are on the brake/stop light feed and earth circuit. The usual solution would be to buy another/new one - however I can only find them for sale in America and they are $40 for the part and $40 for the shipping!





We have some copper slug tape, that you put around plat pots to deter slugs/snails from crossing it and munching the plants - could I solder small sections of this to the CB to bridge any possible breaks? I don't want to further damage the CB and worry that the solder pen would do so.

Probably worth mentioning that I have never soldered anything before either, at least not since D+T class at school 13 years ago!

Another thing to consider is the hole in the earth circuit above the fog light socket - I could introduce a second earth wire here to earth the brake/tail light/fog bulbs after the potential break in the circuit - which may be the problem.

[Laird Scooby]

Tom - maybe "arrows" isn't the right word, pointers perhaps? They are in plain view in that photo i quoted, all pointing up in the photo except the stop/tail one.

Whatever you do, DON'T try soldering the PCB - you WILL end up with an expensive, molten mess!

I can see a problem and it relates directly to my earlier question about the white bulbholder. There is a deep witness mark/dent (possibly a slight break) where the earth contact of the black bulbholder sits on the PCB, can you fit the white one (after cleaning and stratching the contacts so they fit tighter) in there and see where the earth connection sits? Also take notice of the pointer/arrow on it.

By the way, i don't see any holes in the earth strip?