Ammeter shortcut (1 Viewer)

[NielsC]

Hi, I am a new member from Belgium who recently bought a BJ40
It has some work on it like the gauges that don't work, and I found out the senders just weren't connected.

Now i pulled the instrument cluster out to see whats going on on the back side of it, but I forgot to disconnect the batteries.
I touched the firewall with the ammeter connection on the far right side of the cluster and it sparked.
The ammeter was not connected tough.
Now guess what, nothing works anymore, doesn't crank, no lights, nothing. Checked the fuses and all were good. is it possible i fried some wire or the instrument cluster itself ?

I hooked up a direct live wire from the battery to the AM terminal at the ignition switch and this way everything works and i can crank the motor and everything.

So there's 2 live wires going from the starter motor in the cab. One goes to the glow relay. The other one splits in 2 and one goes to another little box left to the glow relais, don't know what this is ?? And the other one was connected at the back of the instrument cluster, NOT the round plug. Don't know what that is for either.

I dont have 24 volt at the AM terminal, and no 24 volt at the round plug of the cluster neither.

Anyone know where I should look? Or what to do with this ?

Thanks,

Niels

 

[Pighead]

I don't know if a BJ40 has the fusible link like an FJ40 does, but that's what I would look at first...

 

[NielsC]

Where would the fusable link be located ? There isn't one at the battery tough.

 

[Pighead]

Traditionally, it comes right off the positive battery clamp, plastic clips at each end of it...

 

[NielsC]

Nope, those aren't there. There is one big lead to the starter motor. From there on go the 2 live wires into the cab. There's some ducktape around those wires, i'll check tomorrow if there would be any fusable links underneath the tape, I hope it's there, but I higly doubt it.
One goes to the glow relay, and the other one splits up to the starter relay I think, and the other one was at the back of the intrument cluster but I don't know what it is for.

 

[INHALER]

Should be a white wire with a blue stripe from the positive battery terminal, to the ammeter lug marked "+" on the instrument cluster. Use a multimeter to see if there is continuity (ohms) from one end of this wire to the other. If there is no continuity, there is a break in the circuit, which could be a fusible link, if you have one, or a break in the wire. If you have continuity, and nothing works on the instrument display, you may have damaged the circuit board. Disconnect the battery before testing.

 

[INHALER]

I was wrong. From the battery to the instrument cluster ammeter "+" terminal is a white wire. That wire should branch off at the fusible link and also run to the starter relay. The main wire from the battery goes to the starter motor. And another fusible linked wire, black with red stripe, runs to the glow plug relay. From the "-" post at the instrument cluster ammeter, is a wire, white with blue strip, which runs to the key starter switch.

 

[Pin_Head]

If there is no fusible link that burned out then the amp meter may have burned out. You can bypass it by connecting the white wire to the other lug of the amp meter where the white/blue stripe wire is connected.

 

[NielsC]

Thanks guys, it was the ammeter that was burnt out. I soldered the 2 wire together and now all is fine.
Now I can start on building an entire new loom with relays and decent fuses for the lighting system

 

[Pin_Head]

Don't forget to add a fusible link to the end of the white wire at the starter so this doesn't happen again.