Clock meant to stay on all the time?

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Hulsty

Hulsty

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I have a 1986 BJ74 and have spent most of the day fixing/tidying the previous owners crap wiring. I found the time light fuse was blown, upon replacing it my interior clock stays on all the time, is this normall?

Previously the clock did not work properly. Check the plug on the clock there are two wires with permanent power all the time.
 
Just checked my ciggertte lighter also has permanent power to it and operates with the ignition off. I am sure this is not right, anyone have anyidea where to even start looking?

When the dome fuse is pulled the ciggertte light works correctly, with the ignition only, but the clock gets no power at all until the ignition is on. In which case the two wires that were previously mentioned as been permanently one with the fuse inerted now become switched with the ignition without the fuse being inserted.
 
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Hulsty said:
Just checked my ciggertte lighter also has permanent power to it and operates with the ignition off. I am sure this is not right, anyone have anyidea where to even start looking?

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Its not right. They have probably bypassed the ignotion
 
There is definately something odd going on. It also effects the dome light, fuse in it has power all the time, fuse out and it only has power when the ignition is on.

I think I will leave the fuse out to avoid any problems, I couldnt find anywhere that a change had been made to the factroy loom.

I'm thinking there is a short somewhere, I pretty sure everything worked properly when I first got the car.
 
It sounds like something has been connected between, or is shorting, the light circuit to an ignition circuit.

Have you tried pulling other fuses, after the first is pulled, to see if you can locate which ignition circuit is connected/shorted to the light circuit?

Are there any aftermarket accessories installed, something that would have been connected up to the ignition circuit?
 
According to my EWD for the 70 series from 1992 onwards, so not sure if it applies to your model...

The Dome fuse/circuit should be connected to power all the time.

The Cig fuse/circuit is connected to the ACC circuit of the ignition switch, so should only come on when in ACC/IG/ST ignition switch positions.


The clock on 1992- version of the EWD shows 4 wires connected to it...
- ground
- a connection from the Cig circuit (which is also connected to the lighter) that should turn the clock display on when the key is turned on
- a connection to the Dome circuit giving it permanent power so it doesn't lose the time
- a connection to the tail light circuit that should dim the display when the head/park lights are turned on

The radio/cassette shows 3 power wires connected to it...
- ground
- a connection from the Cig circuit that should turn the unit on/off with the ignition key
- a connection from the Dome circuit for permanent power


It doesn't seem like there is much connected to the Dome circuit, things such as interior lights, door open warning lights, and door open switches, but the Dome circuit is connected to the Cig circuit, through the clock, radio/cassette, and Light Reminder Relay.

I would guess that the wiring to one of these devices might not be right, at least that is where I would start looking.

Have you tried disconnecting devices on those circuits, such as the clock, cigarette lighter and radio/cassette, to see if the problem goes away when any of those devices are removed from the circuits?
 
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I would be looking at this first as the main suspect...

Hulsty said:
Spent the long weekend so far making up some new door trims and install a cd player and speakers, they came out pretty well I recokon.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for that Simon. As far as I can tell all other electrical systems are working fine, ie the power windows and locks which are in the doors. When the clock and cig lighter are unplugged, with the fuse in permanent power is still there.

One thing that I have remembered is that when I got the car it had the standard stereo fitted, I unplugged it, then replugged it back in, and it didnt work anymore. Strange.
 
Hulsty said:
Thanks for that Simon. As far as I can tell all other electrical systems are working fine, ie the power windows and locks which are in the doors. When the clock and cig lighter are unplugged, with the fuse in permanent power is still there.
Click to expand...
Yes, power windows and door locks are on different circuits to the lighter/stereo/clock and door open switches/interior lights.


Hulsty said:
One thing that I have remembered is that when I got the car it had the standard stereo fitted, I unplugged it, then replugged it back in, and it didnt work anymore. Strange.
Click to expand...
I would be looking at the stereo wiring.

Is that wiring all still standard, or was it modified when a different stereo was installed, to join a different connector onto the cruiser loom or wire it up directly to the stereo wires or something like that?

Maybe a pemanent power lead at the stereo has been connected to the ACC/IGN power line, possibly in order to get the stereo to seem like it was working correctly, but maybe messing up the other wiring in the process?

If the wiring is still standard, have you tried disconnecting the stereo to see what happens with the rest of the circuit?

Does the wiring at the clock and lighter look original/normal, not modified, no wires joined together directly rather than going through connectors?

Have you tried pulling the other fuses, while keeping an eye on what the power is doing in the lighter/clock/stereo circuit, to try and work out which circuit is feeding the permanent power into the ACC/IGN line for the lighter/clock/stereo circuit?

My guesses are going by my 1992-onwards Electrical Wiring Diagram (EWD), not sure how different your earlier model is, you might want to chase up an EWD to suit it.
 
I will unplug the radio I installed and see what happens. Its got me buggered though why the factory radio stopped working when it was unplugged then put in with no mods. Should have chased it then.

The wiring mods I have done are to install the new stereo are:

Run a new permanent power lead for the stereo as I couldnt find one in the dash

Get the Acc power from the original stero wiring - cut the wire

Get the Ilumination wiring from the clock, spliced wire

Made a new ground wire

Run new speaker wiring
 
Have you tried running the radio off another source?
The fact the cig lighter was working with the ignition off tells me someone has bypassed the ignition so they can light a smoke anytime;).
Maybe the radio was supposed to do the same.

My 73 nearly went up in flames from the PO crappy wiring. He had a car fridge running in the back at some time and left the live wire inside the body and after a few years the plastic wore away and began shorting out.
Lucky I had butterfly nuts on the battery terminals and was able to disconnect easy.

It might be worth paying a $100 to an auto electrician to sort out;)
 
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