Confused over electrical prob - help please.

[jlbuk]

Hi guys,

Been back in Zambia, driving with my '96 80.
Whilst there it had an electrical failure that has confused me; any thoughts much appreciated.

Car was driving fine, but when I went to start it up half an hour later, upon starting I got got a loud click (and possibly the begining of a crank, can't recall clearly), then nothing - dash lights everything completely dead.

Checked the fuses and fusible links under the hood - everything there seemed to have full power. Then went to the under-dash fusebox - some fuses there had full power (e.g. the 15A EFI fuse), but others (e.g. the 7.5 Ig circuit) only had 1.6V.

As I'd run out of ideas I worked back thorugh, removing and checking fuses as I went. When I got to the same 7.5A fuse second time around (about 30 minutes after the failure), this time it had full 12.8 V. Hmmm, i thought, turned the key and all the dash lights came on, and hey presto, up she fired.

Now I'd actually changed / done nothing, except pulled, checked and reseated a few fuses.

Any thoughts please ? Sticky relay somewhere ? Don't want this to happen in the bush, would be a bit tricky....

Only other info I have is that I checked power to the horn/hazard fuse under the hood - full 12.8V. However the horn worked, but the hazard lights did not (no idea if this is useful).

Many thanks in advance - JB

 

[andrea-PE-ITALY]

try cleaning battery contacts and key contact. ciao

 

[nat88toy]

try cleaning battery contacts and key contact. ciao

2nd that, I had a dead battery on one of my 80's went to put a jump pack on it and had the same problem on the first crank, got a better bite with the jump pack on the terminal lugs and she started right up

 

[cruiserman]

I had problems with +ve terminal corrosion all the time on my 80.

 

[nat88toy]

a while back i had a battery that leaked at both termals and i dident have much money at the time and the battery still worked fine so i would just pore some coke a cola over the battery terminals once a week worked awesome

 

[jlbuk]

hehe, yeah, coke to clean battery terminals is a well used trick around here...

however the fact that I had 12v at some fuses and only 1.8 at others, leads me to think this is more complex... ignition switch contacts could be a possibility, but why would it take the hazzard lights out (which work without there even being a key in the ignition).

Rgds - JB

 

[TrickyT]

Possibly one of your fusible links. Hard to say unless you kept careful track of which fuses only had 1.8v and then see if all of those are fed via the same fusible link. If the battery terminals are clean and tight, and the battery negative connection to the chassis is likewise clean and tight, then I'd order up a set of fusible links to carry as a spare for the next time this happens. They are inexpensive (~US$12) and good to keep on hand.

 

[retrofive]

x2 ^, not sure the problem above, but learned the hard way about the fusible links. I repalced mine and have a spare in the truck. The fusible link from the dealer comes with the 3 wires. I only smoked 1 and was a little suprised when I picked up the part, 3 were there.

 

[Aussie cruiser]

Could have been the contacts on one of the fuses or relays and as you disturbed it the contact has been cleaned

 

[jlbuk]

Could have been the contacts on one of the fuses or relays and as you disturbed it the contact has been cleaned

To be honest that's my best guess too...

Ref the other two posts, can't see how the fusible links would have fixed themselves, or am I missing something ???? Maybe shoudl check the resistance...(i'm back in the UK now though).