90 bulkhead rebuild and wiring

hi,

I've recently resprayed my 90 which included fitting a refurbished bulkhead. It was originally a td but a previous owner had a discovery 200 tdi fitted plus other amendments shall we say over the years! I'm getting right to the end of rebuilding it and have hit a bit of a brick wall. I'm having to use multiple wiring diagrams because I think the loom has had bits added over the years. Everything was wired up, the car started first time so all was good. All the lights have been refitted and wired in and now it is soing some very strange things. I can start the car up with the key, switch it off, try to restart and i get nothing. However, I accidentally touched the high beam stalk and found that it turned the engine over! I tried again with the key but nothing.

I then took the battery off for a few minutes and reconnected to try to start the car up again with the key and it worked. Switched it off, turned the key again and nothing. I then pulled the main beam stalk and it started turning over!

Someone please help because it is driving me crazy!

Make sure you have good earths to engine/gearbox/chassis & bulkhead.
I ran a separate earth to fuse box so I know all the connections are good.

Could it be as simple as that? I hope so!

I'm not sure either whether mine has the dim/dip circuit and relays so I don't know if that is a factor or not.

Have You got glass fuses?

Yes mate

You will have the circuit that does not allow the fog & high beam on at the same time.
Make sure all the fuse connections are clean.

scott11 said:

Yes mate

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as @highcap phil, check each glass fuse for internal integrity - if end caps rotate throw fuse away - they do fail over time and can cause some irritating faults. Ideally, change glass fuses for plug-in blade types. And do re-check earths...

v8250 said:

as @highcap phil, check each glass fuse for internal integrity - if end caps rotate throw fuse away - they do fail over time and can cause some irritating faults. Ideally, change glass fuses for plug-in blade types. And do re-check earths...

Click to expand...

Thanks for that mate.

I spent a couple of hours last night going over the wiring again and found a couple of fuses looking corroded and cleaned up some earth points. The car now doesn't try to turn over with the main beam switch but is very intermittent when turning the key. Sometimes it will fire up and sometimes it won't.

Strangely I cut the live feed from the battery to the ignition switch off, which is a big spade connector, as it was looking corroded and accidentally tapped it against the ignition barrel. When it made contact the engine tried to turn over. When I plugged it back onto the ignition switch and tried using the key to turn the engine over it wouldn't do anything!!

I still have no lights, indicators or anything else working either. This is so confusing so any additional help would be greatly appreciated!

Have you put that big spade on in the correct place?
Unsure where on the ignition this should be.

Might be worth running a temporary earth with a jump cable also....

I

Hicap phill said:

Have you put that big spade on in the correct place?
Unsure where on the ignition this should be.

Click to expand...

I've bought a new ignition switch which is prc2735. I have plugged it in according to the diagram below. The car was originally a 2.5td but now has a 200tdi in so I'm not 100 % this is correct.

Have you a electric meter?
Or test lamp?
Find the terminal for main live(should be on in all key positions)
& work from there.

Thanks for your advice.

I spent a couple of hours tonight on it and replaced all the glass fuses and connectors. I cleaned as many earth points as I could and unplugged the majority of the wiring, leaving enough to start the engine. I put the key in and it fired up straight away. I then plugged in each plug, one by one but testing the ignition at each stage and everything was OK. I had a electrics working apart from the brake lights and indicators (although the indicators worked when I put the hazards on somehow?!).

Everything was going well then it all failed again. Where I'm at now is I can get the engine started but no other electrics work. I think I've narrowed it down slightly to either the starter motor and/or the big clump of earth cables which are all joined together near the fuse box.

I'll try the starter motor tomorrow and go from there. Strangely as well, when I connect the glow plug wire to the ignition it also prevents the engine from turning over.

Excuse me if I'm being thick, but, is the red wire that seems to be coming from the group of earths your earth connection?
Just seems to be on the light side to me, considering the gauge of some of the earths.

frog hopper said:

Excuse me if I'm being thick, but, is the red wire that seems to be coming from the group of earths your earth connection?
Just seems to be on the light side to me, considering the gauge of some of the earths.

Click to expand...

no mate but I did notice that myself when I uploaded the picture! It's just the camera angle.

OK, all good there then.

v8250 said:

as @highcap phil, check each glass fuse for internal integrity - if end caps rotate throw fuse away - they do fail over time and can cause some irritating faults. Ideally, change glass fuses for plug-in blade types. And do re-check earths...

Click to expand...

**update**

I've cleaned all earth connections, replaced all fuses and rechecked as much as I can and I think it is the fuse box connections. After cleaning the earth points and replacing the fuses I had an improvement but yesterday I went through the switches whilst wiggling every wire and some of the connections are really bad. I've order some blade fuse holders and will be wiring that in tomorrow night hopefully so fingers crossed!

Replaced the fuseboxes on my 1986 90 a few months ago, easy enough job to do and when I cut back the wires to re-terminate I found that the original copper was still in excellent condition with no sign of oxidisation.

That looks spot on mate. Where did you buy the fuse boxes from?

Having done my research and checked that they would fit I think I just got them off Ebay but the same ones are widely available from several vehicle electrical suppliers (VWP etc).
Someone had previously done a thread on replacing the fuseboxes and when they said that an off the shelf option existed I took it from there.