Any one willing to help me?

Hi every one.

I had a leak om my transmission and I stupidly steam cleaned it to find out where it was leaking from. This was stupid because now my electrics are all shot to bits.

Iv checked all the connections fuses etc, but I have no wind screen wipers and when I put the hazard lights on they only flash on the passenger side. Also the last dial light doesn't light all the way up and the fuel gauge and volt gauge are both wrong as they both go all the way to the top (read as a full tank when its only half full and volts are past the red) when I switch the ignition on. They like the temperature gauge all worked fine before.

Its been like this for a week now, I thought it might just need to dry out.

This is all on a 1989 110 defender CSW. I'm in Swindon but happy to travel if some one wants a look or please give me some ideas where to start tracing faults.
Please help.

i'd start by seeing if you have an earth strap between tbox and chassis. if this is the only earth, then you might have just made a bad connection.. no biggy.

take the bolt/nut off, clean up the area and earth strap lug and stick it back on. give it some silicon grease/copperslip/paint.

check everything works again.

then go and order another earth strap and put one from your engine to your chassis, also check your chassis to battery strap as well for good measure

btw a simple test for this is to get a jump lead, stick one end on your neg battery pole and the other to your engine block.. does it all work?

Hi trax thanks for the advice, I cleaned the earth strap from the battery to the engine (mounted on top of the gear box), and iv added another one from the cambelt housing to the inner wing to make an engine to body earth, nothing changed so far.

well, iirc all you have around there is your reverse switch, earth strap and diff lock switch.

you only steamed your lt77 and lt230 didn't you?

btw, you never said if the engine starts and do you not have an earth to chassis?

i'm still a bit inclined to say earths at this point. i'd try the jump lead trick. bat neg one side, other to chassis. then try it on the bulkhead.

(also, you might want to stick some copperslip on the diff and hi-low linkages now that you've cleaned them)

In my experience, most Land Rover innards such as the engine bay area and gearbox are quite happy being pressure washed so I doubt that steam cleaning would do any more damage. My guess is that something's got dislodged in all the activity. Whilst I'm not familiar with the wiring on this particular model (got a TD5 myself) I'd go through all the multiplugs and connectors, take 'em apart, give 'em a squirt of contact cleaner and put them back together, just in case something's got corroded or loosened.

With the symptoms described, I'd be tempted to have a look inside the dash to ensure all the instruments and switches are adequately earthed. It may be that the problem has just coincidentally shown up at the same time as the steam cleaning.

thanks every one for the advice so far.

I'm not sure if their is a earth cable to the chassis and if it does have one, I have even less idea where. I will try the jump lead trick in the morning.

During the last few days of me taking the dash apart several times trying everything I could think off, I have had a few different problems come and go.

I started with it starting and running but with no lights, wipers, indicators, dials/instruments gauges etc.

Having taken the fuse holders apart and cleaning everything , I got most of it back. The hazard light problem started at this point along with no wipers and the gauges still didn't work.

At this point I thought it might be the ignition switch as from time to time it wont start, it light the dash up as on ignition but nothing happens. After a few turns of the key it starts, but now and again I have to turn the key back to get the gauges, wipers, indicators, radio etc to work. Iv ordered a new ignition as a matter of commonsense to remove it as a problem.

I replaced all the bulbs in the dash as three out of five were blown, four light up completely the last one in the line doesn't even come on half power.

The gauges didn't work at all, then the thermostat gauge worked, then after redoing the fuel gauge and voltage gauge earths, they all came back to life apart from the fact both the fuel and volt gauges read full and over past high as soon as the ignition is switched on even before the engine starts.

The screen washer works but the wipers don't, but I am not positive the stalk switch is OK, the hazard lights still only work on one side.

i have had a thought, could it just be I have been unlucky and all these issues have just come at once, could the voltage stabilizer be the problem causing the false readings on the gauges, and something else for the wipers/hazard lights?

haha, so you've been fiddling elsewhere

still sounds like an earth problem to me, but could be elsewhere. 89 is old ass wiring and bullets. anyway, if something isn't earthed then it can send more current down the gauges and make them over read.

if you have a multi meter, see what happens when you stick it on V and place one end to earth and the other on the back of the gauge casing.. which should be earthed.

I think the clue to the situation is in post no 6. The more you take it apart and clean the connections the more of it works.

Mine has a spade connector on the starter that gives some of the same starting symptoms you describe. It just needs taking apart and cleaning occasionally.