Earths??

Righto, i went for a little drive in my 90 today for the first time in around 3 months and noticed the lights were looking rather dim, and when pressing the clutch/brake pedal down the brightness increased, and when putting on the handbrake the lights were nice and bright. I know the earth strap between the engine and chassis is there, but would I be right in thinking it could have snapped slightly inside or offering more resistance due to corrosion between its mounts.

I also noticed a little squeek from my fan belt today, so im also thinking my electrical issues are more of a two stage thing, again am I right in thinking all electrics run from a wire off the alternator?

Obviously if this is related to my electrical problems i'll grab the earth strap first to prevent melting the loom/handbrake cable.


Thanks

Ollie

Yep certainly sounds like a bad earth. & yes Alternator charges battery and Battery distributes leccktrickery to all ya lights/starter etc etc

redhand said:

Yep certainly sounds like a bad earth. & yes Alternator charges battery and Battery distributes leccktrickery to all ya lights/starter etc etc

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Okydokey, I'll go for a new earth strap on monday, then i'll see how it goes. Is it the case of getting one for a 200tdi, or just buying the cable and fitting terminals??

Thanks

Ollie

any motor factors or halfrauds will sell you a earth strap they int no different from a battery earth strap. just check the length you need. and remember that thicker is best

Cheers for that, might pop by tomorrow

Ollie

Ok so today I had a little look at my 90. Now the earth strap from the negative battery terminal to the gearbox seems ok, nice and tight and all that.

The positive to the best of my knowlege goes to the starter then to the alternator, and everything runs off this live feed from the alternator?? Im sorry if this is incorrect, when i was having a look it was dark so only had a torch to help me see!!

Now i checked the headlight earths and cleaned them up, tightening the bolts down tightly to no effect whilst also cleaning the earth point to the right slightly above the clutch master cylinder without any noticable diffrence.

I was wondering if there is meant to be an earth strap between the body and the gearbox earth at all. I would have thought though this would have not been required due to everything being interconnected with bolts. However given the path of least resistance seemes to be through the handbrake cable at the mo, would this be a bad idea??

Ollie

Had the same prob change the strap

There should be a link between engine/gearbox and body as the engine is mounted on rubber mounts!

You can either connect battery negative to body or engine/gearbox to the body.

Thanks for that, i noticed im missing a strap from the engine to the chassis so im gonna get some cable and make that up later, but where bouts should I be mounting the body strap, or would anywhere be sufficient??

Thanks for the replies

Ollie

Cheers for the advice, I went to my local motor factors today and got some nice thick earth straps.

Although the strap from the battery - to the gearbox looked fine, i replaced it anyway. I never had a strap from the engine to the chassis so i cut one down to fit and this seemed to cure the bad earth issue.

As i had a strap left over i thougt i might aswell earth the body while i was at it, so connected the lead to one of the bolts that secures the passenger seat frame in place through the seat box, then connected that to the earth point on the gearbox where the main battery - lead connects.

All solved now, my lights actually work properly and are bright enough to see things on the road which is rather a novelty for me

Cheers

Ollie

Sounds like somebody must have removed it / fallen off . Glad to hear you fixed it

jamescronin said:

Sounds like somebody must have removed it / fallen off . Glad to hear you fixed it

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Thanks, yeah it was a bit odd im pretty sure my 90's been like that since i bought it about 3 years ago, id just never got round to it, silly me - such a simple fix!

Although the odd thing was that the engine erath point below the starter appeared not to have been drilled. There was a recess of about 4mm in the hole where it should have been, I thought the original earth bolt could have sheared, but if that were the case it would have been flush. Still the engine was rather dirty and i didnt really have enough space to look into it in more detail/dritt and tap it - tho ive heard not all 200tdi engines were earthed.

So instead i just attached the engine earth to the m10 tap in the opposite side of the engine where the sump pipe is secured to the engine with a clip. This then allowed me to ground the engine earth lead to one of the bolts holding the pas box to the chassis rail.

Ollie