Electrickery Germlin Strikes

Well it had to happen Honeymoon period with my pride and joy is now over. Driving home tonight in thick snow at -5 I thought I was having a ball laughing at all the poor souls in their posh modern and useless in the snow saloons and estates. Then oops what happened to the road?? Headlights just went out, everything else was ok including main beam. So main beam and many ****ed off Germans it was then.

My garage has no lights so it couldn't get to the heart of the problem tonight so lunch tomorrow will be spent frantically trying to find the problem. Meant to be going to the Harz mountains this weekend and it's -15 there at the mo.

Have to say that the old landie was still forgiven, as even with its faults its way better than my other motor.

After some looking I have tracked the fault down to the switch on the indicator stalk. Where the live (blue/red on mine) comes out there were some signes of the plastic deforming due to heat. This allowed the connection to fail and thus the lights to go off. I compressed the rivet like thing that the live lead is attached to and heh preston lights are back on.

However, I am ordering a new switch just in case.

You think thats bad...

Here we go. One night doing 70mph down the road in my good old faithfull the lights went OFF and all the electrics.....NOT GOOD.

I started to slow down and pull over then I smelt that funny plastic smell.

OH S**T Flames and all.... still slowing down at this stage so I turn off the engine and turned to the banking at the side of the road.
OH S**T Steering lock. Pressing alot harder on the brake pedal it stopped up the banking. I jumped out and so did my brother I told him to keep blowing the flames out behind the clocks whilst I lifted the bonnet to disconnect the battery. I could not see anything being in the countryside and no street lights. I fumbled around to find the battery cable and pulled twisted but I had done a brill job of fitting it tight. By this time one wire behind the dash was now meted into about 10wires which was burning bright and melting into wires under the bonnet. I rushed into the tool box and got some plyers and took the battery terminal off. Job sorted....NO. How do I get home. In my wisdom I thought if I disconnect the alternator and get the landy started by bumping it down the banking I can drive home with my head out of the window along the banking. I did this for about 2mins and gave it up as a bad job. I nearly took out a road sign which read SLOW....I WAS SLOW...
I Waited and pulled the next car over asked them if I could follow them to my village.....job sorted got home.....I LOVE MY LANDROVER...

its a good idea to fit clip on termials to the battery or a cut-out switch which also makes a good anti theft device
wish i had on my s3 i went 4x4ing and broke the chassie at the front shock mounts due to the dredded tin worm the bonnet jummed as the rad panel came up 8" and the poss lead shorted with loads of blue smoke (major panic) got bonnet up with starting handle and took of earth
so scraped the poor girl after that
NEXT ONE IS GETTING A BATT CUT OFF

Sounds like a nightmare at the time but I'm sure that when told over a couple of beers it almost seems worth it

Got a battery master switch on mine and have to say it's great as an anti theft device and as protection against ne leaving the lights on; which I do at least 2 - 3 times a week at the mo.