Simple electrics question

Hi all, first couple of questions I want to ask - think I know but I'd rather check before I blow anything up! Had a search on the forum and the net and haven't found difinitive answer, apologies in advance if I have missed a blindingly obvious thread!

My 110 is an ex military beastie, missing some bits I want to add on, namely interior light, reversing light (eventually) Rear heated window and wiper.

Now to begin with I'll probably tinker around with the easy one - interior light.
Presumably the circuit will go from

Battery - fuse (5A??) - Switch - Light - Earth

Now firstly is there anywhere you can either add more circuits too, or places more appropriate then others and are there any spare spaces in the fusebox that can be used to route through, or is it just advisable to put in a totally new circuit?

May be simple to answer, but i'd still rather ask than go ahead without being sure and do any damage!!

TIA

I have a problem with my interior light. Flick the switch and get a volt meter across the contacts and it's a good 14v. Bulb has good continuity, good contacts on the bulb but still dosent work! Duno what to do next!

ohms law if you have high resistance =no current, no light

I don't even have a switch to put the volt meter across! :doh: Need to pick one up tomorrow- was thinking of being clever and putting in automatic ones opened and closed by the door but I think a On Off switch is more practical!

Also drifting back to the original question slightly - has anyone here ever fitted/replaced the reversing sensor switch to the gearbox? Is it an access from above or below?

lt77 lift centre seat panel ,dont wind new one iun too far just enougfh to work otherwise you will reduce the amount rev idler goes in

jamesmartin said:

lt77 lift centre seat panel ,dont wind new one iun too far just enougfh to work otherwise you will reduce the amount rev idler goes in

Click to expand...

thanks for that - will give it ago tomorrow! Think i'm going to have to make a whole new circuit up for this one as well as the interior one!

Better get the resistance measured then! My rev light also dosent work, it did at one point. Checked the switch IAW the Haynes and all was fine. Again got voltage and foot bulb but no light!
Bloody land rovers!

I might end up starting again!

My interior light circuit is as follows.

It shares fuse 2 (20A) with the horn and some other stuff. That's a brown (permanent live from battery in, purple out. This runs up to the steering column and spurs off for the horn switch, and up the windscreen post behind the bit of trim. It goes across the roof inside the head lining to the interior light and switch unit.

Meanwhile both doors have door switches (which is a switched earth) which via a purple and blue wire make their way over to the drivers side and up inside the same window frame bit of trim. This goes to the light and switch unit also.

The purple feed wire is connected directly to the bulb, and the other end of the bulb is the common input to an on-off-on switch. One on position is connected to the purple and blue door switch wire, the other on position is connected via a mounting bolt to the metal roof, there by providing a permanent earth.

The whole idea being that the interior light work without ignition needing to be on, and can either be on switched on, switched off or operate off the door switches.

I haven't completely traced the reverse light circuit, but the bit i have traced is as follows.

Fused ignition live (Fuse 17, 15A shares with brake light and something else I believe) feeds the reverse light switch mounted in the side of the gearbox. I think it's a white wire, but don't quote me on that.

The switch is normally open, makes a connection when in reverse.

The output of the switch goes via a brown and green wire, through the chassis (drivers side) as part of the rear going loom. It exists the chassis through a hole and goes up into the rear load space behind the metal cover thing. It's simply crimped to another brown and green wire which runs back down through the hole across the rear cross member and up inside the rear load space again, behind the cover in the passenger side. It then bullet connectors to another pair of wires which go to the reverse light.

Well that's how it's supposed to be anyway. Mine actually has a break in the brown and green wire somewhere inside the chassis rails, so i had to run an alternate wire from the rear drivers side crimp thing to the gearbox switch.

My gearbox is an r380, but pretty sure the circuit is the same.

Karlos28 said:

Better get the resistance measured then! My rev light also dosent work, it did at one point. Checked the switch IAW the Haynes and all was fine. Again got voltage and foot bulb but no light!
Bloody land rovers!

Click to expand...

For your interior light I'd change the bulb. For the reverse light, try cleaning up the connections to the bulb. I found the actual bulb holder bracket was corroded a bit and needed a bit of cleaning. A bit of contact cleaner and wet and dry did it. Just enough to get the a good contact with the bulb.

Although I'm still considering changing the whole bulb unit for the reverse and fog light. Am already changing the all the indicators and stop/tail lights with a set I got off eBay. I've just found that some of them keep filling up with water and are generally flakey connections, so for a few quid I dont have to worry about the imminent mot.

all brown wires are battery live and can be used as feed ,all white are ignition live ,,a good place for main feed if putting in satellight fuse box is main starter terminal

The copper connections in the interior light unit (don't know their proper name - the bits that run from where the wire connectors go around the light fitting itself - channels?) can look fine but corrode with the Landy's condensation and break the current flow.

About a £10 item. I had the same problem - current to the spade connectors but couldn't get the bulb to light. Swapped out the light unit, and sealed thick polythene above it to keep some of the moisture away, and that solved it.