Asbestos free cornflakes
New Member
- Posts
- 5
- Location
- Dorset
Hello internet of wise and knowledgable individuals.
TLDR at the bottom
I present myself before thyselves a humbled and downtrodden individual.
having recently broken a leg and become unable to go to work for several weeks I took it upon myself to finally take the plunge and do the conversion on my 1988 90 (was 2.5TD now 200 Tdi) I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now from an off road, rough and tumble smile machine to a slightly more refined overlander. As part of the overhaul I’ve started by sorting out the wiring as I hope to have an entirely independent loom for all my accessories/lights/sockets off a different battery.
My first course of action was to simply remove the rats nest of unused relay sockets and unconnected wires from the dash that had clearly been bundled in by previous owners presumably with the intention of providing an equally useless mix of blast and fire hazards.
Step two was to replace the old ceramic fuseboxes with new blade boxes. After many hours merrily tinkering away carefully labelling and crimping and shrink wrapping like one of santa’s escaped elves who found a job in an electronics shop.
Step three was a tentative test of all the electronics. headlights, horn, fan etc all excellent. tried indicators but got nothing, bother, had a look and saw the flasher relay was full of mud and silt (mystery solved).
step 4 was a big one…. does it still start? answer : yes
step 5 was unexpectedly more of a challenge…. does the engine stop? answer : No
ah, bugger
*cue running round like a headless chicken to put a pad over the intake to stop the engine before i get fumigated out of the (not so fantastically ventilated) barn I’m working in.
a bit of intense pontification upon my newfound conundrum ensued and i donned my deerstalker and trusty pipe to enter full on detective mode.
having adopted the persona of 221b baker street’s most well know detective I pulled plugs and shorted connections and tinkered and tailored and soldiered and spied until i eventually discovered all i could think of besides ripping out the loom and starting again.
so…. here is what i know
TLDR start here
3 days ago the landrover was driven in with no problems starting or stopping
various wiring shenanigans have ensued in the past few days
engine now starts on the turn of the key
engine does not stop when the key is turned back or removed
pulling the lead for the stop solenoid makes the engine stop
when the engine isn’t running i can hear the stop solenoid opening and closing like normal when i part turn the key
the conclusion i have come to is that when the engine is running it is somehow powering the stop solenoid lead irrespective of the key position. most likely thanks to me being an absolute tool and plugging the wrong wire in somewhere
my question is this (sorry it has taken so long to get here) can i just place in a new lead directly from the ignition barrel to the stop solenoid and ignore the old one (this is cheating i know)
or is there likely an easy fix to this?
am i being stupid?
options include...
a) yes
b) very
c) how do you even remember to breathe if you are stupid enough to attempt a major wiring job on a defender with sod all experience
d) all of the above
i am a confused asbestos free cornflake. thank you for coming to my TED talk
(I now have a newfound respect for auto electricians and a newfound hatred for whoever decided wiring looms need to be so damn complicated)
TLDR at the bottom
I present myself before thyselves a humbled and downtrodden individual.
having recently broken a leg and become unable to go to work for several weeks I took it upon myself to finally take the plunge and do the conversion on my 1988 90 (was 2.5TD now 200 Tdi) I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now from an off road, rough and tumble smile machine to a slightly more refined overlander. As part of the overhaul I’ve started by sorting out the wiring as I hope to have an entirely independent loom for all my accessories/lights/sockets off a different battery.
My first course of action was to simply remove the rats nest of unused relay sockets and unconnected wires from the dash that had clearly been bundled in by previous owners presumably with the intention of providing an equally useless mix of blast and fire hazards.
Step two was to replace the old ceramic fuseboxes with new blade boxes. After many hours merrily tinkering away carefully labelling and crimping and shrink wrapping like one of santa’s escaped elves who found a job in an electronics shop.
Step three was a tentative test of all the electronics. headlights, horn, fan etc all excellent. tried indicators but got nothing, bother, had a look and saw the flasher relay was full of mud and silt (mystery solved).
step 4 was a big one…. does it still start? answer : yes
step 5 was unexpectedly more of a challenge…. does the engine stop? answer : No
ah, bugger
*cue running round like a headless chicken to put a pad over the intake to stop the engine before i get fumigated out of the (not so fantastically ventilated) barn I’m working in.
a bit of intense pontification upon my newfound conundrum ensued and i donned my deerstalker and trusty pipe to enter full on detective mode.
having adopted the persona of 221b baker street’s most well know detective I pulled plugs and shorted connections and tinkered and tailored and soldiered and spied until i eventually discovered all i could think of besides ripping out the loom and starting again.
so…. here is what i know
TLDR start here
3 days ago the landrover was driven in with no problems starting or stopping
various wiring shenanigans have ensued in the past few days
engine now starts on the turn of the key
engine does not stop when the key is turned back or removed
pulling the lead for the stop solenoid makes the engine stop
when the engine isn’t running i can hear the stop solenoid opening and closing like normal when i part turn the key
the conclusion i have come to is that when the engine is running it is somehow powering the stop solenoid lead irrespective of the key position. most likely thanks to me being an absolute tool and plugging the wrong wire in somewhere
my question is this (sorry it has taken so long to get here) can i just place in a new lead directly from the ignition barrel to the stop solenoid and ignore the old one (this is cheating i know)
or is there likely an easy fix to this?
am i being stupid?
options include...
a) yes
b) very
c) how do you even remember to breathe if you are stupid enough to attempt a major wiring job on a defender with sod all experience
d) all of the above
i am a confused asbestos free cornflake. thank you for coming to my TED talk
(I now have a newfound respect for auto electricians and a newfound hatred for whoever decided wiring looms need to be so damn complicated)
