Evening guys had a problem earlier working on my mates mk1, was testing something off the battery and then got a spark and something has shorted. Now the front right Indicator and sidelight and rear lights stay on even when switched off,and other stuff isn’t working such as fuel pump. Not sure where to start really as I’m no wiring guru. It’s an 83 tintop with an ABF 16v using a series one ceramic fuse box for some reason. Please help!
I dont like the look of that at all, I dont see the factory white earth plug which should be on the end of the main earth from the battery. looks like you have a thick red cable with a brown wire wrapped round it fed to that aftermarket earth chocolate block style connector, I assume this has been used to repalce the original battery earth. So i would investigate that first, I can also see a melted brown to the original earth claw have a look at that as well. the claw isnt designed to earth to the shell it should have an earth to it from the main white earth block I mentioned above, so make sure your claw has a good earth to it from somewhere
Cheers Jonny, when you say the main white earth, is that across the later style fuse boxes and looms too? Can’t say I remember mine having that on my car to cross reference is, however I have a ce1 box, 20vt loom built by style dynamics so everything was made and labelled for me. That chocolate block is supposed to be an earth point then? The wiring is so all over the place it’s hard to determine what is what. Was only trying to investigate why the wipers had no power and ended up falling into this on this one the battery is in the boot, car has air ride and everything, I’m scared I’ve really fucked something I’ve bought a new old stock NOS fuse box from someone to see if maybe It’s bridging anything inside being that stuff still works but then also other stuff is permanently on
sorry the earth would have been a thick brown wire from the battery negative, but at the fusebox end is a white connector housing where your main earths such as dash, fuel pump and fusebox plug into. out the back of it is another wire with spade which plugs into the claw and gives it an earth since it has a couple browns to it I assume the chocolate block has been used to replace the block when the main earth was replaced. which I suspect might be the red amp cable seen at the back since it seems to have a brown wire wrapped round it and secured with tape
Too much spaghetti for me to process what goes where whoever did all this wiring needs to be shot cause it’s making my life hell and it’s not even my car haha
sometimes its easier to pull it all out and assess that way, does sound liek an earthing issue though and is to be expected thanks to the mess they've made of it all
Would it be worth creating a much better stronger earth point to replace that choc block mess? When I was sieving through the earths attached to the earth claw a lot were actually stuck to other wires where I’m guessing a lot of heat has almost melted them together. Think you can see in one of the pics the condition of some of the earth wires
well the chock block itself would work ok if it was well earthed, as will the claw. next thing make sure both of these have a nice chunky earth wire to them which is either well earthed to chassis or back to the battery. you'll want to have a look at all the melty brown wires as well to make sure they haven't taken out any other wires nearby and you haven't got any which have melted off completely loosing earth to whatever they were attached to I do actually have soem s1 looms here which are due to be converted to later fusebox, might be able to work something out with you perhaps
I’ll have a word with my pal as it’s his car, I think I’d rather just just fix it and never touch it again than dive that far into it but if I get stuck I’ll definitely give you a message
