Darn electrics

[Dave123]

I think i've just had a major moufunction of the electrics in Earl  :'(
Last night I left him with everything working apart from one jet on the screen washer.
  Now, this afternoon wen i came in from work i went to see if i could fix the jet but i decided to run it just to keep him going (he's been sat for the last 12 months  :( )

  This was the point of the major [!Expletive Deleted!] up. I started it, all was well for about 30 secs when he just died, lost all electrics and wouldn't start so in my frustraion I hit the battery to find that everything worked fine again  :dance: but when I went to run through all the lights and indicators and everything just to check the function of them all to see if anything else was not working all hell broke loose.

  The off-side head has gone very dim and flashes from time to time, the clock lights have given up, the winscreen washer pump is very temporomental and the most puzzling thing is when you go to indicate the warning light in the middle of the dash comes on and so does the oil pressure light?
Has anybody had anything quite like this?
 
  Anything i should look for?

 Thanks for any help in advance  ;)

[Rich_P]

First check it for any shorts or poor earths.  I'd be concerned about such electrical faults, as they indicate that something is quite wrong and potentially wrong enough to cause a fire.

[hobbit]

Yes I agree with whats been said, as a start disconnect the battery terminals clean and tighten, if you have any corrosion on the terminals, wash off with boiling water first

Then if still no go, run a jumper cable from the battery to a good earth on the vehicle body/chassis

Another point would be follow the main positive cable through the starter solenoid check the connections off there as thats where your main electrical feeds run from, sometimes the actual cable connection can break up

With it being multiple systems, try the fusebox for dirty fuses, and also the connections on the back of the fuse box, by removing the steering cowling




see how you go with these first

[Dave123]

Thank you both for the help. Tommorow I'll start out by cleaning the terminals and all connections and everything,
 It's really strange and quite annoying that it's been fine for the last 12 months and now i'm getting it to a point that I feel he's ready for MOT and tax that he decides to rebel, maybe he likes being fiddled with every night   8-[

[carbore]

Without wishing to sound excessive id suggest keeping a CO2 fire extinguisher handy. I set fire to my mums Series 2 by fiddling with the power outs on the dash when I was a kid. I have never told her to this day so if you are reading this A) Sorry mum B> You drive a Chinquenchento so why are you here.

(CO2 cos it wont damage what you point it at, powder and foam will ruin it)

[Dave123]

Well, Earl has meraculously decided to play ball again, everything is fine   :)  I'm not sure what has happened but everything is back to normal :dance:

I suppose the question now is for how long?  :-k

[hobbit]

sounds more like a bad main connection somewhere, would still be a good idea to check through the connections with it running and see if you can make it go wrong under your control

better than when you are down the road sometime in the future

[ash240970]

Check your battery earth strap to chassis connection often overlooked as it is below the battery tray behind the inner wing

[lightweight-love]

classic landy wiring traits-leave it 3 days and it fixes! most proberly bad earth can cause all sortsa weird problems, it may never happen again tho-u never know!