Fuse 1 not working

[D366Y]

Afternoon all and welcome to another session of Danny's 'something is wrong please help'

Today, Fuse 1!
Recently it started playing silly buggers and occasionally stopping but then starting. Fearing the worst I took the whole board out, cleaned everything, greased everything and put it back together. Shortly afterwards it started doing it again - mainly noticing as it turns the radio off and stops the clock.
I changed the fuse for another and problem solved.
Then it started again, I rolled the fuse a tiny amount and problem solved.
Then it started again, no amount of rolling the fuse helped and nor did another brand new fuse. Took the board out and as I eeked the connector off it started working so I left it, maybe a mm or two from being fully pushed in.
Today that has also decided to stop working so I am without everything on fuse 1.

I took the board out again and tried to clean up the connection where the rivet comes up through the bottom and connects to the fuse and also dabbed some solder on the tops to try and get a bit of a better connection but still nothing.

Hoping someone has some new fangled idea to help me please?!

Thanks
Danny

[B@fink]

Erm…new fuse box? Probably not the new tangled idea you wanted though?

[Jasonmarie]

I am sure Nick got a new fuse box with the gasket from Martin @ Capri gear ?

[D366Y]

Not the fuseboard - I tried swapping it with the one on the other car (which works perfectly fine) and still the same issue!

[Paul G]

If you're sure the fuse and its box are OK then it must be a break in the wiring either to or from the fusebox. It probably is an internal break in the wire that makes or breaks contact for example when you drive over a bump or accelerate/brake.

[D366Y]

Thanks Paul, that's sort of what I feared - any tips on where to start before I pull the loom to pieces?

[pbar]

When it is not working Danny, you could attach a temporary wire to the fuse box/one, and link it, just through the window or whatever to the clock. If you find that the clock then works but the radio etc. doesn't, then this would show the existing wiring to be the fault, as Paul suggests.

[D366Y]

Great shout Paul, wouldn't have thought of that!
By the same train of thought, if the fuseboard is unplugged, will the spade connector that connects to it still have power direct from the battery to test whether the issue is somewhere with the board?
Thanks
Danny

[Paul G]

Danny, hope some of this helps. Thanks to Alan Brown on Capri Power.



FUSE 1 (16amp)- LIVE - power feed is heavy Red-Blue from cable joint in MAIN BATTERY Red wire to ignition switch, after loom plug
feeds out on heavy Red wire which goes to cable joint in loom, meets 6 wires --
a -- Heavy Red -- to horn column switch
b -- Red -- to rear loom and tailgate/boot lamp
c -- Red -- feed to interior (roof) lamp
d -- Red -- feed to clock
e -- Red -- feed to cigar lighter socket - and connector to radio memory
f -- Red -- feed to hazard warning light switch
and -- under bonnet - Red wire to washer bottle pump

[pbar]

Great shout Paul, wouldn't have thought of that!
By the same train of thought, if the fuseboard is unplugged, will the spade connector that connects to it still have power direct from the battery to test whether the issue is somewhere with the board?
Thanks
Danny

The battery feeds the fuseboard Danny so the live wire from the battery will still remain, assuming there isn't anything wrong with it, which there shouldn't be of course if your only issues are to do with fuse one. There are a couple of solutions, possibly easier than you think, once you have done some tests and determined what is actually at fault.

[Paul G]

I would start by checking the red/blue wire from where it is spliced into the main battery to ignition swithch red wire. I bet the problem is between the splicing or connector if there is one and the bottom of the fuse box. It may be a case of unbinding the wire and doing a "wiggle" test along its length. All a bit of a PITA but sometimes it's the only way.

[D366Y]

Thanks guys, will see if I can get out over the next couple of days to have a look

[Mc Tool]

Sometimes you can fast find a faulty wire or terminal . Apply whatever test device you have to the wire terminal and gently pull on the wire whilst keeping one eye on the tester. Wires usually break at some stress point and the biggest one is probly
crimping a terminal on to the wire .

[nemo]

would start by checking the red/blue wire from where it is spliced into the main battery to ignition swithch red wire. I bet the problem is between the splicing or connector if there is one and the bottom of the fuse box.

Been trying to interpret the (unfathomable) circuit diagram in Haynes: so the supply for F1 is actually taken from the main batt supply to the ign switch, it`s spliced into that then? (not really a question - you even know the colors ) looking at the Haynes it could be linked right on the actual fuse terminals circuit diagram`s like an underground map!) I would agree that that is way the most likely culprit, as otheres have said, have a good poke around the joins.

the live wire from the battery will still remain, assuming there isn't anything wrong with it, which there shouldn't be of course if your only issues are to do with fuse one

If above is acurate and the F1 feed IS tapped off the live feed to Ign Switch, then if that connection was faulty it would have no effect on any of the other circuits as they are all switched and therefore come NOT from batt but from the switch (again, looking at the Haynes I can see why it looks that way )
As always e&o`s excepted...

[D366Y]

The plot thickens!!
Went out today as first time weather was nice and I wasn't drunk or hungover, and found the clock working, hazards working, interior light and radio all working.
However, the horn and the wipers still don't. Connected them to the battery directly and worked fine, but for some reason getting 0V at the positive when earthed to the battery

Tried Paul's trick of taking the spade from fuse one to power the clock, didn't work.
Tried testing the power at the normal clock connections with it plugged back in and getting 12V.
Tried testing the washer motor and horn, and nothing.
At this stage I'm just about ready to give it to an auto electrician and let them figure out the gremlin for me as this is making less and less sense to my halfwit brain

[pbar]

All sounds very wierd! I'm sure you did Danny, but just checking that you kept an earth to the clock when you tested it with the new live wire.

Not sure if this applies now, but if you found that the new wire test did work, you could have connected a new permanent wire to the fusebox/one, passed it through a convenient point in the bulkhead and connected it to the clock, or the radio. As all accessories on fuse one are on the same circuit, they would then have all worked, been a permanent solution and you wouldn't have had to mess with the existing loom. (Thanks to our good friend Steve for his input on that one)

[D366Y]

Yep, earthed directly to the battery!
I just edited my other post as I didn't realise you'd replied already and wanted to make it a bit clearer

I'm honestly stumped

[pbar]

Yep, earthed directly to the battery!

As an experiment why not do the same with the live wire, run direct from battery, the clock then has to work (unless it's faulty). And if you are able to leave the existing wiring in place as you do this, then all of the other fuse one items on the same circuit should work also, they should all behave as they normally would. This would be a good test for that.

[D366Y]

I m able to give an answer!
After many hours of head scratching and getting more and more frustrated with it I took it to a local auto-electrician as I was getting nowhere.

Turns out that it was reading 12V everywhere, but as soon as you tried to put the power through it the voltage dropped as it wasn't able to carry it. The culprit? The rivet connection on the fuse where I had tried to dob it with solder but had no luck.

Basically the power going in at the spade wasn't then passing through to the fuse, so the current resolve is to bypass the spade connector, and have soldered the wire directly to the fuse mount to bypass the few mm of metal that caused all this ruddy grief!!

Thanks for the suggestions as ever, just annoying that I sort of found the fault but couldn't rectify it! Oh well, live and learn

Cheers
Danny

[Mc Tool]

The riveted connector at the back of your headlights will do the same eventually .
I had issues with soldering ........turns out I had been sold ( I did not buy it) lead free solder .........absolute shyte .