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$500 Midget wiring thread

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M

mightymidget

Jedi Knight
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Well I have decided to get serious about getting wiring sorted on the Midget. Summary of findings

Major Issue "Dead Short"
Battery fully charged 12.3 volts
Postive battery cable properly fastened
Ground cable disconnected (neg ground car)
volt meter hooked to neg. battery, then grounded to negative cable
(Draw reading) volt meter reads 12.3 volts

the following process was done one unit at a time
pulled all 4 fuses - 12.3 V draw
pulled small wire generater 6.7 V draw
pulled large wire generator 12.3 V draw

Pulled top large brown wire on voltage regulator 0 V draw
Pulled all others 12.3 V draw

Getting late so I came inside. OK I know my draw is on the nig top wire of regulator. that wire of course goes back under dash
1. could the voltage regulator be causing this. (I say no)
2.what to look for in short on large brown wire
2
 
Yes you did and it is a very good reference.
I guess I didn't make myself real clear, I did not understand why the differnece in voltage draw at small wire on generator compared to the rest of system.

That if top brown wire was removed from voltage reglulator the draw disapeared

Did not know if this short could be from the voltage regulator, or if this could cause the voltage regulator to not charge

I understand the draw is at the other end of the brown wire if it isn't the regulator. I am going to try to figur out how to isolate the regulator today before pulling wires in dash
 
The problem in this kind of test is that any load on the electrical system, no matter how small, will cause a voltage indication on the meter. So, this tells you that something is connected, but it doesn't prove a dead short. It could be a very light load, drawing only a small current.

You might try using a test light with an incandescent bulb instead of the meter. If a test lamp connected from the battery's negative terminal to ground lights up, you have a more serious short. If it doesn't, the load is small enough that you can hook up an ammeter between the battery terminal and ground and see how great the current is. Then you can go through the process of disconnecting things, to see if it goes away.

When you disconnect wires, don't disconnect one and then reconnect it, and go to the next. Disconnect one, leave it off, and then go to the next wire. When the current drops to zero, start reconnecting. If reconnecting some wire causes the current to start, leave it off; if not, leave it connected. When you're done, you'll have one or more disconnected wires that go to some specific part of the system. That will indicate where the problem is.

If the test lamp lit up, you can do the same thing, but just use the lamp as a current indicator instead of the meter. I suggest this because you don't want to connect an ammeter until you have some idea of the amount of current that will go through it. If it is indeed a dead short, it will fry the ammeter.

From what you've said so far, though, I'll guess that the cutout relay in the regulator box is not opening.
 
Well I have been in wonderland all day with this wiring, wondering how anything worked. Someone has done a job trying how to learn wiring on this car.

I have decided to start from the front and recheck all wiring, connection etc.. so far I spent all day just on headlight and parking lights to the firewall.

I have ripped out 30 or so feet of jumper/backfeed wire that was added. thankfully they did not cut out orginal wires, I have only had to add lenght to two headlight wires
 
I hate electrical...

Luckily, mine is perfect and I only managed to let out just a little factory smoke.
 
I never minded electrical -- first thing I did with the Tunebug was pop in a new harness.

Of course, I shudder to think of the poor fool who I sold my old Land Cruiser to all those years ago. Spliced. Bypassed. Lamp Cord. I was the DPO. :crazy:
 
drooartz said:
I never minded electrical -- first thing I did with the Tunebug was pop in a new harness.

Of course, I shudder to think of the poor fool who I sold my old Land Cruiser to all those years ago. Spliced. Bypassed. Lamp Cord. I was the DPO. :crazy:
Click to expand...

But I bet that old thing just kept on going. Bet it is
still plodding along somewhere.
Land Cruisers, it's like driving a Legend. Their
ability to somehow just keep going is...well...legendary.
The awful abuse we inflict on them makes 'em smile.
Truly beasts of burden.
My friend says "Bury in my Cruiser. I've yet to find a hole it
won't get me out of."

Here is Ol Gundy. Ready for action. Sits there for months on end
till needed. Never sees cover or protection from the elements.
Switch on the batteries and Varoom.
 

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I miss my old Cruiser. Could very well have another some day...
 
I like the Land Cruisers too, no problem with the Hi-jack

Didn't get very far today. Like I posted earlier I have got the lights checked out in the front to firewall, and re wired the back lights because it was a rats nest

Can anyone confirm that the horn wires are purple and the other purple black?
Also have a solid blue wire at the grill area that I have no idea what it is for

Thinking of buying one of those laminate wire diagrams on ebay. anyone recomend them?
 
I kind of like elec probs. Not that I'm that good at solving them but for the feeling of satisfaction of the results. On my Healey 100/6, when I bought it it had a brand new harness about 50 % installed. Of that 50 % only about 1/2 was correct ! That was a modest challenge as I was not the one who tore out the original harness. I think the advise above about testing and fixing ONE WIRE AT A TIME is a capital idea. Don't look at the big picture only small victories . Best of luck and patience. Bob
 
mightymidget said:
Can anyone confirm that the horn wires are purple and the other purple black?
Also have a solid blue wire at the grill area that I have no idea what it is for

Thinking of buying one of those laminate wire diagrams on ebay. anyone recomend them?
Click to expand...

Yes, horn power wire is Purple. Connector wire between horms Purple/Black.

Solid Blue I think is high beam dipswitch - The flash of highbeams from the signal stalk on the steering column. It is a different circuit that low/high beams.

I just took my Manual to a copy shop and had them blow up the schematic - works just fine but, those laminated ones are good too.
 
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