Well folks...I need help...no smartass comments please...lol
I am in northern Ontario right now with our Deli. Not near any full service shops and pretty limited on mechanical inclination. I hit Manitoba in the midst of a wicked storm with crazy winds and monsoon style rains. We blew the fuse that runs the park lights, horn and dash lights. I replaced the fuse and we went on our way.
I am now way up here in the middle of nowhere and the fuse blew again...now I can't keep one in without it blowing. I need to make my way back to BC in a few days and really hope to find what the issue is before leaving. I would very much like to be able to drive after dark...lol.
I am wondering if this issue is a common one or not...and if it is, then perhaps someone can steer me in the right direction. I have checked all visible wires for a break or bare wire issue to no avail.. I don't know where else to turn right now...so am hoping someone out there can shed some light on the issue to help me along.
I tried a 20 amp fuse just to see if it would hold or not...it held the lights, but as soon as I hit the horn it blew it again. I know this is supposed to be a 15 amp fuse...but a 15 wont even keep the lights on. As soon as I turn the switch on, it blows...and I lose the parks...dash...and horn...
*HUGE sigh*
Thanks in advance to anyone that can lend a bit of insight and aid me in keeping my sanity...cheers all...
Delicanagan
Electrical short
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Mukanik
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat May 31, 2008 5:47 pm
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- Vehicle: 19 sumthing Delica wanabee
Re: Electrical short
Under you dash on the driver side. There is a small relay by the sidewall. This relay is what your daytime running lights are run through. Its installed to make legal in Canada. You also have the running lights you turn on manually on your steering column. To get you home...Unplug your after-market installed Daytime running light relay. The one under your dash. I believe your running lights have been wired through your ignition switch to activate your relay. The relay has two power wires coming into it. One from your ignition switch. The other was likely tied into your Horn wiring. Therefore your fuse (3rd from left top row) would snuff every time yours running lights came on. As for your short you will have to run some tests for continuity when you get back to your home. You might want to try a better relay and wire it up yourself. message me for more help if you need it.
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Delicanagan
- Posts: 77
- Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:11 pm
- Vehicle: 92 delica
Re: Electrical short
We took the relay completely out with a new fuse it seemed to work last night. Now today same issue, even with the relay out it's blowing fuses.
Help?!??
Help?!??
Re: Electrical short
Do you have a trailer connection or have you wired in a sound system?
There is a grounded park light hot wire somewhere in your van. These can be difficult to trace as the park light circuit goes to every corner, every instrument and every courtesy light that comes on when the park lights are on.
Look at the obvious places first (new wiring, upgrades or even installed hardware anywhere in the vehicle where a park light wire may have been pinched by a screw grounding it) and if there is no joy there you'll have to find the junction blocks that will allow you to identify which area the short is in.
There is a method of tracing a short in absolutely desperate circumstances, however it is drastic. Let me know if you get to that stage.
There is a grounded park light hot wire somewhere in your van. These can be difficult to trace as the park light circuit goes to every corner, every instrument and every courtesy light that comes on when the park lights are on.
Look at the obvious places first (new wiring, upgrades or even installed hardware anywhere in the vehicle where a park light wire may have been pinched by a screw grounding it) and if there is no joy there you'll have to find the junction blocks that will allow you to identify which area the short is in.
There is a method of tracing a short in absolutely desperate circumstances, however it is drastic. Let me know if you get to that stage.
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Green1
- Posts: 3257
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- Location: Calgary Alberta Canada
- Contact:
Re: Electrical short
I luckily do not have the same problem, however I am trying to find out where these junction blocks are located, in my old vehicle the fuse block was the junction block for everything (ie there were 2 power lines in to the fuse block, 1 always live, and 1 live with ignition, and the fuse block split it all out to the various accessories) but on this vehicle I've noticed that the lines are already split before they get to the fuse block... where would one find where they actually split?f there is no joy there you'll have to find the junction blocks that will allow you to identify which area the short is in..
Re: Electrical short
I'm not sure myself. but there has to be wiring connections throughout the vehicle.
For instance there probably is a connector for all the taillights, disconnecting that and seeing if it blows a fuse will eliminate that area of wiring.
I used to work as a Toyota electrical troubleshooter/mechanic a long time ago, and fortunately they have very good wiring charts and layouts that showed you where all the connections, junctions etc. were and made this kind of trouble shooting much easier to accomplish.
One memorable park light circuit short was caused by a wire loom from the factory being routed under the parking brake handle, and occasionally it would ground out when the handle was down. Intermittent ones are always the worst.
Radios and other accesories are always suspect - some people use meters to find a ground, unfortunately most meters aren't sensitive enough to detect the low resistance of a light bulb, so they select a dash light bulb circuit and use it for a ground. Then if that is a redundant ground it will ground out the dash light circuit causing the fuse to blow.
After spending lots of hours (days, in some cases) chasing these issues down with no success, then it's time to get drastic.
Let me knpow when that level is reached
For instance there probably is a connector for all the taillights, disconnecting that and seeing if it blows a fuse will eliminate that area of wiring.
I used to work as a Toyota electrical troubleshooter/mechanic a long time ago, and fortunately they have very good wiring charts and layouts that showed you where all the connections, junctions etc. were and made this kind of trouble shooting much easier to accomplish.
One memorable park light circuit short was caused by a wire loom from the factory being routed under the parking brake handle, and occasionally it would ground out when the handle was down. Intermittent ones are always the worst.
Radios and other accesories are always suspect - some people use meters to find a ground, unfortunately most meters aren't sensitive enough to detect the low resistance of a light bulb, so they select a dash light bulb circuit and use it for a ground. Then if that is a redundant ground it will ground out the dash light circuit causing the fuse to blow.
After spending lots of hours (days, in some cases) chasing these issues down with no success, then it's time to get drastic.
Let me knpow when that level is reached
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Mukanik
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sat May 31, 2008 5:47 pm
- Member's Photo Album: http://www.delica.ca/Photos/
- Vehicle: 19 sumthing Delica wanabee
Re: Electrical short
I'm Delicanagan's Bro.....I was working on his Delica. And after a few more grey hairs.. We found the problem. SHOTTY wiring job by the people who put the Canadian conversion on it. The problem was.......Behind the left headlight.....there was a small short inside the wiring harness. When the DRL (daytime running lights)were wired up.....they did a shotty job soldering the wires. We found the small wire that was shorting out....On his Delica the wires where a Yellow with red strip...soldered to a green with white stripe. Made it all nice nice and now she works. Delicanagan is on his way back to BC with no problems now. Hope this helps others out there with the same issue. Peace!
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jessef
- Posts: 6459
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- Location: Vancouver
- Location: Vancouver, BC
Re: Electrical short
Happy endings are always niceMukanik wrote:I'm Delicanagan's Bro.....I was working on his Delica. And after a few more grey hairs.. We found the problem. SHOTTY wiring job by the people who put the Canadian conversion on it. The problem was.......Behind the left headlight.....there was a small short inside the wiring harness. When the DRL (daytime running lights)were wired up.....they did a shotty job soldering the wires. We found the small wire that was shorting out....On his Delica the wires where a Yellow with red strip...soldered to a green with white stripe. Made it all nice nice and now she works. Delicanagan is on his way back to BC with no problems now. Hope this helps others out there with the same issue. Peace!
Re: Electrical short
Good job.
It doesn't take much to short out the circuit, always go to the add ons first when trouble shooting wiring.
It doesn't take much to short out the circuit, always go to the add ons first when trouble shooting wiring.
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Delicanagan
- Posts: 77
- Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:11 pm
- Vehicle: 92 delica
Re: Electrical short
Well...we are home safe at last...a wild ride in both directions as far as weather goes...
I found out while drifting across the flat lands that when in tornado alley in full fury, a delica shall not exceed 90 km/hr without becoming somewhat airborne and floating quite intentionally toward the ditch...slowing to 80 km/hr allowed traction to be regained and held it while puttering our way through swirling black clouds reminiscent of childhood tales of boiling skies and angry forces at play. We made our destination and relaxed and laughed and ate...then a couple days before our return trip was upon us, we set out to deal with the gremlin we took on while rocking our ship across those open seas of wheat.
We thought the issue was solved when I peeled open a connection at one of the front corner light junctions...anyhow...long story short...the gremlin returned after about 12 hours on the road...and we rode with it back through the worst our funky Canadian spring had to toss at us. Bearing the brunt of more tornado sprouting winds coming across souther Alberta, we ran the delica through Kootenay pass on hazard lights and fog lamps pushing through a 15 foot thick layer of fog laying over the 6 to 8 inches of slush we ran up against way on up high...The slush has trenches dug into it from previous rigs and such that braved the weather to make the pass...those trenches became small rivers of water as the heavy snow that fell melted on impact with the ground left from a warm day of sunshine and seasonable temperatures. Oh, how thing can change in a hurry. Don't blink too long...The rivers of water were deep enough that if we ran at anything more than 40 km/hr, the water would splash up onto the windshield...it was not possible to break the speed needed to outrun the splash, thus keeping it off the windshield...as the slush and water kept the van either planing on water, or sliding through the slush...neither of which was worth the risk...So we plowed water and slush at about 35 km/hr with out four way flashers going and the two of us and our beloved pooch praying/wishing for the snow to clear and a good pullout to catch some sleep...we broke down into Castlegar around 11:30 ...pulled out into a rest stop...kicked our shoes off at the slider and crawled into bed (our queen sized foam mattress on plywood over the seats) for a good night's sleep...
So...what I have found to be true...
The column switch...is toasted...and I need a new one...you know...the switch with your signals, headlights, marker lights and high low beam all in one arm switch on the steering column...that one...anyone have one kicking around they might want to part with?
I thought I'd put it out here before making the calls to retail suppliers...if you've got the switch and you'd like to part with it...let me know and we'll work on a deal...Cheers all...
Once more, I'd like to thank all for the input. Also thanks to my brother as well as a great friend and travel companion that were eager to come to our aid. High fives to my Pa for the use of his tools, space and the sacrifices that go along with spilled filthy diesel engine oil...oops...sorry Dad...sorry to make a mess and leave you to clean it up...typical!
Delicanagan
I found out while drifting across the flat lands that when in tornado alley in full fury, a delica shall not exceed 90 km/hr without becoming somewhat airborne and floating quite intentionally toward the ditch...slowing to 80 km/hr allowed traction to be regained and held it while puttering our way through swirling black clouds reminiscent of childhood tales of boiling skies and angry forces at play. We made our destination and relaxed and laughed and ate...then a couple days before our return trip was upon us, we set out to deal with the gremlin we took on while rocking our ship across those open seas of wheat.
We thought the issue was solved when I peeled open a connection at one of the front corner light junctions...anyhow...long story short...the gremlin returned after about 12 hours on the road...and we rode with it back through the worst our funky Canadian spring had to toss at us. Bearing the brunt of more tornado sprouting winds coming across souther Alberta, we ran the delica through Kootenay pass on hazard lights and fog lamps pushing through a 15 foot thick layer of fog laying over the 6 to 8 inches of slush we ran up against way on up high...The slush has trenches dug into it from previous rigs and such that braved the weather to make the pass...those trenches became small rivers of water as the heavy snow that fell melted on impact with the ground left from a warm day of sunshine and seasonable temperatures. Oh, how thing can change in a hurry. Don't blink too long...The rivers of water were deep enough that if we ran at anything more than 40 km/hr, the water would splash up onto the windshield...it was not possible to break the speed needed to outrun the splash, thus keeping it off the windshield...as the slush and water kept the van either planing on water, or sliding through the slush...neither of which was worth the risk...So we plowed water and slush at about 35 km/hr with out four way flashers going and the two of us and our beloved pooch praying/wishing for the snow to clear and a good pullout to catch some sleep...we broke down into Castlegar around 11:30 ...pulled out into a rest stop...kicked our shoes off at the slider and crawled into bed (our queen sized foam mattress on plywood over the seats) for a good night's sleep...
So...what I have found to be true...
The column switch...is toasted...and I need a new one...you know...the switch with your signals, headlights, marker lights and high low beam all in one arm switch on the steering column...that one...anyone have one kicking around they might want to part with?
I thought I'd put it out here before making the calls to retail suppliers...if you've got the switch and you'd like to part with it...let me know and we'll work on a deal...Cheers all...
Once more, I'd like to thank all for the input. Also thanks to my brother as well as a great friend and travel companion that were eager to come to our aid. High fives to my Pa for the use of his tools, space and the sacrifices that go along with spilled filthy diesel engine oil...oops...sorry Dad...sorry to make a mess and leave you to clean it up...typical!
Delicanagan