Electrical problems

[frankgoldstar]

Originally Posted by raykay

It seems that someone has messed about with the wiring, there should be two Brown/Slate cables from FL12, one 4mm in terminal 5 of the black connector and one 2.5mm in terminal 12 of the natural coloured connector, they both go to the ignition switch connector, 4mm to terminal 5, 2.5mm to terminal 6.
The 2.5mm is the general feed to the ignition switch, the 4mm is the feed for the immobiliser ECU and starter solenoid.

A 4mm Brown/Pink should be in terminal 1 if the blue connector, it is from FL8 and feeds the ABS ECU.

Dear Raykay, you obviously know the cars inside out.

Now that I have been told there is an offical book of words I can get from Rimmers, I will get one and hopefully this will help me to understand the erudite post you sent.

One small detail you may clear up for me here: you said "natural" connector. I have black blue and White.

By natural, I assume you mean what I call white (my colour vision is a bit dodgy sometimes, no wonder I hate wiring!) and if that is the case, I need to have a serious look at where some of the wires are attached.

Thanks to you and all the wonderful people on this site, there should be more Rovers on the road for many a good year.


Best wishes, Frank B

[stocktake]

Your only around 30 miles away from Bigruss, one of the T4 Gurus on this site, his rates are as cheap as they come and he is a magician when it comes to these problems. Worth a call me thinks

[frankgoldstar]

Dear All,

a pukka workshop manual is on order from Rimmers (ouch, the most expensive manual I ever did buy, and nearly a tenner for the standard postage - they are having a laugh. Trouble is, it is at my expense) but I had to have it.

I did not realise there was an alternative to the Haynes, so I got one of them right away.

However, it has its shortcomings. Hopefully, the proper manual will give me enough info to sort things out.

Speaking of if, I did not realise I was close geographically to BigRuss.

How do I get hold of him?

It may be better to bring in the big guns, especially given my dismal record on car wiring.

The wires can make efficient, if short-lived, hearting elements!

Many thanks to all who have helped out so far. As I said before, I will run this thread until the stuff is resolved so that if any lessons are there, they can be found.


Best wishes, Frank

[frankgoldstar]

Dear All,

I took the good advice of Stocktake and contacted BigRuss.

My main concerns were tha with so many electrical problems, some important and others less so, that I could not sort out whether there were genuine electrical reasons for the gremlins, or whether the control side of things was not right.

I went over to see BigRuss in scenic Yorkshire, and he was kind enough to come and rescue a lost Lancastrian after my satnav snuffed it.

The warm welcome afforded to my by BigRuss and his good lady was in stark contrast to the decidedly frigid wind whistling around.

Bracing no doubt to most Yorkshire dwellers, but a bit stiff for a nesh manc.

Anyway, Russ hooked up his T4 and did his magic. As the purpose of this post is to record what was done to restore heating and demisting, I will skip over his amazing knowledge of the cars and the T4, suffice it to say he was able to dismiss the red herrings, and instead concentrate on the electrics.

We had more physical red herrings in the form of lots of redundant wiring and bits off a criminally misfitted hands free kit.

Again, as Russ knows the cars so well, he can recognise wires that should or should not be there, so that made it much easier.

He was also able to spin through all the confusing wiring diagrams and show me the connected nature of the diagrams, and show me the bits to look at.

We ran out of time in the end, as it was cold and dark, so I left with a clear idea of where I had to look, and how.

The result was I traced a good live 12V as far as the resistor/transistor pack (whichever it is) and that was where the action ended.

I nicked a known good spare from my old tourer, made like a contortionist and hooked it in.

Hooray! a working heater blower!

All thanks to Russ. I will be back over there shortly when I resolve some of the less important issues.

To be honest, it is well worth going over to see Russ as he is such an intelligent, fascinating guy that it would be possible to talk all day and forget about fixing Rovers!




Best wishes, Frank


P.S. The photos Jules had put up showing the location of the fan control unit were very helpful indeed. And they also showed the unit has only two fixings. Without knowing that, and upside down like a semi-skilled bat in the footwell, I would have been well on the way to removing the heat exchanger.