electrics playing up - need some help please!

[Psychobilly Boi]

Hi Guys,

I need your help! I'll try and give a detailed description as possible. A piece of metal fell from inside the boot and fell accross both terminals (one in a million as there is only about 1mm of exposed metal on each one!) of the battery momentarily shorting it.

1. headlights no longer work.
2. indicators only work at the front..and they flash together like hazard lights.
3. brake lights didnt work...then magically repaired themselves and now function.
4. all fuzes look fine but i will test with a voltmetre.
5. applying the break switches on the front indicators..

Im hazarding a guess here and assuming ive melted some wiring and created a short somewhere? I've yet to check all the bulbs but that will be my next job.

If i do have a short, how do i go about checking it? If someone could recommend a methodical approach to this id be most appreciative. Electrics freak me out.

Danny P

[CharlieLed]

Might help to know what kind of car, or even better what year, that you have. I have a daily driver Jeep Gr Cherokee that did just that when the battery ran down. After the battery was replaced the indications went back to normal...

[Psychobilly Boi]

CharlieLed,

Its an A model rod. Wiring looks like its a custom job when the rod was built.

Danny

[Crease]

"In theory", if you shorted across the battery (without the car running) all you could have jacked up is the battery. The metal would have caused a short across the battery. The current would have gone from the positive, thru the metal and back to the battery. Real nothing else should have seen any current. I would take it down and have it checked.

Disclaimer: I anit no electrical inguneer http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Crease
Barons So Tex

[CharlieLed]

Sounds like your first assessment was correct, something's melted together inside a switch or relay. An old friend of mine (we both work in electronics) once told me that he had figured out what made those integrated circuits work; he said it was smoke, because every time you let the smoke outta one it quit workin'.... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Psychobilly Boi]

Hey Charlie,

Ahaha yeah...I work in I.T and we had a tech that did monitor repairs...same story...if you let the smoke out its all over.

Do you have any suggestions for finding where the fault is? Do you think having the wires melted together is a fire risk whilst its sitting in the garage?

Danny

[Psychobilly Boi]

[ QUOTE ]
"In theory", if you shorted across the battery (without the car running) all you could have jacked up is the battery. The metal would have caused a short across the battery. The current would have gone from the positive, thru the metal and back to the battery. Real nothing else should have seen any current. I would take it down and have it checked.

Disclaimer: I anit no electrical inguneer http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif



[/ QUOTE ]

I only noticed the short when I came home. I cant for certain know whether the short occured with the car running or not. I assume that it was with the car running as it wouldnt have killed anything with it off. And seeing everything is suddenly posessed by the devil i can only assume.

Danny

[shoebox72]

Seriously, It sounds like your head light switch or turnsignal switch may be fried. Did this happen while you were driving? Were the headlights on? I'll look thru some wiring schematics and try to give you a better idea of where to look for the problem.

If you have any more info about your problem, post it.

Billy

[shoebox72]

Disconnect the battery while the car is unattended till you get the problem sorted out.

Billy

[Psychobilly Boi]

[ QUOTE ]
Seriously, It sounds like your head light switch or turnsignal switch may be fried. Did this happen while you were driving? Were the headlights on? I'll look thru some wiring schematics and try to give you a better idea of where to look for the problem.

If you have any more info about your problem, post it.

Billy

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Billy,

I dont know for sure that it happened whilst driving. I noticed the battery short when I got back. So I assume that it happened whilst driving.

Sorry about the lack of detail, I'm not good with electrics.

Danny

[shoebox72]

What made you look at the battery for a short when you got back? was there evedince of arcing on the piece of metal? I'm only asking so we aren't barking up the wrong tree. Maybe a piece of harness got pinched somewhere.

[Psychobilly Boi]

hey mate,

i have a kill switch in the boot along wiht the battery. so i could see the metal arcing when i went to put on the kill switch.

thanks for hanging in there...wish i wasnt so ignorant of these things.

[Psychobilly Boi]

BTTT

[shoebox72]

To narrow it down to finding a short you will need a test light. Make sure everything (Ign switch, radio,all accesories) are turned off. Keep kill switch on. Now disconnect the ground cable from your battery,and hook the test light between the ground cable and the ground terminal on the battery. If there is a short, the test light will light up. to find the circuit that has the short. Pull 1 fuse at a time out of the fusebox and go back and see if the light is still lit. Whatever fuse you pull out that makes the light go out is the circuit that has the short.

If the test light dosent light up when you hook it between the ground cable & terminal, I'd start checking switches, with a meter or take them out & check them with a self powered circuit tester.

I hope this helps, if you have anymore problems I'll try to help you out.

Billy

[Psychobilly Boi]

Hey Billy,

Thanks for the pointers! I'll be working on it tonight and let you know tommorow how i go...hopefully ok!

Danny