I have changed my headlight bulbs and relay, checked the wiring at the fuse box, light switch and had a look behind the dash. All seems in order but when I turn the headlights on fuse 9 gets hot, slowly melts until it breaks contact and then the engine dies. It doesn't do it on side lights but I can feel it heat up when I turn on the dipped beam. I have looked at wiring diagrams and cant see any where the fault may be. Any ideas as at the moment I can't drive after dark!?
pull the relay out, could also be a faulty headlight bulb, pull the head light bulbs out out at a time and see if the fuse still gets hot
Main fuse sounds like someone has been having a fiddle dude... there is no main fuse, the coil has a direct battery feed via the ignition switch!!
sounds like the fuse box is wired wrong causing the fuse to over load when you switch the headlights on the coil doesn't go through a fuse if I remember right
I'd get the wiring diagram for your bus and then sit in front of your fuse box and work through each one checking to see if the colour of the wire matches the diagram. It's not a guarantee of anything but usually a quick way of finding out if anything has been fiddled with. Any wire that isn't the correct colour or in the wrong place is where to start. If it all looks present and correct you have got the wonderful job of tracing the wires and see where each one goes!
here you go this is what I mean http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=739373&highlight=headlight fuse
If that ^ fails -Check for a positive wire from the headlight earthing on the bulkhead somewhere , trace the wires and look for a break , i have had this many moons ago , the main headlight feed was earthing against the hole where it came through the back of the bowl , yes someone had bodged it
As Paul says, there is no main fuse. The headlight fuse should blow, not just keep getting hotter. If it melts and looses contact, your engine shouldn't stop. Your man has cocked up. What "electrical stuff" did he do?
The fuse should be a red one 16amp and they will get very hot before blowing i have seen them melt the plastic and still not blow as unless its a dead short they need a lot more than 16amp to blow. I suspect the engine dies as the fuse is taking all the power and due to the lengths of wire involved to coil not getting the power it needs On post 69 vans F9 does not feed anything on some models it feeds the rear inside light. So check that you have 2 big red wires on the same side of the fuse my moneys on someone has put them ether side of the fuse instead If you only have one big red then it may have been wired as a early bus
I think you need to look at some wiring diagrams dude... The coil has its own independent feed from the ignition switch... so regardless of a fuse blowing in the fuse box, the engine (when wired correctly) will not die!! Lets not try and confuse the OP with lots of different information...
All the electricals are fed from the long wire that comes from the starter to fuse 9 then on the same side of the fuse it goes to the ignition switch and then back down to the coil If the wires and ends are old and corroded and then with a high Resistance fault the power can drawn leaving the coil under voltage so cutting the engine I have seen this several times. This is relevant as if its as i suspect the issue could be around fuse 9 as per my post as this should not be getting hot as it should not be feeding anything but should have the wires from the starter and the wire that goes to the ing switch connected together at fuse 9. hope you understand now
Actually, I bet someone has connected it up wrong on the fuseboard!! So the feed to the ignition is going through the fuse that keeps blowing Fronk, what else stops working when the fuse blows?
I'd be with Matty on this one. F9 is nowt to do with the headlights, so something's wrong in the wiring somewhere: something's drawing current when the headlight switch is on that's dragging the battery voltage down, hence the dying engine. What's connected to the top of F9 on the fusebox?
Well done chaps! Matty and Dickie12 get top prize. The feed from the wire that comes from the starter and the wire to the ignition switch were sited on the opposite sides of fuse 9. I have relocated the wire as it should be and now the lights work fine without the fuse getting remotely hot. Superb! However, I now have another problem! The generator light does not come on with the ignition. It seems this is linked to the heater lever switch that operates the fan in the engine bay (type 4 1700 engine). With the ignition on, the light will come on with the lever in the down position and will go out with the lever up. Perhaps I have dislodged something while I sorted the other wiring but there are no obvious wires in the wrong place or loose. ANy clues what is wrong?
You do have a interesting van Sounds as if you may have knocked a earth off or some one has used the light feed blue wire should go from the alternator regulator to the battery warning light Also so the blue wire at the alternator regulator goes to the fan relay thats in the engine bay Pin A (relay coil) Brown and something wire goes from the relay (the other side of the coil) to the dash switch and then to a earth point.
