Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,my zig unit in my van has never been wired up in the process off doing now,I’ve checked all fuses and got a new battery but when we connected the battery the battery conditioning lights don’t light up plus the led lights I have connected are very dim I used a multip meter and check the chock blocks and have 12v running through them I am not great with electrics but have done everything right to the user manual I think maybe the zig is knackered,what’s a good replacement? Or shall I get it repaired?

There could be multiple issues here, I certainly wouldn't bin the Zig just yet. One step at a time I think. Turn all outgoing circuits off or remove fuses.
You are absolutely sure that the battery is fully charged and connected to terminals 3 & 4 of the Zig Unit connector block on the back? If the battery is fully or even partly charged and connected to terminals 3 & 4 then one of the battery level LEDs should illuminate the moment the 12v OFF/ON switch is on, preferably the green one indicating that the battery is ok.

I’ve done all that we have a new battery 90ah, no battery lights come on at all when battery is connected what’s weird ,I’ve tested the power coming out of the 12v light block and it shows 12v but as soon as I turn on the led spot light which is new the light is dim we checked the led spots as well by wiring them to the battery they work fine

Don't forget to check that your earths are sound.

Yeah look at the neg connections , battery to chassis , lamps to chassis , zig to chassis

And fuse holders , some zigs used very poor glass fuse fuse holders that were of a very poor quality and the contacts within go almost black with corrosion and fail under load and are very difficult to clean internally where the fuse fits

Oldiebut goodie wrote: ↑02 Jan 2021, 19:24 Don't forget to check that your earths are sound.

Good point Oldie 

Actually come to think of it if the front cover of the Zig is off and just hanging by the cabling its not earthed to the main casing. That threw me once years ago, I can't remember what difference it made, but it did. It might be how the battery condition indicators are grounded, via the metal fascia?

Ok, just trawled through my old pictures and that's right. A bare conductor runs from the pcb to the hex nut holding an output fuse carrier to the fascia, can see it at the top of this picture. I used a wire between the case and fascia connected by crocodile clips to ground the fascia while I was working on it.



M13esy are you doing all this with the fascia hanging off? It's probably why the battery conditon indicators don't work

Thanks everyone, I’ll check if negs are connected to be honest think they are not

My battery indicator is now working but still only getting 5amps through block connector to the led spot light it’s very dim ?

I would check the lamp and holder, 5 amps is more than plenty for a led . 
500Ma should be enough 

I will check them they are brand new as well

Hi All,
Appreciate I'm re-opening an old thread but hopefully someone will pick this up.  I'm just re-instating the leisure electrics in my van as what was there was a total dogs dinner and was frankly a bit scary in places!  Anyhow, the 'center' of the system is a Zig CF8 which I'm going to keep, largely because if I don't, I'm going to have to fill a big square hole in the side on my wardrobe but also because I've tested it out and it still seems to work OK.

I've downloaded the manual and wiring up seems pretty straightforward but the previous owner seems to have attached an earth wire to the back of the metal case of the Zig.  This was just dangling inside the waredrobe and wasn't actually connected to anything outside and I've opened up the zig and it's not connected to anything inside, just bolted through the back box.  This earth wire isn't mentioned anywhere in the zig manual, and I'm assuming anything of any significance that requires earthing (i.e. 240v) is earthed throught the mains cable.  Both postive and negative terminals of the two batteries (starter and leisure) are/will be wired directly into the Zig as per wiring diagram

So the question is, do I need this additional earth wire and if so, what should I do with it.  I assume it would be connected to the van body but I don't know what function that would serve given that the system isn't using the body as the negative connection...

Any thoughts/ wisdom/ explanations gratefully recieved!
Cheers,
Ian

The Zig case is connected to the battery negative and the battery negative connects to chassis so in effect the zig connects to chassis earth. The 240v system in your van should have a connection to the chassis, there is no need to have an additional earth from the zig but there is no problem having an additional earth if it’s there.