Wiring Loom - On Fire!!!!!!!!!!!

[ollie69]

No obvious reason for it (other than slight water ingress?), the lights wiring loom decided to burn and take out a few other circuits last week. I have been advised by a garage to get a new loom (which seems to be impossible), or should I just repair the damaged wires? The van is an imported LHD 2.1 Auto 1984 Vanagon. What should I do, what should I do...............anyone........anyone...help..............

[Mr Bean]

No obvious reason for it (other than slight water ingress?), the lights wiring loom decided to burn and take out a few other circuits last week. I have been advised by a garage to get a new loom (which seems to be impossible), or should I just repair the damaged wires? The van is an imported LHD 2.1 Auto 1984 Vanagon. What should I do, what should I do...............anyone........anyone...help..............

Well for a start a bit of water in a 12V system shouldn't really make the loom catch fire especially salt free water. (I know the pedants will dispute this but....) Just replacing the loom without knowing what caused what is obviously a short or overload could easily leave you with the same problem as before. What doesn't work now? Is it just one limb damaged? Perhaps you can lob that section off another loom and patch it in. Of course if you can see that the whole thing is falling to bits then that is that but replacing a whole loom is a major undertaking and unless you are really lucky will need a bit of commissioning. You need to find where it shorted and why the fuse didn't protect it. I would certainly replace the damaged wires if only in order to find at what stage it will try to burn again. Do a good job with adequate gauge wire and preferably soldered and heat shrunk insulation and plenty of ideally self vulcanising tape and it will be good as new. A few hours (or days if you are anything like me!) studying that bizarre circuit thingy in the Haynes or Bentley manual may help. In my opinion you could loose out financially big time letting a "professional" undertake the work. And I have seen some right clowns posing as professionals.
Good luck anyway
Ken

[AngeloEvs]

As Ken says, water isn't the cause. You had a short circuit somewhere and will have to inspect and replace all damaged wiring.

[Syncro G]

Try someone like Syncrospares, CJ chops up LHD's from time to time so may well get a LHD loom in if he hasn't got one on the shelf. (Suspect a LHD loom will be easyer to replace than a RHD as they don't go across the cab as much aswell).

If that doesn't work or you don't want OEM spec they shouldn't be that complicated for an autoelectrician to build - the main dificulty comes in getting the right colours which is mearly expencive rather than dificult from places like vehicle wireing products. Wiring diagram tells you what grade of wire to use. (Don't skimp on the colours as it'll make life harder in the long run, asuming you don't get confused plugging things in (I know someone who uses red for everything, luckally he's a telephone engineer so I think he's used to traceing wires, still think its not worth it though!). Use sleaving on all parts of the loom to avoid abrasion (probubly what caused your original fire) and keep cables neetly retained in place.

[ollie69]

Cheers for the advice Ken. the problem in the end was a fog light that had been added by some chimp, who wired it direct to the battery. It had melted onto th exhaust and hey presto short circuit. An auto electrician fixed it in 2 days by replacing the damaged wires, however a nice bloke called Richard King (car wiring loom specialist) to a look at it today and he will be building a modular wiring loom for all VWT25s at a very good price. Anyone requiring a loom should call him on 0116 2841050. Do not be put off by the fact he is from Leicester. Later...........