broken down,burnt fuse box push in connectors

[dave lfc]

hi everyone i have just broken down in my van.anyway i was driving along and i had a bit of smoke coming behind dash board of the van from fuse box.anyway the van cut out and to my inspection the black wire coming out of the white block push in connector that plugs into the back of the fuse box,"will try and upload pics soon",had burnt its self off the white connector block and melting the adjacent wire holes and damaging the fuse box.now i am going to need a new white push in connector where would i get one of these from and also a late fuse box by the looks of it.van is a 1.9 dg petrol with the later type fuse box.will try and upload a pic of white push in block soon but if someone can do this for me that would be great,cheers dave :okhttp://s531.photobucket.com/user/KAWASAKI-ZX9R-F2P/media/vwt25electricalblockconnector1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[California Dreamin]

What you need is a new connecting block and terminals .......but you have to ask yourself what damage has been done to the fuse box?

The work around would be to pull out the damaged wires and separately fuse those connections with external fuse holders. Obviously this isn't ideal but the alternative may well be finding a used fuse box, terminals and connecting block to do this properly.

Martin

[CovKid]

Spot on advice Martin. Zilch I can add to that.

[dave lfc]

anyone know what the black wire is/from.is it an earth of something?

[California Dreamin]

From memory their was/is a special tool that pushes in the splayed 'retaining' parts of the terminals. In the absence of this tool you need a very small terminal screwdriver, skewer or large needle down the sides to push these in before each terminal will extract from the block.

Martin

[dave lfc]

From memory their was/is a special tool that pushes in the splayed 'retaining' parts of the terminals. In the absence of this tool you need a very small terminal screwdriver, skewer or large needle down the sides to push these in before each terminal will extract from the block.

Martin

cheers martin i have got them off,do you have any idea what that black wire is for/from the one off the back of the white block,cheers dave

[harris121163]

black wires are normaly earth wires the way to confirm this is to do a continuity test to the chassis from the black wire you can do this from any multi meter if it has been a bad earth they do heat up. I would take both wires from the plugs and bypass the plug and solder the wires together this will give a good conection and cure your problem. hope this helps ed

[bigherb]

black wires are normaly earth wires

They are on cars with Lucas wiring. Earth wires are Brown on VW's with DIN standard wiring and Black wires are ignition switched live power feeds

[itchyfeet]

Thats the D connector and if it's Black only ignition +12V as said

looks like D15 to the coil to me, maybe a short on the engine carb electrics would do this.

P97.72

http://www.club80-90.co.uk/pages/downlo ... eneral.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[California Dreamin]

black wires are normaly earth wires the way to confirm this is to do a continuity test to the chassis from the black wire you can do this from any multi meter if it has been a bad earth they do heat up. I would take both wires from the plugs and bypass the plug and solder the wires together this will give a good conection and cure your problem. hope this helps ed

Oooooh dear! only if you want an electrical fire which I'm sure you don't. sorry ed, I'm sure you thought you were helping.

All automotive electrical consumers are fused for a reason.

That black wire looks rotten as it has gone black/tarnished so will need taking back to good wire (bright copper).

Do it right mate....new (old parts) new terminals, solder the connections, protect any joints with shrink wrap. etc. You can never be too careful.....

Martin

[itchyfeet]

All automotive electrical consumers are fused for a reason.

Martin please can you educate me as to where the fuse is for the main 6mm2 red feed cable from the battery to the fuse box, I can't see it on the van or the diagrams?

It looks to me like there isn't one from the fuse box to the ignition switch and from the ignition switch to the coil or stater trigger circuit either?

Dave lfc has installed a new engine recently so my thinking was it could have been a short in the carb electrics, which are daisy chained off the coil.

I have always though this was an accident waiting to happen along with the lack of fuse to the thermostat circuit in the black box.

thanks
Paul

[bigherb]

All automotive electrical consumers are fused for a reason.

Martin please can you educate me as to where the fuse is for the main 6mm2 red feed cable from the battery to the fuse box, I can't see it on the van or the diagrams?

Paul

It's not fused, and that's for another reason.

[itchyfeet]

All automotive electrical consumers are fused for a reason.

Martin please can you educate me as to where the fuse is for the main 6mm2 red feed cable from the battery to the fuse box, I can't see it on the van or the diagrams?

Paul

It's not fused, and that's for another reason.

So if it's not fused neither is the black wire to the coil so if that shorts the wire will melt.

( go on whats the reason?)

[bigherb]

So if it's not fused neither is the black wire to the coil so if that shorts the wire will melt.

( go on whats the reason?)

Yep it will.

In the days before nice slow blow spanner,maxi,mega fuses a shorting wire would give the driver some warning that something was amiss and hopefully have time to pull over rather than an instantaneous cut out which isn't desirable. If the headlights where not individually fused then no fuse was fitted for the same reason.

[itchyfeet]

So Dave lfc , don't go fixing the connector without finding the reason for it melting otherwise you may be doing it agian soon.

Corroded wire could be part of the reason but usually you just get low voltage and bad ignition, more likely in my opinion is a short which heats the wire/ connector at the point of highest resistance.