Club 80-90 Forums

Hi can you start your van while connected to 240v hook up what will it fry or could go wrong i have a 88 westy and this could be the answer to my probs
cheers john

you'll need to give us a bit more info i think.......

cant see any reason why you cant start the engine while hooked up, cant see why you would want to, but nothing hook up wise is connected to the engine, unless the mainbattery is charged whilst on mains, and if that is the case the carger should really be switched off whilst the alternator is charging the battery........but even still it shouldnt fry anything if everything is fused properly

I believe that when Westys are on the hook up, they charge both batterys, but I don't know how this would affect the charging circuits if the engine was running and the hook up plugged in. Maybe more amps but not more volts?

Yes you can but, you could run out of cable, think u may only get around 25m

K

This is the first post i puy on the brick-yard with a bit more info

Hi this is my first post so hello to everyone my 88 westy joker is giving me a headache when i got it the battery would discharge after about half an hour took it to a local specialist they messed around with it checked it over and when went to collect it they said it is fixed but they didnt now how it just started charging, That was 6 months ago and it has been fine always starting straight away even after long periods of being parked up
Last week thought i would try get every thing working as it should so read the manual on here and got the fridge, eber and the water tank and taps working as they should then i read that i can plug it into the mains and it will charge the batterys this seemed to be working as the lights on the kitchen block had gone frome red to yellow during this time i started the van a few times and all was ok
Packed everything in and disconnected the hook up ready to go to v dubbin it for the weekend the van was dead as a dodo no lights on dash checked all connections all ok tryed to tow start no hope so took all the camping gear back out and jump started it then drove 40 miles to the show turned it off half hour later dead so checked charer under seat and it was warm so disconnected that put a new batery on to come home checked it this morning dead
Any ideas or do i have to take it to an auto electrician
sorry for the long post i hope you made it to the end

you need to do a few basic checks!

1. get you a indecator bulb and a peice of wire, disconnect the neg connection on both batterys, and connect the bulb and wire where the neg connect was(ie between the body earth point and neg pole on each battery in turn) if the bulb lights there is a drain, the brighter it lights the bigger the drain, make sure everything is switched off. The pull the fuses and disconnect appliances one by one untill the lamp goes out, therefore finding your drainage. INclude the alternator in this test if everthing else shows ok.
2. do the above on second battery
3. disconnect the mains charger also.

sounds like a split charge relay "leaking" to me..... but do the tests, it will take you a hour, but save you loads in the long run

Since i have started the van while connected to 240v there has been a massive drain on the battery and it goes flat in about hal an hour when chared again there is load on the battery when i connect it i have turned every thing off disconected the leisure battery and the split charge relay then tried each fuse but still a drain the alternator is charging

the black box with 2 relays in and a main fuse on the left hand side rear of the engine bay is very hot aswell just in case this relevant
cheers john

is it diesel?

glow plugs staying on?

remove fuseable link see if drain goes away?

There should be a relay in the box the leisure battery sits in, under the drivers seat - assuming yours is left hand drive. Just check that's not goosed, as it's quite common. Mine was anyway. This should keep the 2 batterys seperated electrically. I think there is also a fuse in there too, but it's been a long time since I had a look due to it being a right pain to get to. I also think the later Westys had some fuses behind the drivers seat. Mine is an 81 so it doesn't have these.
Also, what you could do is disconnect the leisure battery, to take it out of the equation, and then get a multimeter on the starter battery, and see if the voltage starts to drop if you turn the engine off. Could be a knackered alternator if it does, or something is still switched on that you're not aware of. I believe you can get a new rectifier for the back of the alternator from GSF - I saw somebody there last week buying one, as their charge light was flickering a bit.

not advisable IMHO, to start engine on hook up. Some older Zigs are very unhappy bunnies when this happens and risk damage once the split charge relay kicks in. The other problem is that the alternator sees the 13.4 charge from the zig and reckons the battery is well charged up, sits back and dumps very little charge into the battery's....if that makes sense. That usually resolves any conflicts in the charge system and why problems are avoided. Do it, but may be best to drop the connection off the split charge relay and keep them separate. As for the battery discharging, isolate the systems and see if it still happens.

Thanks for all the advice
After checking everything i still had a drain so i looked at the three red leads that are connected the battery and disconnected these in turn and still a drain the one that goes to the fusable link in the black box with 2 relays was really hot so pulled out the relays had a poke around then put it back together put the battery back on and left it overnight
When i got up the van started and no drain on the battery been checking for 2 days and still no drain IT IS CURED which is great but i dont no how i have reconnected everything now inc leisure batt and split charge relay and it still works this is what happend when i first got the van it fixed it self the only thing i am going to try now is the 240v hook-up and see if that does anything to it
someone has told me to check all the eaths so will do that next but it is hard trying to fix something that isnt broke
Cheers John