Club 80-90 Forums

Hi everyone,

Have spent the day sorting out the van today ('83 Viking) ready for a couple of days in the lakes next week and have got a problem with the interior electrics.
Me and my girlfriend bought the van last July and it was absolutely fine on a 2.5 week trip round Europe. However, it's been parked up over winter and now theres no power to any of the interior lights, waterpump etc. It's a Zig CF8 unit thats fitted. I broke out the multimeter and found that with the engine running there's a good 13.7V reaching the panel across terminals 3 & 4. When tested however all 3 12V outputs were only showing about a volt or less. The fuses don't seem to be blown (if they were surely it would be 0V).
Plugged in the mains lead and got the same result again, 13.7V or so across terminals 3 & 4 but less than 1V on the 12V outlets.

Any thoughts, is the Zig unit goosed? Need to try and get something sorted before we set off for the lakes on Wednesday!

On a side note, is the CF8 supposed to get rid of the need for a split charger? There's nothing connected to terminals 1 & 2 and from looking at the wiring diagram it should be the engine battery connected here? At present there's a charging relay under the drivers seat next to the engine battery.
I'll get it all sorted out one day!

Cheers, Ben

Its difficult to analyse or suggest exactly where the problem is but do the lights, water pump, etc, work? If they do then the fault is in one part of the wiring. If there is no 12V supply to anything then......

Connection data is in the wiki.......here but you may have already sussed that.....https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Ca ... _Zig_Units........ A CF8 with a leisure battery normally has 2 feeds from both batteries. The CF8 routes these two 12v feeds to your CF8's fuse distribution panel via the sector switch marked Touring - On Site. When 'On Site' is selected your leisure electrics are sourced via the leisure battery but you also have a 12V master 'On - Off' switch on the CF8 front panel that needs to be switched 'on'.

1. RE-CHECK that you have 12V at the chocolate block terminals marked 4 as shown in the diagram.

2 Each of the odd numbered connections on the chocolate block terminal are looped together to van chassis earth . check that all of these are connected and that there is continuity to chassis/earth.

3. the fuses close to each of the batteries.

4. the fuses in the Zig panel

If, with the 12V master on - off switch down, you still do not have 12v to the leisure equipment then (with no mains connected to the van) remove the CF8 front securing screws and check that you have 12 V at the 12V ON - OFF single rocker switch.

If it has a seperate split charge relay there would be no need to connect terminals 1 & 2 to the starter battery. Quite posibly you have a fault with burnt out or corroded contacts in the change over switch try moving the switch a few times to clean the contacts.

are you sure the relay next to the battery is a split charge system? on mine its a relay that runs the fridge whist engine is running, have you tried putting the main switch (touring/on site) in both positions, does it do anything different? mine had a dead leisure battery when i got it so only worked the lights when switched to touring eg taking power off starter battery. what happens when you turn the mains switch on? does it make the lights work then? again on mine it provides 12v to run interior lights etc and charges the leisure battery.

CF8 wired as per instructions allows you to use the starter battery or the leisure battery to supply the leisure electrics using the switch on the face plate in the event that the leisure battery becomes discharged...not a brilliant idea but there you go). Hence the feed from the starter battery to terminals 1 and 2 . This feed also provides charge current so that a split charge relay isn't required hence the switch marked 'Touring - On Site'. If yours has the split charge relay then its an addition either by an owner or the people who did the conversion to a camper. Autohomes fit a split charge relay and wire the starter battery to terminals 1 and 2 to allow either battery to be selected from the front panel.