Club 80-90 Forums

Hi all,

starting to learn that when i get a problem, i get a string of them.......

I have been checking my main battery as I have been losing charge, and having looked at various forums and posed questions, it appears the battery is buggered and in need of replacement. I understand that the main battery and leisure battery are both charged by the BBB under my rear seats, and up until this morning that was fine. However, in the process of fault finding for my main battery, I appear to have shorted something as whilst i now get power to the electric plug in the van when the van is plugged in, my charger is no longer working! The charger was working fine before my tinkering

I'll admit to being useless with any electrics, so can someone please point me in the right fault finding direction. Snooping around in the engine bay, i notice there is a box of wires with a relay switch and the switch does look as though there is some kind of burn mark on the outside, so could this be the problem? If not, what the hell is it that i have been looking at??

help - I'm bloody clueless on this one.

Daren

if you have shorted the 240 system the trip should of tripped. thats the gadget below the mains plug.

Take the lid off the charger and there should be a fuse in there. Think it was a glass one sitting next to the transformer. According to wiring diagram it is 1.6A. Hope it is as simple as that.

OK - definitely not the trip switch. But i'll have a go at taking the lid off the charger tomorrow. thanks for the advice.

success - it was just a blown 1.6a fuse found in the charger as described. many thanks

Nice one,

good luck with sorting your original battery drain problem.

If you suspect a knackered main battery could you swap it for the leisure one and see if that holds its charge. Usually on Westies I think they are same type.

They certainly shouldn't be the same type.

A leisure battery used as the main battery will be killed in no time as leisure batteries are not build for large starting current drain.

Equally using a normal battery as the leisure battery, whilst slightly cheaper, won't last as long as they don't like being drained the way a leisure battery is often used.

It can be hard to find a leisure battery that fits behind the front seat but Alpha do a good one.

i have now disconnected the radio (in prep for me wiring it to the leisure battery) and after plugging the van in to the mains for a charge, the main appears to be ok. test will be tomorrow morning - out in the van tonight with no hook-up so lets see what the van is like in the morning.

in the meantime, my sink tap has stopped functiniong when on the battery only, although it is fine when plugged into the mains. Is this due to insufficient power in the main battery perhaps?