Club 80-90 Forums

Hi All,

Great Forum by the way hopefully someone will be able to help me.

At the weekend I decided it was time to get our "new" fridge wired/piped in.



Once I had wired it all up I started the engine so I could run the fridge for a while and confirm it was still working after we tested it last weekend.

The fridge was working at this point.

All was going well until I smelt burning plastic. Smoke started coming from under the right hand side of the dash. PANIC STATIONS!!

So I shut everything off and disconnected the batteries and started to investigate.

I discovered the following. My question is, what is this wire for and why did it burn out rather than blow a fuse? Thank you in advance.

the white connector is described as " windscreen wipers and main wiring loom" what colour was the wire that was in there? what doesn't work any more? which wire did you splice into for your fridge? it may be a good idea to run new chunky positive to the battery (using grommets if it passes through metal holes) and find a good earth for the fridge basically rewire it from scratch without using the fuse box as it looks like the wire you spliced into wasn't up to it, and possibly has the wrong fuse.

Oof, that could have been nasty.

The wire is obviously trying to pull too much juice through it or the connection is poor. As Bob the saw says, wire the fridge up independently with its own fuse to avoid putting huge loads on old wires.

Thanks for all the replies.

Hacksawbob wrote:the white connector is described as " windscreen wipers and main wiring loom" what colour was the wire that was in there? what doesn't work any more? which wire did you splice into for your fridge? it may be a good idea to run new chunky positive to the battery (using grommets if it passes through metal holes) and find a good earth for the fridge basically rewire it from scratch without using the fuse box as it looks like the wire you spliced into wasn't up to it, and possibly has the wrong fuse.

The wire was the black wire that is taped up in the second of four wiring pictures

Since pulling the wire from the plug I have not checked what isn't working fully but the engine turns over but doest fire. I disconnected the fridge and tried earthing the wire to try starting it but this didn't work. This was to see if it was an earth. I have not checked the fuses since, this is first on the list at the weekend.

The wiring for the fridge was already in place so I do not know which wire has been used if any. There is a split charge and 240v system in the camper which has a number of switches for various items like lights, water pump, fridge etc. As you say it may be easier to re wire the fridge in on it's own feed.

Is there a diagram that shows what all the plugs are for or do I need to decipher the wiring diagrams?

Are the plugs a standard part or specific to the transporter? If anyone has any ideas where I can get a replacement It would be most helpful

There is always the possibility that the fridge had nothing to do with it and it was coincidental that the fault occurred at the same time as you were trying the fridge.

The black wire is unfused ignition switched which is probably the reason it won't start now as there is no power to the coil. As 1664 says it could be unrelated to the fridge or the fridge is connected directly without a relay and overloaded the connection.

as stated that is pin D15 at the multiplug and is your ignition switched live going to the coil in the front to back loom - the multiplug splits in 2, part of it is wipers etc, part of it the front to back loom

pin 15 is not fused hence the burn out - chances are there's a short on that circuit somewhere, if the engine was running then the coil must have been ok - so it's possibly the choke heater element supply at the carb that's shorted out I think - Bentley doesn't do DG wiring but haynes does so take a look at the circuit diagram in there I don't have it to hand