Cooked wiring

[alpinemauve]

Oh great another holdup.
Seems that a section of the wiring has all cooked together. A combination of no insulation and wires touching? The series of wires themselves are for the courtesy lights from each door, to the under dash light and the glove box light.

A poor earth? Was this cooked years ago or more recent on the cars first startup? It would be interesting to know. So all the main wiring was untaped and replacement from another loom I had so the wires remain the same colourings. Would it be wise to put a inline fuse within this courtesy light circuit?

[Steve Cureton]

That's a pretty bad short circuit!

Fitting a fuse box is always a good idea - but do as I say, not as I do :)

[WRS1360]

supprised you didnt have a fire  :o. This is the reason i desided to creat my own wiring lume with a 10 way fuse box as the herald has only 1 25A fuse for the entire circuit.

[heraldcoupe]

1612 wrote:

the herald has only 1 25A fuse for the entire circuit.

Only in your newfangled 13/60s, most of us have no fuses whatsoever!

Some export specifications included a 4FJ fusebox, located behind the battery on a RHD car. Only 2 fuses, but a way of keeping things original, while being a little safer,

Cheers,
Bill.

[herald948]

For whatever reason(s), we North Americans apparently couldn't be trusted with errant smoke and wild electrons, so all Heralds sold here got the fuse boxes as well!  ;D

[nang]

You need one of these as well as fuses, !

[alpinemauve]

Yes it could have been serious - smouldering away under a cardboard dashboard!

I do wish I knew the cause though, and whether I did it a few months ago when I first started the car for a few minutes, or whether it was 20 years ago (when car was last used). I would like to think the later! With the condition of the copper wire its hard to tell if it was an old or new burn.

The horns are permanent live - so you don't need the ignition on to sound the horns (and how many people have hit the roof in their car leaning in through the window to get something putting their hand on the horn push?
Are the courtesy lights permanent?

As a footnote if I was adding a fuse or two to the loom, this circuit; underdash light, courtesy lights and cubby box light; would have been one of the last I would have picked.

[Zendervision]

alpinemauve wrote:

The horns are permanent live - so you don't need the ignition on to sound the horns (and how many people have hit the roof in their car leaning in through the window to get something putting their hand on the horn push?
Are the courtesy lights permanent?

Are not the majority of electricals permanent live in our cars? On my (late) model the only things which need the ignition on to work are the indicators, brake lights and the blower. The rest of the lights (inc main beam flash), and horn work regardless.