Electrical Fault

[kennierobo]

Help after finishing what i thought was a 7 day build I find that the instrument cluster wont light up. But it will stay illuminated if you leave the hand brake on. I only noticed this tonight when I went on a drive out I found that I had to leave the handbrake on one notch for the instrument cluster lights to work is it a bad earth there I wonder or something im missing. Now will running a seperate earth to the clocks work or is it something completly different...........also you know when wireing up rev counter you normally connect to the blue wire well I have a black wire and a black and white wire running there which one is it.

 

[NeX]

Help after finishing what i thought was a 7 day build I find that the instrument cluster wont light up. But it will stay illuminated if you leave the hand brake on. I only noticed this tonight when I went on a drive out I found that I had to leave the handbrake on one notch for the instrument cluster lights to work is it a bad earth there I wonder or something im missing. Now will running a seperate earth to the clocks work or is it something completly different...........also you know when wireing up rev counter you normally connect to the blue wire well I have a black wire and a black and white wire running there which one is it.

hmm thats an odd one. well the handbrake opperated by making a connection to ground, so it sounds like the cluster is not getting a ground for the lights side of things, but i don't know why it would be getting it from the handbrake instead. if you run a new ground you may find your handbrake light is on all the time.

are you sure you need to run a wire for the rev counter? what car did the loom come out of and what clusters are you using? facelift or pre?

 

[kennierobo]

Looms are from L reg 1.0ltr clusters are the ones you sent me engine and box are from a 1.3 N reg sr

 

[Marcus]

Dodgy earth, sand the chassis down and screw the ground wire in again to get better conductivity.

 

[kennierobo]

did all that when I rebuilt it

 

[NeX]

Looms are from L reg 1.0ltr clusters are the ones you sent me engine and box are from a 1.3 N reg sr

lol yea should have realised the clocks were mine...

ok, here is a long shot. maybe the lights are wired in series, if one of the dash lights goes out, none of them work, maybe check the bulbs?

also look out for any loose wires or burnt tracks.

i don't think i can help much without seeing it,

does any of the other lights in the car come on?

is it possible to try a differnt set of clocks, maybe mine are dodgy

 

[kennierobo]

I will try some other clocks tommorow I will be gutted if those are at fault mate the heater control lights work as they shoud do so who knows. All the lights work because when you pull hand brake on they all light up

bulbs bulbs bulbs changed 4 and now seems to be working fine just rev counter to go so having a coffee first