Darren Groves Posted April 12, 2017 Report Share Posted April 12, 2017 Occasionally (though twice today) my Herald just cuts out, I look down and the ignition lights are on but I'm coasting to a stop, on most occasions the car restarts fine and I carry on. This seems to have become more frequent since I switched to EFI, though my gut feeling tells me that's just a coincidence. I had something similar when I was running Megajolt & Carbs a couple of years ago, the starter seemed sluggish afterwards on those occasions, so I added an additional earth lead from the engine to where the battery earth connected to the body, this seemed to fix it that time round. Until a couple of weeks ago I had one of those dis-car-nect jobbies on the battery earth terminal and each time it happened the small bypass fuse blew. Thinking this might be the issues I removed it and went back to an earth lead direct to the body, but I have had the issue again today, so can't be that. One thing that does happen every time is that I lose all the presets on the radio, which says to me that there is a complete momentary loss of electrics rather than an ECU glitch or loss of power to the ECU, Pump Or Injectors etc. I have an alternative battery I can borrow for a while, so I will see if that helps. But before I start checking connections & wiring anyone else had something similar? Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Lindsay Posted April 12, 2017 Report Share Posted April 12, 2017 Wiring loom shorting out against the body somewhere? It might only happen if air resistance at speed moves the loom against the body, but then stops once the speed slows down. Just a thought... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 12, 2017 Report Share Posted April 12, 2017 Do you have one of those nasty fuse boxes with the box blades are connected as a brisge by the cap on the fuse , notoriois for dumping connctions with weak sprung blades and corrosion on the fuse cap pere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Groves Posted April 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2017 Do you have one of those nasty fuse boxes with the box blades are connected as a brisge by the cap on the fuse , notoriois for dumping connctions with weak sprung blades and corrosion on the fuse cap pere Do you mean one of these? Then yes, I do use that to feed many the electrical circuits....might be worth a swap for something better. Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahebron Posted April 12, 2017 Report Share Posted April 12, 2017 If it was an old Fiat or Lada I would have have leapt in and said ignition switch. They are notorious for failing at most inappropriate times as all electrics are fed through them. Adsrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 13, 2017 Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 Yes Darren, the fuse cap bridges or connects circuits from either side of the cap aswell as each end of the fuse, so non fused circuits get their feed from the fbox but not via the fuse wire awfull things when a bit aged pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Groves Posted April 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 Yes Darren, the fuse cap bridges or connects circuits from either side of the cap aswell as each end of the fuse, so non fused circuits get their feed from the fbox but not via the fuse wire awfull things when a bit aged pete Mine is not that old, I added it in a few years ago just as a convenient way to run power to various accessories. I don't need the glass fuses as all the circuits have blade fuses protecting them individually, so maybe I can loop a wire from one side to the other and bypass the fuse. If it was an old Fiat or Lada I would have have leapt in and said ignition switch. They are notorious for failing at most inappropriate times as all electrics are fed through them. Adsrian I did think of the ignition switch and wiggled the key as I was driving but nothing happened. I would think if this is the problem it would be more like a disconnect in the ignition fed circuit rather than a complete loss of electrics? Thanks for the suggestions. Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 13, 2017 Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 any way you can add some small bulbs in /along various parts of the ign circuit , might show which end of what is dying as you seem to loose everything its looking more like a fault in the brown main supply rather than the white ignition feeds ie, brown from solenoid to Fuse/ignition ?? as a thought ?? Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Groves Posted April 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 I had another little episode of it earlier today, but all I noticed was the radio switch off, turned it back on and no presets so it must have lost both ignition & permanent live feeds momentarily, but I was doing around 50mph at the time so I didn't notice the engine cut as I guess the break in electrics was very short. I did take off all the connections on the solenoid, the twin spade connector on the live side that is secured by a bolt and shakeproof washer was a little loose, maybe that was an issue. Cleaned all the connections and tightened up and bypassed the fuse on the Lucas fuse box, so time will tell if any of that helps. Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougbgt6 Posted April 13, 2017 Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 Darren, have you tried the alternate battery yet? I did have a bizarre fault on battery where the internal "crimping" had not been done properly, the battery would open circuit, cut out, arc across the crimp and reconnect. Eventually the arc spark ignited the battery fumes and blew the side off the battery! Hopefully this isn't as dramatic as that but it sounds like the fault is in the connection area, I think you are right to examine the earthling. Earthling straps can look heavy and robust but, are often poor and past their best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Groves Posted April 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 Darren, have you tried the alternate battery yet? I did have a bizarre fault on battery where the internal "crimping" had not been done properly, the battery would open circuit, cut out, arc across the crimp and reconnect. Eventually the arc spark ignited the battery fumes and blew the side off the battery! Hopefully this isn't as dramatic as that but it sounds like the fault is in the connection area, I think you are right to examine the earthling. Earthling straps can look heavy and robust but, are often poor and past their best. I've had 2, one yesterday but that wasn't the right type and was a poor fit, this was on when I had the little blip today, I've now a virtually new 063 type (same as mine) temporarily fitted to see if that helps. I did clean up the main battery to body earth strap connections today, but may just replace it as they're little money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Groves Posted April 26, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2017 It's looking like this is fixed no recurrence in the 2 weeks since cleaning the solenoid connection, bypassing the Lucas Fusebox and changing the battery earth. Fingers crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted April 26, 2017 Report Share Posted April 26, 2017 Dont say that , you know these cars sit outside and listen , just to give you surprise when its not needed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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