I need to fix and replace some bad wiring(melted) near the fuse box, **Update 11/6 - installed j-west fuse box * started! woo hoo! Options

[DRPHIL914]

I am installing the new Jwwest fuse box and

I have a 3" section of wire off the #5 back row fuse that has melted insulation(grey with black stripe)

what is the best way to replace and splice in the new piece and what gauge wire is correct?

[bdstone914]

I am installing the new Jwwest fuse box and

I have a 3" section of wire off the #5 back row fuse that has melted insulation(grey with black stripe)

what is the best way to replace and splice in the new piece and what gauge wire is correct?

I have a wire harness I saved for salvage. I will see if i have that wire. I would cut splice, soldier and shrink tube the new splice.
Bruce

[type47]

... to replace and splice in the new piece ...

I found these solder/heatshrink connectors by Tyco Electronics: Raychem SolderGrip Heat-Shrink Butt Splices. I found them at Home Depot but they have since stopped carrying the 22-18 gauge but do carry larger gauge ones. They are nice in that you use a heat gun to melt a little solder ring in the middle of the connector and the plastic sleeve shrinks on the wire insulation. It doesn't have a big connector piece at the splice but is a nice not-much-bigger-than-the-wires splice.

[DRPHIL914]

Circuit board in place with a few new connectors and a couple damaged ones replaced. I have to wait for tomorrow when I get the new battery.
No more bumping fuses out with my knee getting into the car!

[DRPHIL914]

Circuit board in place with a few new connectors and a couple damaged ones replaced. I have to wait for tomorrow when I get the new battery.
No more bumping fuses out with my knee getting into the car!

Well i installed a new optima battery last night, turned the key - no smoke or electrical fires so thats a good sign, checked all the circuits, fuses are all good, so no apparent shorts (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
SO went to start the car, starter turns it over but it wont start (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) .

i drove it last week before parking it and marking the wires for replacement of the board. - i have good battery connection, good wires there.

ive rechecked all electrical grounds, connections to the coil(which was new 2 weeks ago) and distributor. Fuel pressure is at 30, fuel pump obviously primes
so in order to check for spark what voltage should i see across the coil( i have a hotspark module not points- its same as petronixII) i can pull the injectors and put them in a jar to double check but i am sure they are firing.
i just need a few tips on how to double check the coil and each plug for spark.
The only other times ive had this car not start was back when i pull ed the tank and had pinced a fuel line, and the other was when the MPS was shot.
-i tried both MPS's i have that hold vac and test as good.
i'm at the point where i might want to try another ECU i know they rarely fail but i have read several members that have chased their tails on d-jet only to find a bad ECU.

i will be working on this saturday morning-

[76-914]

12volts at the coil with key on? Do it quickly. Remember that ign module doesn't like power to it when the engine isn't running.

[billh1963]

Circuit board in place with a few new connectors and a couple damaged ones replaced. I have to wait for tomorrow when I get the new battery.
No more bumping fuses out with my knee getting into the car!

Looks good...That looks like the Engmann fuse panel. I still have two new in the box. Since I'm down to one 914 I should sell one.

[DRPHIL914]

Circuit board in place with a few new connectors and a couple damaged ones replaced. I have to wait for tomorrow when I get the new battery.
No more bumping fuses out with my knee getting into the car!

Looks good...That looks like the Engmann fuse panel. I still have two new in the box. Since I'm down to one 914 I should sell one.

you are right, it probably is an Engmann- bought it a few years back and hadnt gotten around to putting it in. but after blowing another fuse, knocking one loose - found that partly melted wire i knew i need to fix that make sure all the connections and grounds were good. every thing seems to check out and work- except for starting LOL!
but so far no smoke no blown fuses no melted or burning wires.

[DRPHIL914]

12volts at the coil with key on? Do it quickly. Remember that ign module doesn't like power to it when the engine isn't running.

i will check this tonight, then i'll go thur each plug and plug wire, cap rotor etc check for shorts etc. those wires are fairly new, and plugs were brand new right before going up to Octeenerfest. Its getting gas so it has to be something somewhere in the ignition harness/spark/coil/wires/distributor/ecu

[Dave_Darling]

Tape an extra spark plug to a ground, and plug in one of your plug wires. Look at the plug while someone cranks the starter; you should be able to see sparks if the ignition is working.

Your comment about the pump priming makes me think you have D-jet. Is that correct? In that case, the pump priming means that the FI ECU and pump are both getting power, which pretty much eliminates them from consideration.

Do you know you're getting fuel? Can you smell it at the tailpipe after cranking for a while? Have you tried putting the injectors in jars and looking for fuel to come out? Do you know you're getting spark? How about compression?

--DD

[ChrisFoley]

Some of the fuse circuits in the old panel are bridged on the hot side so one hot lead supplies three fuses with power.
The aftermarket panels don't have the bridging and must be added or some circuits won't have power.
Is it possible that the ignition wire from the switch is one of those coming off the panel from a "dead" circuit?

[DRPHIL914]

Some of the fuse circuits in the old panel are bridged on the hot side so one hot lead supplies three fuses with power.
The aftermarket panels don't have the bridging and must be added or some circuits won't have power.
Is it possible that the ignition wire from the switch is one of those coming off the panel from a "dead" circuit?

Chris,

that's interesting, and if that is the case why with the manufacturer of the aftermarket panel not provide that information with the product? that bridging should be in the case of this panel, on the inside? Seems strange to me that bridging wouldnot be built in.
How would i test this? do you know which circuits have this? but also i would be seeing other systems on those fuses not working as well, correct? like my tail lights, signals starter fuel pump etc which all work.
But if lets say 8-9-10 are connected with a common power supply on one side but the bridging is not present but the wires going into 8 test hot 12v, and 9 and 10 are zero that would support your idea. so i need to know which circuits are connected and i can test them to see if power is being supplied. - but first i will check the coil to see if it is getting the 12v when ignition is on like rich suggested, if it is then we should be good(also will do as dave suggested and test the spark on #1 wire with grounded plug)
My initial feeling is that since all the light circuits are working that all the circuits are getting their power. But if we find that not to be the case how the heck do you put in that bridging.

Anyone else here have one of these circuit boards installed? i thought they were plug-n-play!

[DRPHIL914]

Tape an extra spark plug to a ground, and plug in one of your plug wires. Look at the plug while someone cranks the starter; you should be able to see sparks if the ignition is working.

Your comment about the pump priming makes me think you have D-jet. Is that correct? In that case, the pump priming means that the FI ECU and pump are both getting power, which pretty much eliminates them from consideration.

Do you know you're getting fuel? Can you smell it at the tailpipe after cranking for a while? Have you tried putting the injectors in jars and looking for fuel to come out? Do you know you're getting spark? How about compression?

--DD

Dave
- yes its d-jet. and yes after cranking a bit you do smell the gas. - but after i check the electrical side if it all checks out i will pull and test each injector- they were brand new NOS stock i got from Otto's Venice last year. only have aboiut 2k miles on it since installing it. - i dont use ethanol gas hardly ever and always put stabi in every tank. (pressure is good) . -

Could it be the circuit board that is in the engine compartment?
I have a new one i was going to put in just because the old one is original to car, but my f.i. harness was new from Bowlsby as was the other harness back there, replaced maybe 2 years ago now.( voltage regulator is fairly new and prior to replacing the board i verified the system was charging good 13.8v. --

[DRPHIL914]

Circuit board in place with a few new connectors and a couple damaged ones replaced. I have to wait for tomorrow when I get the new battery.
No more bumping fuses out with my knee getting into the car!

Looks good...That looks like the Engmann fuse panel. I still have two new in the box. Since I'm down to one 914 I should sell one.

- nope just checked- its a J-west

[JeffBowlsby]

Wait.

It worked before the fuse panel swap, and now it doesn't.

Why are you looking anywhere else except at the fusepanel?

[ChrisFoley]

do you know which circuits have this?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)
Take a look at your old fuse panel to see which circuits are on a common hot lead.

[Tom]

You are getting lost in " OMG, what is wrong". Stop for a minute and think.
It was running before any work? If yes, then check for voltage at the coil. If there is 12 volts at terminal 15 of the coil with the connector removed, then hook it up temporarily and see what the voltage does. Stays the same or goes down some. Do this quickly or your module will not like it if it is on the closed cycle. If you are getting voltage and fuel, it should start and has nothing to do with your fuse box installation. If it does not start, you have an issue in the engine bay. It could be that your electronic ignition had an issue when the wire melted at the fuse box before your changing in the new one.
Tom

[DRPHIL914]

So this morning I took Tom's advice and started working backward. I have 12 at coil with ignition on- good. Decided to check plugs. New but dirty. Cleaned and retried starting it and it's now running but it must have gotten flooded out the other day as I suspected for what ever reason and had to clear that out. So it was not my wiring. Everything seems to be working fine on that front. Now I have to figure out why my
A.f. meter is reading 22- seems my o2 sensor took a crap because this car is running rich not lean.

I really think there is still an issue going back to my f.i. it is idling good but has kind of an intermittent hick up hear and there. Before the wiring etc. I was having an issue with the idle just dropping out from 1200 to 4 500 then back up lime it's going to die. I suspected the distributor ground wire but that is just fine . That advice plate etc was replaced last year and is not the issue I suspect. But I need to get this sorted out as I would like to get back to driving it regularly.
.

[Mike Bellis]

Glad you got it running.

For the record, the ignition/coil power wire does not go through the fuse panel. The circuit if you follow it goes from the battery, to the switch, to the coil. This is an un-fused circuit. There is a connection from the switch to the fuse panel for switched accessories.

[Tom]

Glad I was able to get you to stop and think for a minute before going forward and redoing some work that must have been OK. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I assume your O2 sensor feeds an input into some kind of ECU to regulate mixture? Does it have a separate ground or does it use the exhaust pipe to engine block as the ground? If it does not have it's own separate wire for ground, try running a shielded ground wire from the O2 sensor to the ECU. Ground the shield on only one end. There are available small solder heat shrink units that have a ground wire to them. Just slip one on the far end of the shielded wire near the ECU unit and heat it up until melted, then attach that end of the shield to a nearby ground. This will shield out any stray EMF signals from the ground wire to the ECU. Also perhaps the flooding has messed up the O2 sensor and it needs a cleaning? Just thinking here, I have never used an O2 sensor.
Tom