A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To...
Discussion
the fueling station yesterday.
Finally was able to take the CanAm out since the snow in front of the doors had melted enough that shovelling was practical.
The engine had not been started since we unloaded the car from the trailer, after returning home from World of Wheels this past January. The luggage containers had been completely emptied and cleaned for the show.
As we travelled down the main street of our small town, and applied the left turn signal for the left turn into the fuel station, everything in the car, including the engine and Stack dash went completely dead. Fortunately, we had enough speed to complete the turn and make it into parking lot next door to our origional destination.
Sunday is not the best time in that area to be parking in full view of every tuner car in the area that has to stop and ask, how fast, how much, and what is it, as you're trying to figure out what the problem is, especially since you realize that you've not replaced the little tool kit, that has a philips screwdriver to remove the fuse panel cover. The two shops adjacent to us had no tools for sale, and finally a kind soul stopped and loaned us a screwdriver to remove the cover. What we found was a blown fuse in #5 position. Taking a fuse out of #2 position (of course we had no spare fuses with us) and putting it in # 5 got us going, and the 3 miles home. We did not try to signal the two left turns we had to make on the way.
Played with the problem a little today, and found the following:
When the left turn signal would be applied, it would either blow, fuse 2, fuse 4, or fuse 5.
When we created our wiring schematic, is was hoped that since we had it, we'd never need it. Well, so much for that. One of the reasons that also convinced me to create the schematic was after talking to a chap who at one time was installing engines in Ultima rollers, had a similar problem, and wound up installing all new turn signal wires, since he had no idea of the factory wiring.
At this point we're going to start tracing the circuits, but we'll not leave home again without tools, fuses, and our wiring schematic.
We'll keep you updated on our findings.
jack
Finally was able to take the CanAm out since the snow in front of the doors had melted enough that shovelling was practical.
The engine had not been started since we unloaded the car from the trailer, after returning home from World of Wheels this past January. The luggage containers had been completely emptied and cleaned for the show.
As we travelled down the main street of our small town, and applied the left turn signal for the left turn into the fuel station, everything in the car, including the engine and Stack dash went completely dead. Fortunately, we had enough speed to complete the turn and make it into parking lot next door to our origional destination.
Sunday is not the best time in that area to be parking in full view of every tuner car in the area that has to stop and ask, how fast, how much, and what is it, as you're trying to figure out what the problem is, especially since you realize that you've not replaced the little tool kit, that has a philips screwdriver to remove the fuse panel cover. The two shops adjacent to us had no tools for sale, and finally a kind soul stopped and loaned us a screwdriver to remove the cover. What we found was a blown fuse in #5 position. Taking a fuse out of #2 position (of course we had no spare fuses with us) and putting it in # 5 got us going, and the 3 miles home. We did not try to signal the two left turns we had to make on the way.
Played with the problem a little today, and found the following:
When the left turn signal would be applied, it would either blow, fuse 2, fuse 4, or fuse 5.
When we created our wiring schematic, is was hoped that since we had it, we'd never need it. Well, so much for that. One of the reasons that also convinced me to create the schematic was after talking to a chap who at one time was installing engines in Ultima rollers, had a similar problem, and wound up installing all new turn signal wires, since he had no idea of the factory wiring.
At this point we're going to start tracing the circuits, but we'll not leave home again without tools, fuses, and our wiring schematic.
We'll keep you updated on our findings.
jack
Hello. Not sure if you have made an update elsewhere or not, or if you have this issue rectified. Just thought I'd add my 2 psi.
I have also had my fair share of electrical problems with my Supra.
On one particular occasion, I blew an EFI fuse while taking a turn. I initially just replaced the fuse, but I found myself blowing it time and time again. Trips became shorter and shorter. I made it 15 minutes, replaced a fuse ... then 5 minutes, then 1 minute, then lucky for 15 seconds.
I spent many hours chasing the whole system of circuit breakers, relays, other componentry on the circuit that may have been drawing an overload, VSVS, O2 sensor etc. I also unravelled parts of my wiring harness and started digging around. None of this fixed anything. Sometimes I could drive for 5 or so minutes, but it would eventually blow the fuse and shut off.
Finally, I ran an almost identical simple trace of the entire wiring harness like I had initially done. This time, I was more careful to check the entire circumference of the wiring harness at every point along the way. It turned out that the underside of the harness had found one small piece of metal from a mounting bracket that had touched it long enough to burn through to tap the bare wire while not completely melting everything. The hole into the harness was only large enough to fit 1-2 toothpicks.
The engine would twist enough on the mounts, or I would take a turn and the harness would move just enough to tap the metal and short out. All I did to fix it was make sure that the wire was still conductive, pull the harness away, rewrap it with aluminum foil and electrical tape, zip tie it away form the metal. Fixed in 5 minutes tops.
Electrical systems can be a real PITA, I know. Maybe this won't help fix your problem because you already fixed it or this is not the problem with your electrical, but atleast this can serve for a story of sympathy and empathy, lol .
Regards. -NoLimits aka BoostAddict
I have also had my fair share of electrical problems with my Supra.
On one particular occasion, I blew an EFI fuse while taking a turn. I initially just replaced the fuse, but I found myself blowing it time and time again. Trips became shorter and shorter. I made it 15 minutes, replaced a fuse ... then 5 minutes, then 1 minute, then lucky for 15 seconds.
I spent many hours chasing the whole system of circuit breakers, relays, other componentry on the circuit that may have been drawing an overload, VSVS, O2 sensor etc. I also unravelled parts of my wiring harness and started digging around. None of this fixed anything. Sometimes I could drive for 5 or so minutes, but it would eventually blow the fuse and shut off.
Finally, I ran an almost identical simple trace of the entire wiring harness like I had initially done. This time, I was more careful to check the entire circumference of the wiring harness at every point along the way. It turned out that the underside of the harness had found one small piece of metal from a mounting bracket that had touched it long enough to burn through to tap the bare wire while not completely melting everything. The hole into the harness was only large enough to fit 1-2 toothpicks.
The engine would twist enough on the mounts, or I would take a turn and the harness would move just enough to tap the metal and short out. All I did to fix it was make sure that the wire was still conductive, pull the harness away, rewrap it with aluminum foil and electrical tape, zip tie it away form the metal. Fixed in 5 minutes tops.
Electrical systems can be a real PITA, I know. Maybe this won't help fix your problem because you already fixed it or this is not the problem with your electrical, but atleast this can serve for a story of sympathy and empathy, lol .
Regards. -NoLimits aka BoostAddict
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