wi have a 1991 abi ace ambassador, i took the battery out to charge yesterday and decided to put back in today, only problem is i put the battery in back to front, i.e negative connector on positive terminal, positive connector on negative terminal, it was like this for no more than a couple of minutes but now i have no power to my lights, i changed the battery back to the correct way,
i have power to the control panel where my battery meter is, when i turn the switch to lesuire battery the indicator dial goes to full and my aerial dish thing although it has never found a signal if i turn it on a red light appears on it so i guess it has power,
have checked every fuse i can find, under the front seats behind the the battery is is where all my 12v and 240 v fuses are, i have a small fuse box with the following 12v fuses 2 x 25 amp, 2 x 15 amp and 2 x 5 amp, i checked them all and they all looked fine but bought and fitted new ones anyway which didnt change anything
ontop of the battery charger are 2 x 20 amp fuses, again these look fine but i didnt have any new 20 amp fuses so put in 30 amp fuses with no change either
the only other fuses i can see are my 240v fuses, ther is 1 main fuse and 2 next to it which i havent touched as i dont think they would be the cause
have had a look around the van and cant find any other fuses
read a thread about a guy who did the exact same thing with the exact same problem and he fixed by replacing the batteries 20 amp fuse which is meant to be behind or near battery, i have looked in battery compartment, and behind abttery from inside van but can only find the 2 20amp fuses that are on top of charger
am going to hook the van upto the mains now and will post back any findings
i dont have a volt meter so cant test where power is getting to and where it isnt and fairly new to caravans so i could be missing something simple
any help would be greatly appreciated
EDIT
plugged in mains and switched to mains power all 12v working, turn mains off no 12v working
Quote: Originally posted by Grampian91 on 31/12/2013
Fuses can blow yet look OK by eye.
A test meter or a festoon bulb and some wire can be used to test where power is and is not getting to.
Which ZIG panel do you have? 4 glass tubes under the plastic panel and also 1 or 2 screw in fuses for the main panel itself?
Checked them all?
there are no screw in fuses on the control panel above the sink, all i have are 4 switches, 1 is for caravan battery or car battery, the other is for the water pump, one for the awning light and 1 for the light underneath the control panel
where my main fuses are i have found an additional inline fuse which runs the tv aerial/dish thing, changed that still only have power to the dish on 12v
Follow the + wire from the battery, after it goes though the back of the battery box into the under seat space. There is quite often an in-line fuse holder in this lead
Quote: Originally posted by Andy Higham on 31/12/2013Follow the + wire from the battery, after it goes though the back of the battery box into the under seat space. There is quite often an in-line fuse holder in this lead
followed the live from the battery, into the underseat part where all fuses are, it connect to a 20 amp spade fuse which is on top of the charger, it then continues from the 20 amp fuse and splits, 1 wire goes towards the back of the van, the other heads towards the front and joins about a million other wires that all connect into a small fuse box that contains 6 12v fuses, the wires then continue from here to the other side of the van, the only inline fuse i have found is on a separate live wire that connects to the same 20amp fuse the original live does and it is what powers the tv aeriel/dish and is working fine on both 12v and mains
It sounds as if there has been a car battery fitted and not a leisure battery,
You cant fit the poles the wrong way round on a leisure battery as one pole is smaller than another.
Fit a leisure battery at a later date incase it happens again.Me think you have blown the charger with fitting the wrong polarity.
Quote: Originally posted by jeff juke on 31/12/2013It sounds as if there has been a car battery fitted and not a leisure battery,
You cant fit the poles the wrong way round on a leisure battery as one pole is smaller than another.
Fit a leisure battery at a later date incase it happens again.Me think you have blown the charger with fitting the wrong polarity.
yes its a car battery, after the hours i have spent chasing wires today i dont think it will happen again,
charger is working though a i can hear it and i could be wrong here but surely the charger is converting the 240v to 12v to power the lights now?
I don't know about the charger on your van but most cheap battery chargers have reverse polarity protection nowadays so that you can't damage them if you make a mistake.
saxo1
All you have to go on is the battery works the gauge and a light on the aerial booster, that does not prove it has enough power to work proper lights.
On the other hand, the charger is working and powering everything so nothing wrong with charger or anything beyond the charger including all the fuses.
So to my mind it's a either totally duff battery or a yet to be found fuse in the positive wire from battery to the top of the charger, or perhaps within the charger?
Have you actually tested the fuses, or just looked at them? It's not hard to do wit a bulb and a couple of bits of wire, if you don't have a test lamp.
I would be surprised if it's not a fuse. Let me just confirm that car battered, just like leisure batteries, have different sized terminals.
its fixed,was another fusebox next to the light above kitchen sink, opened that up and a 15 amp fuse labelled battery had blown, replaced that and 12v lighting is restored.
Quote: Originally posted by bazz00 on 01/1/2014
its fixed,was another fusebox next to the light above kitchen sink, opened that up and a 15 amp fuse labelled battery had blown, replaced that and 12v lighting is restored.
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Topic: made big mistake halp needed
