Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 22:42:46 -0500
Reply-To: James <jk_eaton@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: James <jk_eaton@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Canadian Westfalia Shore Power Cord Warning
In-Reply-To: <CAB2RwfhShv0bCBvy8wddqG+O2E9zCtu5ZokwY+UOHxg2U+u1iQ@mail.gmail.com>
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The clamp holding the boot is not the problem - that clamp is not meant to have anything to do with electrical continuity, only to keep the wires lined up with the screw terminals, and to reduce, a little, the tendency for the wires to shift when people mistakenly unplug by pulling on the wire, not the plug.
Your failure is an electrical classic - that right hand terminal was not properly tightened, and the wire that was on it (the white one that poked out of the boot?) came loose. But before it came completely loose, it was touching the right hand terminal well enough to conduct some electricity - but poorly enough that there was a measurable resistance across the wire to terminal junction - probably about 0.5 to 1 ohm. Not much, and if you only ran a lamp, you'd not notice the plug heating up, but the power lost across that connection rises with the square of the amperage flowing through it, so if you go from 0.5 amp to 5 amps in a 0.5 ohm connection, you go from 0.125 watts of power to 12.5 watts - the first you'd probably not notice, the second follows the metal blade of the plug and melts the next connector along!
Your advice, though, is right - check your connectors, plugs and outlets. And if there are any screw terminals among them, re-tighten them. If they seem corroded, open them up, scrape clean, re-connect and re-tighten.
And if a plug ever seems even remotely warm to the touch, inspect it pronto! Replace it if even slightly in doubt.
James (Instructor in Electro-Mechanical Engineering)
Ottawa, ON
> Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 14:59:06 -0800
> From: musomuso@GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: Canadian Westfalia Shore Power Cord Warning
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>
> My apologies.
> A slight edit.
>
> Looking at my pics again, it appears the clamp was holding but the
> boot itself tore apart
> allowing the wire to get pulled out.
> Regardless, heat and time took their toll.
>
> I have to wonder if the wrong type of connector was installed.
> IIRC, the OEM connector on my '81 was "molded" to the cord.
>
> When I cruised Home Depot to buy a replacement part,
> I noticed they sold connectors with the vinyl boot.
> But for a difference of ~ $3 it's a head scratcher as to why
> anyone would opt for the lesser expensive connector.
>
> Neil.
>
> On 2/2/15, Neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/WestfaliaShorePowerCord
>
>
> > What likely caused the failure:
> .....
> > - soft deformed boot allowed clamp holding outside layer of wiring to
> > boot to easily come loose.
>
>
> --
> Neil n
>
> Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>
>
> 1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>
>
> 1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>
>
> Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>
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