Hi Dennis, By good fortune we disconnected the batteries as you described. Van unplugged, chassy battery remove ground wire, then house battery remove ground. Then after fixing the key buzzer install back in same order, house ground then chassy ground. Van unplugged. Glad you specified this so I will do it this way in the future.
I’ll need to do again for the 12 volt socket fix and I’m sure normal fixes going forward. Once I have sighted help I’ll follow your directions with the wire removal and check on the dash brake light. Appreciate the clear directions! Eric Caron 85 GL Auto
> On May 7, 2021, at 6:56 PM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote: > > Eric, > I'm fairly sue that the brake warning light was working properly when I dropped it off so something happened. As that warning light assembly has some circuitry which gets power from the starter circuit for the bulb check and ignition circuit so the warning light can work for the handbrake and brake fluid level switch the failure could be in a number of places. > > As you have the fridge relay I mentioned that as the ground is completed through the starter solenoid coil. Why? My guess is a combination of disable the fridge during cranking and the back feed from the starter circuit helps the alternator "turn on" as the engine starts before the switch is opened. > > On the fridge relay there are the 2 contact wires that connect the house battery to the fridge. Then there are the 2 small wires going to the relay coil. One is blue with a stripe, the alternator activation or light circuit, the other red with black strip which makes its way to the starter solenoid circuit. Disconnect one of those small wires and see if the operation changes. We can then move on from there. > > BTW with disconnecting the house battery you need to very careful since the charge control relay can be closed just based on voltage in one battery. Disconnect the ground first and if disconnecting the positive you also need to first disconnect the ground on the chassis battery. Also be sure the 110 volt supply to the charger is disconnected. > > Dennis > > -----Original Message----- > From: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> On Behalf Of Eric Caron > Sent: Friday, May 7, 2021 4:19 PM > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM > Subject: Electrical Gremlin Brake lint > > Hi folks, > > We have not solved this one yet. Looking for some ideas. ] > > We did some work to resolve but still happening. > > Issue, > > Dash brake light works correctly in Park and neutral. > > Light off unless pull up on emergency handle. > > Now problem is that with emergency brake off the light comes on when auto trans is in Revers, Drive, 1 or 2. > > We replaced the button on the emergency brake. This helped get light to work correctly in park and neutral. > > I received new parts from GW today and with friends help we replaced the wiper and the other part it goes with. > > Put back together and no change. > Also did this with aux battery disconnected hoping to rule out any issues there. > > So, when I have a friend with a volt meeter where might I start to problem solve? Or what did we not clean that we should have? What ground can I check? > > Help appreciated. > > Eric Caron > 85 GL Auto |
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