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Electrical Melee In 87 Conquest


apierro36

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weelllllll its been a while but weve been busy putting miles down....

finished a near total rebuild of the coach, i think it looks pretty smart. will post pics soon.

now its time to trouble shoot all the little, and not so little details.

our biggest issue has been electrical. LIghts etc seemed to be running fine before the rebuild, but truth be told we never used it too much before this trip, so it couldve been inconsistent before, Im not really sure. I pulled all the lights and replaced the fixtures with new ones i built and switched all the bulbs out to LEDs. hooked it back up to the battery and everything was runnin great! success!

then 2 weeks on the road and stuff started to flicker, the lights wouldn't come on full power, things were weird. where Im at now is when you turn on the lights, theyll generally come on at maybe half power, and the monitor reads low. For some reason, heres the strange part, if you flick on the water pump and hold it until it kicks on, then switch it off real quick, the lights will come on full power and hold indefinitely. weird huh?

Then I noticed last night my running lights werent working. Again, full disclosure, it's possible they NEVER worked, and having driven it so little at night, I couldve never noticed. I thought they were hooked up to the coach battery but I talked to an old timer who used to have a toyhome and he said his were all run off a box behind the headlights. Could these issues be related?

Anyway Ive been chasin wires around in parking lots etc for about a week now and Im ready to go drop hard earned duckets for a shop somewhere outside jacksonville to tell me they couldnt figure it out, thatll be 200$ please. Anybody in the area know someone, or wanna troubleshoot a bit?

whats your idea?

thanks again, love the forum. unfortunately im gonna miss the gathering in the southwest by a couple weeks but well make one of em one of these days...

alex

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Yes, the running lights should be powered by the truck/starting battery. Do you happen to have any sort of wiring diagram for your Conquest? It's not easy to leave on a journey without a map. How about a multimeter? That'll be your compass! :)

I just sent an email to a Dolphin owning acquaintance in Jacksonville Beach to see if he can recommend a shop.

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Hey derek, thanks a bunch!

Yes Ive got a multimeter but like I said its kinda tough chasing stuff around on the road, and my expertise does not lie in electrical repair. I was never able to locate a wiring diagram, though when I first got it I searched a bunch for any paperwork, it proved very difficult to track down...

I know it sounds like Im kinda flyin blind here, but the coach rebuild kind of took all of my time before the trip...being a carpenter its much easier to nerd out on that end, and some things fall by the wayside!

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Well, it seems my Jax contact would like to find someone with electrical expertise as well, right after he finds someone with transmission expertise! :(

I don't have your wiring diagram but if you look at Winnebago's site you can see theirs. Not great, but will at least give you an idea how it (might) be in yours. Also attached is 1993 Dolphin.

http://www.winnebagoind.com/diagram/Wiring.htm

I think my best advice is to tackle 1 circuit at a time. Check all connections you can and make sure they're clean and tight. Don't forget the grounds! Especially check the wiring you might have disturbed while remodeling.

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Apierro,

Almost every electrical problem I've encountered with the two Toyhomes I've owned has been caused by a poor ground connection. I'm no electrician and I consider electricity to be one of the "black arts" but every time I've had a weird problem like yours, its been the ground wire.

Good luck.

John

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I agree with John. It sounds like a ground issue. See if you have a coach body ground in the area by your water pump.

I say this because perhaps the vibration of the pump running makes the bad contact function. This is just a "hip shot".

Coach ground locations vary by mfg.

They are usually near major electric appliances.

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Yep ground issue the way every things acting up I would have a look at the coach battery grounds. You may also have a good look at the fuses they most likely are glass ones and they get nasty clean the fuses then the holders.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Check your main battery leads, I was having initially a blown wiper fuse issue, but then my turn signal lights, coach battery was not fully recharging, running lights flickering - real culprit was all due to a short in my main battery cable, it was at a tight bend in the cable. Give them a very close look over, sounds like a similar issue

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Pretty much when things act bizarre it's a ground problem. Warning lights lighting when they are not supposed to, dim lights and stuff like that. Blown fuses or nothing happening more than likely a power issue.

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