Cosmo Kramer

Working on my car today replacing some fuses etc. I noticed that someone sliced an extra wire from the windshield wiper fuse into a black wire in the "D" plug with a 15 amp fuse. The way it was done the wipers are no longer fused, direct connection. I unplugged it but due to weather here I wasn't able to start the car etc. to see where the power goes to. Does anyone here know what the D plug feeds in the car (4th one across from the left).

Thanks !

Mrmerlin

get a fuse relay chart here www.928gt.com
with this you verify the correct fuse position and the correct relay
If you remove the lower piece of wood you can remove the connector and see what opin is being re routed , also it is time for you to remove the CE panel from its mounts (disconnect the battery first) and check the back side of the panel you may have a burned connection wire

Cosmo Kramer

You re right I may have to pull it off. I have a wiring diagram of the panel but I can't understand how the Germans coded the wires!

Bill Ball

I think it may be intended to jump the output from fuse 5 to the wipers which runs through D11, a black/green wire at the bottom of the left side of plug D. You could unbolt the top of the CE panel and swing it down and see if the wire from fuse 5 to D11 is broken.

Mrmerlin

If you look on the connectors on the panel there are small numbers that indicate the pin #. Also make sure that when you install the connectors they are push to one side to preload the connector pins other wise the board pins can go alongside the connectors and push them out . So you also want to check all of the of the connector housings for pushed out connectors

WallyP

The terminals on each plug are arranged:

15 25
14 24
13 23
12 22
11 21

D11 - Black/Gray, Heated Washer Jets, Power to Wiper/Washer Switch, Powered thru Fuse #5
D12 - Green, Connects Relay VII to Wiper/Washer Switch
D13 - Green/Red, Intensive Wash
D14 - White, HeadLamp Wash
D15 - Green/Blue, Wiper
D21 - Black, Intensive Wash Switch
D22 - Yellow, Interval Wiper Control
D23 - Yellow/Red, Interval Wiper Control
D24 - Brown/White, Horn Button
D25 - Green/Black, Rear Wiper Switch

Cosmo Kramer

Thanks Wally, you the man!

Alan

So unless somthing is broken or altered behind the panel the top of fuse 5 is the X-Bus supply in (not fused) the bottom of fuse 5 connects to Pin D11.
So its a bit screwed up since the added fuse is shorted out by the wire on the back of the panel & the original fuses is shorted out by the 2 wires going to one end ofthe new fuse.

You will need to check what is going on... on the face of it a jumper across fuse 5 would haver the same (not very good ) effect.

remove the connections and see if Pin D11 is connected to the lower fuse connection - if it is just put a fuse back in and remove this junk... if not tell us what you find...?

Alan

Cosmo Kramer

OK, did some checking it was D11 wiper/washer jets. Disconnected everything, put fuse in normally, no wipers. Put everything back together and wipers worked. What was throwing me off was the fact that he put two leads, one from each side of fuse port 5 together to the one side of the new fuse. I ran a lead from the top of fuse port #5 to a 15 amp fuse and then to D11 and wipers worked. Must be a burnt connection on the back of the panel between the lower port of fuse 5 to D11. Should I leave it as is, just wire it more neatly with a proper fuse or can I fix this connection on the back of the fuse panel somehow?

fraggle

I'd pull the CE to check behind it for scorched stuff. This type of bodge shouldn't be needed!! It looks scary to come out but it isn't really hard. you just need to

1) disconnect battery
2) Unbolt bottom wood piece to expose connectors
3) grounds from firewall
4) disconnect hot leads from the top of the board
5) disconnect all the bottom connectors (there are 23, I think)

It should swing right out. Then you can flop it on a workbench and take a real look at what'd screwed up.

Cosmo Kramer

Gee wonder why the wipers weren't working LOL! Talk about the last mechanic not troubleshooting properly! He knew enough to jump fuse 5 to the right wire but didn't check to see if the connection was clean. Also the screws holding the fuse panel in weren't tight, i noticed some copper contacts by the screws, does this not help ground the panel?

BTW how do you get the lower connectors off properly? Perhaps it is because they are old, but some of the clips broke when I popped it off. Is there a certain way to do it?

Bill Ball

You pry those clips up just enough to release the plug and work the plug out, but some clips will break anyway. If you seat the plug firmly the friction is great enough that the plug will not come loose even without the clip.

Looks like you will have this resolved in short order. It would be wise to (gently) pull all the plugs and check for corrosion. If you find more corrosion than this, you may have water ingress problem. Make sure you check the cowl area drain in the firewall that is on the same side of the car forward of the CE panel. It has a rubber trap door and often gets plugged with leaves, allowing water to back up in the cowl area and flow into the CE panel area. You would get at from under the car. Other sources of moisture would be loose or broken seal on the blower motor (immediately above the panel) or a leak around the windshield.

Cosmo Kramer

Thanks for the tip. I am going to check the other plugs and check them all and clean as necessary and give them a thin coat of dielectric grease. Everything is really dry there and I pulled plug E and it was perfectly clean, so I am hoping this was an isolated incident. When I took off plug E I carefully released the top clip and gently pried the bottom to the right to release the black pin at the bottom which worked well. There is another home made fuse setup under there, but it strings through the firewall and then back towards the radio; it doesn't go to the CE panel. I will trace that one and see what is up.

Alan

You could certainly fix the connection on the back of the panel - but you have to take it out first...

I would suggest you do - to see what else is damaaged.

What you did was correct - the only connections should be top of the old fuse to a new fuse and then to the wiper wire on Plug D. Since there are multiple connections on the back of the panel - you may need a second connection from the unpowered side of the fuse back to the bottom fuse connection (e.g. for the intermittent wipers - do they work)... maybe that's what he was trying to do with the dual wires... (wrongly).

Splicing (properly = solder & heat shrink) on the back of the panel is very doable and preferable to this... you may have other latent damage... good to know...

BTW for the plugs you did release the red locking tab at the center bottom of the panel first ? its a push/pull mechanism and slides a lock bar across the lower retention tabs - the upper skinny tabs are a relatively unimportant secondary mechanism. They often break as Bill notes - they are too fragile - but they pretty much always break if you don't release the bottom first...!

Alan

Cosmo Kramer

I did unbolt the panel and I was able to flop it forward. I ran an ohm meter on both sides of fuse 5 and to D11 on the back of the panel, I had good continuity, so looks like the green terminal is the culprit. Nothing out of sorts or burned on the backside of the panel.



No I didn't release the bottom, probably would have made life easier. I will look for that and do it when I check all of the other plugs for corrosion.