covedefender Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 Hi Guys I have a defender 110 1989, with a voltage meter fitted in dash. Everything seems fine, but when you push the brake pedal the voltage gauge drops from half to a quarter. Now when you do this, the brake lights work as they should. All other lights seem to work ok. Does this with the engine running and engine off with ignition on. This cant be normal, does anyone have any ideas to where I should start looking for the problem. Any help would be great cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 Start with the earth wires on the back of the gauges, that gauge takes it's power feed from the White wires on the ignition switch/main loom, check those as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
covedefender Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share Posted February 21, 2007 Thanks western Well I did have the dash top off last weekend and the gauge binacle, moved slightly forward so I could do the wiper wheel boxes, so I have maybe loosened something. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest diesel_jim Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 the volt meter should really have its own independant feed from the battery, without piggy-backing off of any other electrical feed. Obviously if you connect directly to the battery, it'll be "on" all the time, so you could use: a) wire it into the cigarette lighter... these have their own feed, but you'll have to bear in mind that if you put something in the socket the voltage could mis-read B) the stereo memory feed, sometimes these are individual feeds from the fusebox. c) wire the voltmeter through a relay direct to the battery, relay is triggered by the ignition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 c) wire the voltmeter through a relay direct to the battery, relay is triggered by the ignition. that's what I did with my 2nd (winch) battery voltmeter connected with a 4 pin relay like this ----- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
covedefender Posted February 22, 2007 Author Share Posted February 22, 2007 I had a quick look this evening at , checked the wiring at the brake lights etc, (the previous owner had funny idea of wiring) Lots of scotch blocks, linking the high level brake lights. All seems ok, no loose conections, everything still working fine. Have to rewire that later.. Checked the earth wires on back of voltage gauge, seemed ok.. It was dark, so further investigation needed. Noticed that if you turn the indicators on, the voltage gauge, level dips in time with them. And fan on , it dips. brake it dips. So its looking like a earthing issue on the gauge, I guess. So I was wrong about just being a brake related issue. I am unsure about how the voltage gauge is wired have to trace it back. Is it possible to take a lead from the gauge to a good earth to check. Thanks for all the help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 sounds like the gauge is off a common feed that cant handle the loads placed on it. maybe the dashlights or something? id be tempted just to run a new feed for the gauge off the ignition switch output. its were mine is from & seems to work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 wiring diagram in Defender workshop manual shows the battery condition gauge/voltmeter being fed from the 'white' wires behind the instrument pack & ignition switch & the earth wire from the earth connector in the same area, my 110 is a 1989 vehicle too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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