No fuses in the whole car?!

[Alexander]

Hello, i bought a vauxhall viva HA 1964 last week. And the next day when i was going to see if the lights and everything worked. I mounted a battery, i didnt get one with. Iguess it is 12 volts? Am i right? Well anyway i turned the key and switched on the lights then I smelled something weird and looked down and there was a wire on fire! So i blowed it out and removed the battery and after that i looked but couldnt find any fuses, probelaby has someone just wired it to see if it worked. What should i do now? tear out all the electricts and get a fuse box and wire everything again? Does anyone have a wiring diagram?

Thanks Alex.

[lambaj]

Hi

HA's do have fuses, but only 4 of them and they are located under the bonnet on the drivers side on the rear of the engine bay on top of the engine/passenger compartment bulkhead.

HA headlight circuits are not fused, but are protected by a thermal cut out that uses a bi-metalic strip, located under the dashboard directly above the throttle pedal.

I had a thought, as yours is a relatively early HA, is it a positive earth car ?? and if this was not realised, did you connect the battery round the wrong way ?? All HA's are 12V systems

Wiring diagrams are in the Haynes manual, and pretty much every manual produced. Somebody on here may well have one they can sell you for not a lot. I might..... I'd have to look. I have not found the diagrams on line anywhere. HA's are very simple electrically.

Good luck
Tony (HA21)

[Alexander]

[quote="lambaj

I had a thought, as yours is a relatively early HA, is it a positive earth car ?? and if this was not realised, did you connect the battery round the wrong way ?? All HA's are 12V systems

Tony (HA21)[/quote]

Earth car? I dont know what you mean. but i put minus on the side that goes in to the thing that is sitting together with the airintake.

[lambaj]

OK, thats confused me..... I'll have alook and get back to you this evening.
Tony

[hbpeter]

Thats confused me as well! Can you take any pictures? Postive earth means the positive side of the battery is connected to the car body(earth), most cars are negative earth, i.e. the negative side is connected to the body.

Peter

[Alexander]

Then i probelaby coneected it wrong . since i put negative to the car body. Thats probelaby why I thought the wires where in the wrong colors. Should i only change the wire that burned off then and try again? With the battery connected right?

//Alex

[Jon-HPF]

a common mistake - yes change the burnt wire and connect battery again , this time make sure the positive terminal is connected to the strap (wire) that bolts to the bodywork .
Have fun
Jon

[Alexander]

Ok thanks. I was so sure that I connected it right.

[lambaj]

Hi. Me again. Please don't assume that just because I think your car is positive earth (or chassis), that it actually is..... there are not many positive earth HAs about.
Does you car have the round/turret type battery connectors ? or has somebody cut these off and fitted blades ? If you have the round connectors, they are sized differently for positive and negative. The positive terminal is the larger diameter connection, and in the case of a positive earth car, will be connected via the braid directly to the bodywork.
It is easy to connect the large cable terminal to the small battery terminal, but hard to do it the other way around. Maybe this might help you work out how you car is wired.

Colour codes may not be very helpful on the early HAs, for example my 1963, the negative lead that goes to the starter solenoid is black (convention) but the positive lead that goes to the body is just a lump of copper braid with no colour code.

When you cut out your burnt cable, make sure that the fried cable did not burn inside a cable loom, this can cause all sorts of chaos, with all sorts of short circuits. I am hoping that the lead that caught fire is something like the small one that goes to the dynamo/generator as this is easy enough to change. It would make sense it is that wire if you turned the key. Be thorough to avoid the risk of more serious problems.

HA battery connections go to the following places.
Chassis connection, from the relevant battery terminal to the front panel usually using a braided cable.
Other connection goes directly to the starter solenoid, which is located low down in the engine bay on the inner wing behind the battery. It looks a bit like a cylinder with two largish studs and nuts on top with the heavy cables from the battery and starter motor connected to them.


Good luck
Tony (HA21)

[Alexander]

When i got the car there where no cennections on it. I Guessed that the earth where minus and put the smaller one there.

The wire that burned off is one to the lights. Its 1mm and brown.

I only turned the key a little bit, not so the engine started.