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949 views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  bossman429 
#1 ·
Since Land Rovers from the 80's are known for their trouble free electrical systems, its rather shocking I have some trouble with some of mine. :rolleyes So Far I've gotten a couple things fixed, but as winter approaches its time I fix two items which I have been putting off:

1. Rear Wiper Motor. - I thought it was siezed, and I think it was b/c it almost melted its cover when I first started driving it not knowing it was switched on and just heating up beyond belief. I disconnected it then, and now I want to get it working again.

I was able to take it off the truck, hook it up to a power source and after moving it around with a wrench, got it to operate smoothly. My guess is it just corroded from non use and sitting, but once i was able to move it a bit the corrosion wore off and works fine now.

There are 5 wires coming from/to the motor. Green, Red/Green, Brown/Green, and (2) black.

I've determined the Blacks are both grounds

Green has power all the time.

Red/Green is switched (power when wipers turned on, none when turned off).

No idea what Brown/Green does. But when testing it on the bench it does power the motor when connected to a power source. I am not able to the the brown/green to show any power from the source on the truck.

If anyone has an idea what the brown/green would be I would love to know before i hook this thing back up.



2. - Rear defroster.

A couple issues with this.
First - is the solder on the heating element on the window broke away. Any tricks in soldering this back up? Last thing I want to do is risk cracking the glass.

Second - I disassmble the switch in the dash, and after cleaning the contacts its operating properly.
There are 3 wires going into the switch, they all look to be a very small gauge control wires.

White - power from the source, power present when ignition is on regardless of switch position

White/green - switched (power on when switch on, power off when switch off)

Another white - switched as well, same as above.

I'm assuming (1) of the switched wires is for the dash light, which operates by the way.

and the other switched wire is for some relay to turn the power on to the defroster and off.

I have no power at the fuse panel for the defroster, and no power at the wire going to the defroster in the rear no matter the position of the switch.

All this leads me to beleive its a bad relay. Does anyone have ANY idea where this relay might be? Before I rip the dash apart I'd like to have an idea where I should be looking.


Other things that dont work:

Brights and Fog Lights Neither of them have power present at the fuses, so I'm assuming these may be bad relays as well. Will dig into them at a later date
 
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#2 ·
Well - fixed the wipers - that was easy.

The rear defroster took alot more time, and after finally traced the wires to the relay (what a rats nest behind the gauge cluster!) I realized the relay wasn't switching, bought a new one from radio shack and still no good... then I figured the ground was no good, couldn't figure out where the hell the ground wire went to so I just cut it, spliced it, and found my own ground w/ a new piece of wire and ring terminal behind the door hinge. All fixed.

also was able to solder back the element without any issue.

What a nightmare... about 5 hours just to fix a damn ground in the end... The wiring in this truck is a total mess, but something tells me all LR's are this way.

Anyways, glad thats fixed

For those who may care, the relay was behind the gauge cluster. There were two there, one is for the lights, on for the rear defroster
 
#4 ·
A circuit tester will be your best friend, as there is no way your going to physically trace the wires all the way around. Also - dont assume the wires are color coded all the way through correctly. The power supply to my rear defroster must have been tampered with/fixed at one time, as it was brown/white AND black/white.

PM me if you have any questions, I pretty much located every wire in the truck lol.
 
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