Interior lights dont work.

Electrical issues, both 12 volt and 120 volt
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Cgzito
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Interior lights dont work.

Post by Cgzito »

Somebody please help.

My interior lights and vents do not work.

I just had a service shop install a second battery to run my generator. The generator runs the AC.
Before the generator was tied to my truck battery.

Now my lights, vents, battery monitor and water pump dont turn on at all. Im not sure what they did but i cant get a hold of them and wont be able to see them for a week.

Does any one know how i can fix this??
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skater
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by skater »

All of those are 12 volts. Is your coach battery in good shape? Are the fuses in the power center good?

Theoretically, when the generator is on or the van is plugged in, the converter should be powering the 12 volt system. Check the breakers in the power center. If they are on, it's possible your converter died (which would let the battery drain and die).

Another possibility to check to see what's up is if the van's engine is running, in most vans the alternator will power the coach 12 volt system. Start the van's engine and see if your coach lights/pump/etc. work.
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
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Mgittrich
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by Mgittrich »

Well I have some thoughts on what might be happening but before I send you on random tests and searches can you help all of us understand what your current setup looks like. I gather from some of your other posts you have done quite a bit of electrical work, like a large battery bank, solar panels and inverter. An as built wiring diagram would be helpful and understanding what remains of the original electrical system, like the converter, generator, house battery under the hood, etc. and how these components interact with the new ones. It would also be helpful to know where you have fuses, and battery switches etc.

Mike
BOBandDEB
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by BOBandDEB »

Check the lighting fuse
Cgzito
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by Cgzito »

Its hard for me know tell exactly how it is wired up because the shop that did it won't draw or write a wiring diagram for me.

After investigating a bit it appears that the four house batteries in the back are connected to my power inverter. Also there is a 50 amp circuit breaker that is connected from my batteries to the panel under my couch via two black wires. Those are the wires that are responsible for carrying power to my interior lights, water pump, and vent fans.

The generatorbis supposedly hooked up to my power inverter and my converter, but i have flipped the ciruit break to shut the power from the generator off to the inverter because every thing starts turning on and off if i run the generator. Now tye generator only runs the ac and the power inverter runs the outlets.

Originally i had two batterues under the hood but the gen died so i bought solar panels and sold the house battery.

Recently they fixed the generator and attacjed it to my truck battery and the check engine light came on. So i bought a second battery again had them attach the generator to it. Now the interior lights dont work.


Im sure this isnt clear enough but i did my best.


The only thing i noticed was that all of my ciruit break switches were turn back to the on position where as before i had two of them off.
Mgittrich
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by Mgittrich »

Chris, thanks for added info. I encourage you to spend whatever time and money is required to put together a wiring diagram of existing components before you proceed. Without this, you stand the chance of destroying thousands of dollars worth of equipment, potentially starting fires and maybe even causing you and others serious harm from open grounds and short circuits. I'm not an electrician by trade but have done quite a few upgrades to my 93. You might want to look at this post to look at my modifications and the wiring diagrams I produced along the way. It might provide you with a starting point for developing your own.

http://b190.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1481

In regards to your current problem here are a few things to consider. To start with, here's the Airstream wiring diagram provided in their manual.
image.jpeg
image.jpeg (151.52 KiB) Viewed 12565 times
The way the house battery under the hood worked it provided all the 12v power to the coach and was separated from the engine starter battery to protect it from being drained by the lights and other things in the coach. When Airstream made the electrical modifications for the B190 they wired it so that there was separate 12v wires running to the generator starter motor and to the power distribution center under the seat. The wires I believe came together at a terminal block under the hood attached to the firewall in front of the driver.

In the original design, the 12v power wire, 6ga red line, snaked to the back from the terminal block and can be seen in the gap between the generator box and the power distribution center. The wire enters the distribution center and provides the coach with 12v power. It is attached to the fuse panel along with another 12v wire coming from the converter, lower 1/3 of the distribution center. This provides amps back to the battery when connected to shore power or the generator is running.

There is also a 8-10ga white wire which comes into the gap previous mentioned from the outside bottom of the van. This wire attaches to a van frame member and provides a frame ground for the coach 12v system. It to runs into the electrical distribution center and attaches to a separate lug on the circuit board.

So to your problem. My bet is that when whoever changed the battery location they only wired it to the generator start wire and did not know about or understand what the wire going into the distribution center did. The fix to this problem could be a simple as running a new wire from the battery into the distribution center. If you take this approach, make sure you properly size the wire and fuse the connection.

But before I did anything I'd understand what I have.

Good luck.
Cgzito
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by Cgzito »

Thanks for the advice. Currently this is what i see next to my circuit breaker.

Image

Ido not know why the wire at the top center is cut or the white wire at the bottom is cut.

There are 2 terminals each with 2 black wires on the right side. The bigger black wires run to the back of my van into a 50 amp circuit breaker which connects to my 4 house batteries. I have not checked to see if that breaker got over loaded but I did use a multi meter and noticed their was a value on the terminals.

I do have the breakers in the off position on purpose. They seem to have no baring on the internal function of my van but the green one must be flipped to use the generator and the 3rd one must be flipped to use the ac.
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skater
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by skater »

Cgzito wrote:I do have the breakers in the off position on purpose. They seem to have no baring on the internal function of my van but the green one must be flipped to use the generator and the 3rd one must be flipped to use the ac.
One of them needs to be on for the converter to charge your batteries.
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Cgzito
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by Cgzito »

My solar panels charge the back batteries
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skater
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by skater »

Cgzito wrote:My solar panels charge the back batteries
Right. Like Mgittrich said, I'd do an audit to figure out how your electrical system is set up. It'll take some work, but it's also the best way to diagnose what's wrong. I did this with my B190 (which without solar was easier) and it proved useful several times.
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer

WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
BOBandDEB
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by BOBandDEB »

The large white wire that is cut is the ground wire for everything in the coach, it should be attached to the lower large terminal where some one has inserted a large black wire. (Ground wire from extra batteries?) All accessories ground through white wire NOT the body ground. Attace a jumper from the cut off white wire to the terminal stated above and see if that fixes your problem.
Mgittrich
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by Mgittrich »

Ok so you have a lot going on here and I hesitate to recommend anything. But,

Bob you are correct. The cut white wire if you follow it exits the floor behind the distribution center and attaches to the frame of the b190 thus grounding the system. Without it no 12v systems will function properly. I agree the big black wire on the bottom lug is probably from the battery negative and should be traced to the source to make sure that is correct.

I am a little confused though with this setup in regards to how this new battery is to be charged. If you're expecting the converter to charge it there may be a problem. I believe Chris said the blue wire to the circuit board had been cut. It's hard to tell for sure in the picture. If that is the case you have a problem. The blue wire comes from the converter and powers the distribution panel and charges the battery. This is how the 12v systems can function when the battery is disconnected but the b190 is attached to shore power or the generator is running. Without this wire connected to the circuit board the battery cannot be charged.

Secondly this is the old original Magnatek 6332 converter from 1993. It will fry your battery if connected for long periods of time to shore power. It is all has a very low charge rate of 3 amps per hour which for a 100ah battery discharged by 50% will take better then 15hrs to bring back to 100% charge. Most of us have replaced this old converter with a new one and there are many good write ups on this forum on how to do it.

Hope this helps but I advise extreme caution without a more complete understanding of what you have in place.
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skater
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by skater »

Get out a volt meter and check for power at the two terminals there - the ones with the two large black wires on the right. It should be 13.2 volts DC (or -13.2 if you reversed them). If that doesn't work, try between one of those terminals and the metal case (ground). If you can't find voltage anywhere, you obviously have no power.

Then, go to your battery bank and check the power there. It should be, again, 13.2 volts. If it is, for some reason, you have a disconnect between the battery bank and the distribution panel.

You could also connect to shore power or start the generator, turn on the breakers, and check voltage as I described above. If you have voltage, then clearly your converter is working (though like Mgrittich said, it may still be a battery-burner converter, so I wouldn't leave it on for more than a few hours).

Until you do some basic troubleshooting steps, there's not much we can do to help - we're just shooting in the dark. Also, even if your solar system is working, it may not be enough to charge batteries that have been run completely flat.
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
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WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
Cgzito
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Re: Interior lights dont work.

Post by Cgzito »

Thank you every one who responded. I am pleased to see how many people came to help me with this. I brought it to the dealership and they fixed it at no cost. I am still not exactly sure how its wired up but I was informed that a jumper wire was indeed necessary. And it turns out that it was correct to assume the cut white wire at the top was a problem because there is now a red one there.
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