burnt igntion - need help!

[walzaher]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased my bedford today and took it for its first WOF and it passed cleanly! Was sooooooo happy, got back to my other car, packed everything up, was just about to take the new beddy home, put the keys in, nothing..... a few seconds later smoke smoke smoke, my heart burned more than the car! I was not too sure where the battery is so by the time i found it and disconnected it, the smoke had stopped, the damage done.

I took off the cover of the steering wheel and this is what it showed. I took the plug out and tried a couple of electrical shops but with no success.

Cut a long story short, i spent the rest of my day waiting for the tow truck who took my bedford home.

Can someone please help me here, how on earth can i fix this? Would anyone have a spare one of these cables at all??

Thanks so much if anyone can help
Waseem

[walzaher]

the last pic i dont know what that part it i just found it in the van ...

[Bas / NZ]

Sorry, gave my spare one to Gordon, will look though my beddie box pits and see if the one from the Black Beddie is there, as it runs a VN set up now.

Couple of guys pulling Bedfords apart on Trade Me, so they might have one, all models should be the same, think they want around $80.00 for them, may just pay you to hot wire it for now, and use a push buttom, with a hidden kill switch, works a treat..

[BusyKiwi]

Congrats on the van, shame its not a good start

I knew it would be that brown wire as soon as I saw the heading of this post.

By the looks of the 4th photo it may need a bit more than just the ignition replaced. You need to follow that brown wire down to it's need and see how far it's burnt out, if it's touching another wire, even by a strand it can happen again so you can either A: replace that whole wire section (recommended) or B: tape that wire up separately from the rest of the loom then tape together.

I'm off down the line in next couple of days so wont have time to look but I might have another dash loom (can't remember if I sold them all or not) with the other looms I have.
As for the ign, you can get that wire replaced or tape up like the loom but you only need that back section not the whole ignition (as long as you kept all the springs and stuff)

The last picture is probably a old set of points (contacts) that go in the distributor

[Sundownernz]

What a bummer. I watched that van on Trademe and it looked like a good buy. I'm sure it still is a great van just unfortunate this happened and could have happened to anyone.

Can't help with the loom and switch, sorry as I've re wired mine but if it all turns to custard just run some new wiring through an aftermarket ignition switch. It's not a major so don't let it get you down.

Have fun with the van and hope to catch up sometime soon.

Cheers,
Garry.

[walzaher]

thanks for the replies everyone! appreciate it.
I have checked TM out and hopefully this guy can sell me his:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=597871211

im now researching what Bas has suggested on how to hot wire it just to get it running for the time being.

Will keep u updated abt progress

Waseem

[Bas / NZ]

As you know Gordon, ask him, he has / had his Mk2 hot wired to start, just put in the push button switch to start and the in line kill switch, hidden.

[walzaher]

Bas thanks for that, what do you mean by inline kill switch?

Is there anything stopping me from just replacing the entire ignition switch, like buying a aftermarket ignition switch and fitting it on and throwing the old one away?

Waseem

[Gordon]

Waseem, as Bas mentioned I had a similar thing happen to my red van. To get your van running you basically need to get power to your coil and power to the small terminal on your starter motor. The quickest way to do this is to run one wire from your positive terminal on your battery to the input side of your coil (the opposite side of the coil to the thin wire that goes into your distributor). You basically need to keep that wire connected for the van to run. The other wire from your battery positive terminal needs to momentarily put power to the small terminal on your starter motor solenoid. This is the wire that you can run via a push button and the minute your van start you let go the push button.

This will at least get you running. You may need power to your fuse box to run things like lights etc depending on how far you are planning to drive.

You need to make sure that the burnt wire is completely disconnected before you connect your battery up again or you run the risk of more fire.
 The best of luck.  

[Gordon]

Forgot to mention that in order to get the engine to stop running you need to disconnect the wire that you have run to the coil. Whatever you do make sure this wire is disconnected when the van is not running as constant power to the coil is likely to cause some more smoke at the very least.