Pulling hair time, electrical woes

[ian.stewart]

Toledo C20XE 16v. I may just have shot myself in the foot, But I dont think so, I have done a couple of wiring repairs to wires that had been extended by using crimps, not my favourite way of doing things so I stripped the extra loom back, did the repairs very carefully, one at a time, so not to get it wrong, one was the starter solenoid and the other were the alternator wires, reconnect everything and it looks right, Turn on the ignition I get wipers, horn, washers, lights, Heater, but no starter or charge light, I have put a meter on the small "tickle/exciter" alternator wire, (17ACR) there should be 12v there, nor is there 12v to the starter solenoid when the key is turned. starter will turn if I jump the solenoid.
Go back a couple of months and I repaired a bit on the gearbox by removing the tunnel, part of this removal is removing the parcel shelf, TBH it was a bit of an A-se to refit, is there an ignition/starter connector on or near the steering column that I could have disturbed?, I know the loom is nearly 50 years old and a bit brittle.

[Carledo]

Check the plug where the ignition switch loom plugs into the main loom just below the dash and inboard of the steering column. Unplug it and make sure all the pins and sockets are at full extension. Push them back into place if not and re-plug carefully making sure no pins are being forced back. Does happen, due to poor design of Rists plugs.

HTH, Steve

[ian.stewart]

Well today has mostly been compiling swear words into coherent sentences, Pulling out the parcel tray, stripping the column, and eventually found the Rists connector that should be the issue, found nothing wrong, not sure if I was happy or disappointed to find nothing, so, then checked continuity between the white/red starter wire and the extended wire...nothing, its now starting to get tedious, checked all the other wires to the same source, again nowt, after checking and cross checking I could get no continuity from 3 wires that I had lengthened, so, I was left with stripping back the nicely wrapped loom, stripped back to my joints, they were all good, so, I then stripped the old wrapping a bit further about 18" and Lo and behold I found a crimped Joint, did not take any effort to pull the wire out, along with another wire, found 2 more broken wires at crimped connectors, so that 3 crimped extensions I have found and removed in some wires, I probably broke the dubious connections when I wrapped the loom an I do put a lot of tension on the loom to get it neat. re did the loom and everything works,
When looking at the loom under the dash, theres a wire, that previously burnt out of original loom, it hasn't Burt recently, as I think I may have smelt it in a small confined garage, cant work out what its for yet, but tandems off with a black wire at the underdash connector, but not going to the stalk or key switch the wiring under the dash looks a bit like a raid on Halfords with loads and loads of CRIMP connectors and Scotch Locs, With things I dont recognise hanging in the air along with loose un terminated wires just hanging too. Im feeling nervous now......... .Just How hard is it to remove the plank dash Panel? I might just want to start from scratch by making a new dash.... has anybody got a blank un drilled plank? or even a comprehensive manufacturing drawing?