Did i do something wrong?
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,210
Likes: 0
Did i do something wrong?
Hi Everyone
I decided to hard wire my V1 tonight, using the info from frankhunt.com's Corvette/Mods section
Fairly straight forward, i pulled the passenger footwell plate and found the silver unit mentioned in various places, i located the 'duck taped end piece up above the unit and identified the only wire i was to need, the yellow wire (access switched - so its supposed to be dead until the key is in and moved to acc..) anyways i dont have a voltmeter with me so i put the little blue crimp in as per V1's notes and hunted round for a ground point, now i should probably ask Frank but i thought his notes said he ground to the nut at the bottom of the silver unit...
at the bottom of my silver unit there appears to be a plate that has a hole to hold a screw but none is present. there were two 'bolts' that just about marked the lower corners of the footwell area but they didnt prove any 'instant feedback', when i left the V1 on.
to the right of the 'silver unit' there is a mounting nut (for the silver unit itself) but it didnt send the V1 to life...however when i dropped the ground wire onto the silver unit itself - PRESTO!
...now the silver unit has some lips in the way the unit is assembled, effectively some overlapping of the metal used to fabric the unit, i slide my ground wire 'prong' into one of these and as it felt snug i pottered about for an hour with various thoughts on handling the wiring that is to run to the main unit, both doors were open, causing the cabin lights to be on, plus the obligatory stereo was keeping me company
my point...
the car hasnt been run for 3 days perhaps, but its got a new battery (last year) and i was suprised to hear the voltage low alarm..i had removed the V1 from the connection earlier on but i cant say when... all tolled the car's cabin lights and both door lights plus the stereo were on for a hour and a half maybe...
at one point i wanted to feel where the air con would be blowing air around in the footwell (so i could try and not put my wiring too close to the vents.... nothing like warmed up plastic when your on the interstate!) i had the fan up to max so i could wave my hand around and see what little sneaky vents behind and around the glove box were being used... maybe had it like this for 10 min and then resumed to just the lights, and stereo..
is this enought to flatten a battery?
(voltage dropped to 8v but i just heard the cricket-cricket-cricket where it wouldnt turn over!)
eek
i closed all the doors , ripped out the V1, made sure nothing was in the cig lighters (mobile fone charger) -it was empty, turned off the stereo and turned the key, i think it climbed from 8 to just about 10 but only turned 1/2 a turn and then the crickets returned
waited 15 min in the dark and tried again, 1 turn, then same...
waited 30-40 min - (just about missed it 2 or 3 turns and then it cought) :phew: - i warmed the engine up and then ran it at 2000 to 3000 rpm for 5 min (prob not enough but i didnt want to wake the neighbors..)
so my questions, if i may are
can the cabin lights and the activity i described be enough to drain it a few volts like that?
was grounding ON the silver box 'bad'?
can idling like i did re-charge the battery? I always thought it needed a good 20 min out and about ... but it was raining so ...
Cheers
FreeStyler
I decided to hard wire my V1 tonight, using the info from frankhunt.com's Corvette/Mods section
Fairly straight forward, i pulled the passenger footwell plate and found the silver unit mentioned in various places, i located the 'duck taped end piece up above the unit and identified the only wire i was to need, the yellow wire (access switched - so its supposed to be dead until the key is in and moved to acc..) anyways i dont have a voltmeter with me so i put the little blue crimp in as per V1's notes and hunted round for a ground point, now i should probably ask Frank but i thought his notes said he ground to the nut at the bottom of the silver unit...
at the bottom of my silver unit there appears to be a plate that has a hole to hold a screw but none is present. there were two 'bolts' that just about marked the lower corners of the footwell area but they didnt prove any 'instant feedback', when i left the V1 on.
to the right of the 'silver unit' there is a mounting nut (for the silver unit itself) but it didnt send the V1 to life...however when i dropped the ground wire onto the silver unit itself - PRESTO!
...now the silver unit has some lips in the way the unit is assembled, effectively some overlapping of the metal used to fabric the unit, i slide my ground wire 'prong' into one of these and as it felt snug i pottered about for an hour with various thoughts on handling the wiring that is to run to the main unit, both doors were open, causing the cabin lights to be on, plus the obligatory stereo was keeping me company
my point...
the car hasnt been run for 3 days perhaps, but its got a new battery (last year) and i was suprised to hear the voltage low alarm..i had removed the V1 from the connection earlier on but i cant say when... all tolled the car's cabin lights and both door lights plus the stereo were on for a hour and a half maybe...
at one point i wanted to feel where the air con would be blowing air around in the footwell (so i could try and not put my wiring too close to the vents.... nothing like warmed up plastic when your on the interstate!) i had the fan up to max so i could wave my hand around and see what little sneaky vents behind and around the glove box were being used... maybe had it like this for 10 min and then resumed to just the lights, and stereo..
is this enought to flatten a battery?
(voltage dropped to 8v but i just heard the cricket-cricket-cricket where it wouldnt turn over!)
eek
i closed all the doors , ripped out the V1, made sure nothing was in the cig lighters (mobile fone charger) -it was empty, turned off the stereo and turned the key, i think it climbed from 8 to just about 10 but only turned 1/2 a turn and then the crickets returned
waited 15 min in the dark and tried again, 1 turn, then same...
waited 30-40 min - (just about missed it 2 or 3 turns and then it cought) :phew: - i warmed the engine up and then ran it at 2000 to 3000 rpm for 5 min (prob not enough but i didnt want to wake the neighbors..)
so my questions, if i may are
can the cabin lights and the activity i described be enough to drain it a few volts like that?
was grounding ON the silver box 'bad'?
can idling like i did re-charge the battery? I always thought it needed a good 20 min out and about ... but it was raining so ...
Cheers
FreeStyler
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,097
Likes: 0
From: Muskogee, Oklahoma
When you found the aux. wires wrapped in duct tape, there should have been an orange, yellow, and black. The black is for ground.
Sometimes when we get caught up in doing a project we lose track of time. Maybe that's what happened to you and you spent much more time draining the battery than you think. I did the same thing when I installed my remote detector about a week ago.
Sometimes when we get caught up in doing a project we lose track of time. Maybe that's what happened to you and you spent much more time draining the battery than you think. I did the same thing when I installed my remote detector about a week ago.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 2,210
Likes: 0
Yeh i hear ya, i guess thats what happened, there have been enough readers by this thread that if it was 'galactically stupid' to touch the ground wire to the silver box - i would have heard about it by now...
i would have used that black wire to ground but i didnt have the tools, ill have to get one of those crimps from R/Shak -why couldnt they just pack two crimps into their V1 box? dunno ;(
FreeStyler
i would have used that black wire to ground but i didnt have the tools, ill have to get one of those crimps from R/Shak -why couldnt they just pack two crimps into their V1 box? dunno ;(
FreeStyler
