Hartge h26 project.....the long road:) Oct 2014 begins:)

[bradnic]

Appreciate all the help, my poor car looks like it was blown up today....not much left in the interior:). Oh, well, I can get this fixed, and fix all the wiring problems under there at the same time!!!
thanks,
jm

exactly. hell you can rewrap the harnesses if you have a month to take everything apart and reassemble :-)

If you've got sparks it's probably one of the brown/red wires that has their insulation pinched.

I meant grey/red!! sorry about that. they're hard to miss as they're all over the dash, anywhere you have an interior bulb.

here's an 85 325e dash lights page, showing fuse 23. I'd be shocked if your euro 323i is much different than this. leaving it big so you can zoom around


Any wire labeled "GY/RD" is grey/red. the number in front is wire gauge in mm. ALL your grey/red wires are shorted to ground, because they're all wired together and at least ONE of them has cut insulation on it that is either touching the chassis somewhere or one of the ground wires.



you need to find the damaged wire.

[bradnic]

btw, some times a good idea is to work your way top down. if you can find C103 and temporarily disconnect it you can rule out shorts between it and the fuse block.

personally I seriously doubt you have a problem there - more likely it's one of the wires near the bulbs themselves that got cut. If your radio harness has been f'd with I'd look for the grey/red wire near there first.

[2002jm]

Thanks

Thanks for the picture, much easier to use:). Will continue looking for a wire that is damaged or touching......might be the radio area, because it is a mess with a sony after market radio and open wires everywhere that were just cut and taped.:(
thanks again,
jm

[bradnic]

definitely try disconnecting the connectors to isolate the short. that will tell you where to look. the electrical manuals tell you the physical location. you can also guess based on what they're connected to.

C204 is near the HVAC panel somewhere. If you can disconnect that one and the short disappears then you know the short is near the cigar lighter or a/c control lights. Note that both the grey/red power wire and the brown/white ground wires are on the same connector. there's a connector just like that behind the radio, but that might be C302.

C103 is near the steering column somewhere. I'd stay away from that one until you've ruled everything else out.

[2002jm]

sounds good

Will look for the connector. I did see three grey/reds patched together into one grey red that went to the cig. lighter light. They were sort of taped, but I did not see anything that they were touching.
Will keep you posted:). On the bright side, I am finding out where everything goes. There is one switch, or rocker that is where the ac would be. A black and red wire come out of it up to an amp. box near the coolant tank...big wires!! Not even sure what it does, but when pushed a light goes on in the switch????
jm

[2002jm]

update

There are no bmw connectors over near the AC, heat, radio area. There are two bmw large white connectors on the steering column and two really large ones up on the left side of the fire wall. I think someone did some 'cutting' to put in the radio and used a radio shack connector, so I can not disconnect it. Would have to start cutting wires:).
Did find one grey/red wire smashed up against the steering column???:)..might be the problem, will check it later.
jm

[e30austin]

I bet it's the wires going to the reverse light. Pop the rubber shifter boot out and inspect the wires where they meet the body.

[2002jm]

Victory:)

I bet it's the wires going to the reverse light. Pop the rubber shifter boot out and inspect the wires where they meet the body.

Looks like I owe Austin a beer...or two when I get up to Portland again>>>>>:)
I took the boot off and noticed the wires were right up against the metal circle where the shifter comes through....it sort of looked like they were smashed up against the sharp metal, but not cut yet...so I pulled the plug apart...put a 7.5 amp fuse in and put the battery negative cable back on:)......no SPARKS:)..front parking lights work, and inside lights work for the cig lighter etc....So thank you Austin for posting....now to put my wreck back together.
I am going to take a picture so you guys can see what a mess it is:)...
Still need to replace bulbs and pull a bunch of worthless wires that go no where !!!
thanks to all that sent messages and posted all the good information. I hope this will help someone else in the future.....
jm

[2002jm]

my poor car:)



Went back together yesterday:), with the gauges all ready to go.......
My car had a phone in it a long time ago:)

[2002jm]

so look what I got fixed

The rear shade is a cool extra on the car....nice to get the clips and now after years of being just 'there', it works great!!


Car is back together...except the knee bolster. Have to get the correct screws to put it back on:)

[2002jm]

decals are in

Got the side decals, so hoping to get them on before the 19th of Sept.
Also, planning on pulling the rear sub-frame this winter, replacing everything that needs to be renewed and changing out the shocks, brake lines etc......that is going to be the biggest job I have done on the car so far!!!!
Have the AF gauge in the car and it is running at 14.6-7 at 850 idle, so the car is running pretty good for an old car:). The next thing is to put in the oil temp sender and we will have all the gauges running.....volts work just fine right now!
jm

[ThatOneEuroE30]

car is awesome. wish i could enjoy my car. good work dude

[2002jm]

thanks

car is awesome. wish i could enjoy my car. good work dude

Thanks for the post....I am trying to keep the car 'together' during the driving time, and take it apart during the winter/spring, when it can not be driven....car is not driven in the rain/snow.
Only exception has been the last situation with the electrical problem. I did not have a choice but to tear it apart...and thanks to people on this forum, it is back together and running fine.
Now off to washing and waxing.....again:)
jm

[_kanon]

I wish I had the option of not driving it in the rain and snow haha. Good job!

[TimeMachinE30]

I wish I had the option of not driving it in the rain and snow haha. Good job!

Buy another E30!


OP: Show better photos of your cubby gauges? Are those period correct gauges .. is there really a difference compared to the new VDO gauges? Any progress on the monowiper? Raul sent me a lot of great photos of the modified linkage. I will be tackling mine soon. Once the motor is out, I can easily get to the linkage...