Club 80-90 Forums

Apologies if this has been raised elsewhere. I have a 1986 Westy, and want to run the internal lights from the leisure battery rather than the vehicle one. The 15A fuse in position 3 seems to run them (plus stereo and 12v socket I think). Is there any reason why I shouldn't just remove the fuse, and run a feed, with inline 15A fuse, from the leisure battery + terminal and connect to the top slot of the now vacant position 3? Not sure if I have missed something vital! Thanks.

no, no reason at all, infact its a common fix....
just make sure nothing else for the actual vehicle is on that fuse ( early vans have brake lights on the same fuse, and whilst thats not really a issue, it is worth noting )

in late models behind the fuse panel somewhere there is hanging a 2pin white connector. That connector has a red wire going into one of the pins and if you have rear screen defroster/defogger then green going to the other. Thatred wire is for the internal lights so you can plug a fused wire from the leisure into that.

Brilliant. Thanks for your advice. Have been meaning to address this issue for about 3 years!

I found my pic. That T shaped yellowish white connector with the red wires in the left of the pic is the one.

Thanks for that - will have a look.

Very clear instructions and diagrams here.

https://vwt25.blog/2016/05/19/rewiring- ... e-battery/

I went for option 2, took about 20 minutes and now we can listen to the radio for hours without worrying about flattening the vehicle battery

That's fantastic! Thanks. Wasn't sure if I was missing something. That will save a lot of worry when we're without a hook up. Cheers everyone.

Have tried it - but it does't==n't work - gutted! Have double checked everything, and all is as it should be - any thoughts as to what could be the issue?? I have run a cable, with inline 15A fuse from the positive terminal of the leisure battery, and joined this to the top slot of the fuse holder for fuse no 3. Have I missed something? Internal lights and radio don't come on, but the 12V socket near the dash does work!!

Let's make sure that the radio works normally - I'm assuming you don't have a multimeter.

Remove / insulate the new 12V feed at the fusebox
Put the original fuse back in position
Radio / interior lights working ?

If yes, then great equipment is fine, there's a problem with the linkwire.
If no, then it looks like a mod has already been made to the van wiring.

My memory tells me that the link wire should go in the bottom slot, but James's instructions are usually spot on. I'll be with my T25 later today so I'll check mine and confirm my brain fade..

Thanks! Radio and interior lights working fine with fuse back in!

You're a genius! Bottom slot, and all is well. Thank you!

Westy123 wrote:You're a genius! Bottom slot, and all is well. Thank you!

Just checked mine and the spade is in the top, so I was going to claim brain fade.

Something funky is going on. The feed to the fuse is at normally at the bottom, with the feed from the fuse being out of the top. This suggests that your fusebox is wired differently (feed at the top) from factory to me and James.

The reason I didn't suggest just trying the bottom slot was because what I thought would happen is that you would connect the leisure and start batteries together at fuse 3, which wouldn't be a good idea.

I just looked at my air cooled T25 as a check and that has the older cartridge fuses, so not comparable.

Can you do me a favour and set up a test bulb arrangement, disconnect your new feed, and try with the bulb taking a feed from the bottom and top slots. The bulb should only light up in one position, it's the other you should be connecting the leisure battery feed to.

Will do. In the mean time, interior lights work with vehicle battery disconnected, and feed from leisure battery to the bottom slot.

Hmm, seems OK then, I'm just a tad confused