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Sat Oct 26, 2013 8:05 pm

Hey all,

I read through all of the other threads on this topic and was unable to find the info I was looking for. I have a '90 multivan and installed GoWesty's Aux Battery Kit today. I followed all the directions but the interior lights and radio are not working after the install. Here's what I did:

1. Installed aux battery and all wiring per GW instructions
2. Ran the Yellow wire from the GW kit to tab P2 on the back of the fuse box. I assume this is ok because the directions said to connect to any of the available P-tabs?
3. I cut the two red wires on the back of B connector at B11 and B13 (the wire coming out of B11 was more of a rose color than a red), taped them off on the fuse-box side, and put the "dashboard" side of both into two of the holes on the plastic 6-terminal block provided with the kit. I ran the long red wire from the aux battery (came with the kit) and put it in the third hole on the same plastic 6-terminal block alongside the red and rose wires that were previously connected to B11 and B13.
4. This is where I'm not sure if I made the right choice. The GW directions say "Coming from fuse panel location E13 on connecter E you will find a solid blue wire (no stripes). Using pliers, clamp the blue T-tap wire splice onto any convenient point along the wire." The problem is that there were two blue wires coming out of the same E13 hole. One was thicker gauge than the other. I therefore joined the blue wire from the kit to the thicker gauge blue wire coming out E13. Is this ok or did I need to connect to the smaller gauge blue wire?

After everything was installed, none of the interior lights nor the radio will turn on. However, the lights behind the heater controls, fan switch, and cigarette lighter lit up just fine. I thought these were all on the same circuit, no?

Another oddity is that when I first turned on the car to drive it, the battery light stayed on for about 3 minutes before turning off. After this, it stayed off as usual.

Also, the voltage measured at the aux battery with the car off was 26V! Any idea why this would be the case? I didn't charge the battery, I just opened the GW box and hooked it up.

Any idea of what's going on? Thanks!

-Tommy

Sat Oct 26, 2013 8:18 pm

The 26v measurement suggests the batteries are connected in series, and adding up to 26. (13v + 13v)

So something is wrong with the wiring.....

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Sat Oct 26, 2013 9:14 pm

I would suspect your voltage measuring device.... at rest your batteries (fully charged) should be about 12.6v. two new batteries in series, fully charged should only be 25.2v, minus loss due to resistance.

I'm not familiar with the GW kit, but am familiar with how to install a dual battery setup. If both batteries are grounded to the chassis, and nothing connecting one negative to the other positive, then your batteries are not in series.

Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:42 am

Yeah I thought 26V could indicate that the two batteries are wired in series, but I'm not sure how that could happen... The isolation transformer included with the GW kit should not allow a direct connection between the two so they should remain isolated from each other. I left the iso xfrmer the way it was wired by GW and did not change anything.

Did I make any mistakes at the fuse panel? Thanks.

Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:47 am

I would strongly recommend disconnecting both batteries until the issue is diagnosed. The easiest way to generate 26V in those circuits is to connect one of the batteries with the wrong polarity. This will not only fry any electronics connected to it, it is also a significant fire hazard, when both batteries are connected (i.e. charging) and fighting each other.

Regarding your specific questions:
- all P tabs are equivalent, so which one you chose shouldn't matter. I just don't recall that they had individual labels, so I'm a bit confused.
- If both wires came out of the same spot in the fuse panel, that means that they're electrically connected. Which one you attached to doesn't matter then.

I don't have experience with the GoWesty kit, so I can only suggest generalities:
- recheck your work
- using the Bentley and their instructions, understand what the kit is supposed to do
- call/email them

Good luck,

Jean-Marc

Sun Oct 27, 2013 10:00 am

Thanks guys, I'm about to dig back in to troubleshooting it. I'll let you know what I find.

Sun Oct 27, 2013 2:30 pm

Solved the problem, it was half user-error (I set the voltmeter to AC volts instead of DC volts) and half faulty connector (the red wire had become disconnected when I was re-installing the fusebox.

The system works but one thing I've noticed is that after starting the car, the battery light on the dash board stays illuminated until I rev the engine above about 2000rpm. At 2000rpm, I can hear the GW relay beneath the driver's seat click and the battery light on the dash goes out. I assume this means that the aux battery is now charging, but why does the dash-light stay illuminated until that relay kicks-in? Shouldn't the alternator be charging the main battery even when the aux battery relay has not kicked-in yet?

Thanks.

Sun Oct 27, 2013 2:47 pm

This is pretty normal since you added a big new load to the blue wire. The blue wire serves 2 purposes in 1. When you turn on the key it carries a weak activation current from the dash cluster to the alternator so when the alternator starts spinning it will also start charging. The relay/solenoid of the GW kit bleeds off some of this weak activation current so the alternator now has to spin a little faster before it starts charging.

Once the alternator does start charging it sends a current the other way on the blue wire, turning off the dash led and triggering the relay/solenoid to turn on.

Mark

TommyBoyGomes wrote: ....The system works but one thing I've noticed is that after starting the car, the battery light on the dash board stays illuminated until I rev the engine above about 2000rpm. At 2000rpm, I can hear the GW relay beneath the driver's seat click and the battery light on the dash goes out. I assume this means that the aux battery is now charging, but why does the dash-light stay illuminated until that relay kicks-in? Shouldn't the alternator be charging the main battery even when the aux battery relay has not kicked-in yet?

Thanks.

Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:14 am

Thanks Mark,

That makes sense. So I guess my follow-up question is... when I start the car at low RPM and the battery light is on at the dash, is the main battery still charging at this time? In other words, is the battery light on the dash illuminating when it shouldn't be, or is the main battery not charging either until the relay kicks in? Do I need to run a thicker-guage blue wire back to the relay in order for the relay to kick-in immediately when I start the car?

Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:36 am

The charging light is telling you that alternator charging isn't starting until you rev the motor enough to make the light go out. Thicker gauge blue wire to the relay won't help. It isn't really much of a problem as long as you remember to rev the motor to make the light go out if you are only starting the engine to put some charge into the batteries. This is a small drawback to the GW aux battery relay kit for non-Westy. They used a bigger relay than the amount of charging current involved requires and this big clunker relay also puts a bigger load on the blue wire circuit than a smaller relay would. This is one advantage of the automatic charging relays since those don't use the blue wire circuit for anything.

Mark

TommyBoyGomes wrote: Thanks Mark,

That makes sense. So I guess my follow-up question is... when I start the car at low RPM and the battery light is on at the dash, is the main battery still charging at this time? In other words, is the battery light on the dash illuminating when it shouldn't be, or is the main battery not charging either until the relay kicks in? Do I need to run a thicker-guage blue wire back to the relay in order for the relay to kick-in immediately when I start the car?

Tue Oct 29, 2013 8:46 am

Thanks for the explanation Mark.

Sat Nov 23, 2013 9:19 am

It is interesting to read about your GW aux battery kit. I installed a GW aux battery kit in my 90 Carat about a year and a half ago and have had very similar problems.

I put a nice optima battery in at the same time. It only lasted one year and i had to buy an new one ($230).

I believe the charging system is challenged with two batteries. I put the aux battery in to run a compact refrigerator. I used it in my camper and it worked great. In the Carat it only lasts a few hours on a charge.

Almost every day I have something strange going on with the electrical system now. Yesterday the power locks kept locking repeatedly for about 10 minutes after I started the van. The other day the started didn't kick in. The next morning it worked fine.

The one problem I see is that I only have 12.6 volts at the aux battery when the engine is running. At the main battery I have about 13.5. I would think I should have something like 13.8 at both.

I put a rebuilt alternator in last summer with the upgraded wiring kit from GW. This did not seem to help.

Good luck with your system!

Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:22 pm

I installed the Gowesty aux battery kit a few days ago. Right now, I'm running the stereo (no big amp or anything) a small cooler/fridge and occasionally using my inverter for the coffee grinder. So not a lot of load, but some. Followed the excellent instructions in the kit.

The alternator light has not gone off since I installed the kit. I can rev the motor to 4K+. I have driven ~150 miles on a mix of roads.

The main battery is charging.

I have not heard a click from the isolator.

Voltages with the motor running at about 2K are:

Start Battery 13.7

House Battery 12.1

Isolator Yellow 13.5, Blue 1.3, Red 12.1

Breaker 12.1 on both sides

These numbers have been fairly consistent.

Van is an 87 passenger syncro. The fuse box may be from a later van, based on the configuration of wires and the Gowesty instructions.

Any hints?

Thanks.

Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:31 pm

Unhook the blue wire from the isolator. Then turn on the key, make sure the alt led comes on, start the engine, rev it up, and see if the alt led goes off.

Mark

Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:45 pm

Yep, sounds like a blue-wire issue. I'm not sure how much voltage needs to be sent down the blue-wire in order to click the isolator... might be a call to gowesty to ask.

Until the issue is figured out, I'd unplug your house battery and charge it with an AC battery charger to keep it back up at a healthy voltage in the meantime. 12.1V is pretty low and leaving it there will reduce the battery's ability to be fully charged in the future.

Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:47 pm

Thanks for the help!

Connecting the blue wire turns the alt led on and off.

With it disconnected, the led doesn't even come on with the key turned to run and the engine off.

Mon Jun 23, 2014 5:53 pm

That means there is a bad connection in the "blue wire" path between the alternator and the dash. It could simply be that the blue wire has come loose at the alternator end. Look at that end very closely to make sure it is still attached to the alternator. Then carefully feel the wire to see if it might have a break inside the blue insulation near the alternator end.

Mark

zackalope wrote: Thanks for the help!

Connecting the blue wire turns the alt led on and off.

With it disconnected, the led doesn't even come on with the key turned to run and the engine off.

Mon Jun 23, 2014 6:47 pm

The Samba wins again. Problem solved.

Thanks Mark - if you're ever in Gunnison, CO I owe you a beer.

Mon Jun 23, 2014 11:09 pm

zackalope wrote: The Samba wins again. Problem solved.

Thanks Mark - if you're ever in Gunnison, CO I owe you a beer.
Maybe,cross your fingers :shock:
I had similar problems with the GW kit.
Trying to improve it,and work out the gremlins..I did the following
I changed the power wire to the Aux battery from the fuse panel connection, to a large gauge wire direct from the start battery +(fused) to the isolator.
I ran the Aux supply wire to the 3rd fuse(lower spade) of the fuse panel.
accessory circuit only(no cutting or splicing required) :roll:
I did these changes to overcome charging problems(very slow aux bat charging)
..I confirmed with Andrew@ GW(very helpful) and He agreed these were improvements, to their connections.
And I did see a huge increase in aux bat. performance.
Also the Isolator could be heard engaging right after engine start or off.
Anyhow, after some body work(dunno if this contributed :roll: ) the GW blue wire splice welded(never like those splice thingies), so battery light on, no charge, anywhere?...and my alternator tested "failed" :?:
similtaneously :shock: :?:
So now I have a Yandina, and an upgraded 120amp alt. things seem to be working much better...solar is easier with this set up too.

The GW solenoid works on the bench test..but shows some resistance?
Anyhow the Yandina requires No blue wire :D I like that

Sun Jul 20, 2014 6:31 pm

Question for you qoffoz... Without splicing into the red wires behind the fuse panel, how did you ensure that your radio, dash lights, and cabin lights are being powered by your aux battery and not the main battery?