I was going to name this page "Lights" but it involves a bit more than that. Obviously the new battery had been installed and connected, and the vehicle wiring harness reinstalled and connected up, including the new blade fuses in the fusebox. A wiring diagram in the back of the workshop manual proved very useful.
With the radiator and Kenlowes installed and operational, the front panel was replaced. It was then time to install the A-bar which would hold the two spotlights. Land Rovers are notorious for their poor headlights, and a pair of additional spotlights are well worth adding.
The A-bar was simply bolted to the front bumper. It already had small plates attached for the connection of the spotlights - I had a pair of Wipac 100W lights which I simply bolted to the A-bar. The wiring for the spotlights runs to a relay inside the fusebox, and the circuit is operated by an illuminated switch set in an aluminium plate in the lower right of the dashboard. You can see it on the Instrument Panel page.
The headlights, rear lights, indicators, and rear fog light were all reconnected by this stage, and whilst I was installing the A-bar, I also installed a pair of jate rings at the front. Well, I say "jate rings", but they're actually military extended spring shackles which I had bought when attending an "Old Sodbury Sortout" event some years ago. These shackles are attached to the front dumb-iron on each side, where the front crossmember attaches to the chassis. They should be useful as front attachment points for rescuing stuck vehicles whilst offroading - or, horror of horrors, being recovered or towed.
Here's the newly-installed spotlights and A-bar, with a closer view of the shackles in the second photo.
Now it was time to test the rest of the electrics. I had already replaced the wiring for the drivers' headlight, which was a bit worse for wear. (When connecting up the wiring, I used new bullet connectors throughout, by the way). The spotlights worked fine, as did the rear work light. Not everything else did though, so I made a list of non-functioning items.
- Rear brake lights (oh dear, that's a bit of a biggie)
- Indicators (although they do all flash together if the hazard light switch is on)
- Low beams (lights don't come on at all)
- High beams (although the dashboard light indicates that it's on, the beams are rather poor. I suspect it's actually low beam instead of high beam)
- Rear fog light
The rear brake light problem was traced to the switch. I'd installed it in the wrong hole in the brake pedal box.
All the other problems were traced to the fusebox. Despite carefully doing one pair of wires at a time when upgrading the fuses to the blade type, I had somehow mixed a couple of the circuits, with the result that the 3A fuse for the indicators was installed in the headlamp main beam circuit, and had quietly expired when I switched the headlamps on.
I traced the relevant circuits and installed the correct fuses, and then reprinted the fuse diagram, replacing the one on the inside of the fuse box cover.
I discovered that the rear fog light was actually working, but it's only operational if the vehicle lights are on.
