Bongo Fury

Hi all,

I'm helping a mate fit a coolant alarm this weekend to his recently purchased Bongo and whilst I remember it being easy when I fitted my own I just wanted to check something with you about wiring it into the ignition feed. If I remember from the intructions you get with the device you just need to find a live feed that works from the ignition. I also remember something about having to make sure the live feed is earthed. So my question is how to do you check that the live feed from the ignition is earthed? When I installed my own alarm I got a friend who's a bit more savy than me to check the wiring was ok.....and he said it was fine......(at least I've had no electric shocks until now but I just want to make sure I don't cut any corners when I help fit this one next week.

Many thanks

a live feed cannot be earthed or it would blow the fuse

The live feed is NOT earthed whatever you are fitting.

You have a total of 3 wires to connect.

The wire from the sensor (screw in the header tank) which you cannot get wrong as it has a male bullet on one end which plugs into a female from the alarm module.

Thay leaves you with the power feed wires

1 x RED which you connect to the ignition switched live feed.
1 x RED/BLACK which you connect to earth.

It's all in the instructions supplied with the kit.

ok thanks all....i'll check the instructions again when the package arrives at his house

ok sorry I've just checked my van and can see why my choice of wording was confusing. As you say there is a seperate live and earth connection.
So if I can just try and explain myself better.... when my install was completed my mate found a number of connections in the area underneath the steering column. One of these was clearly the live and he confirmed that with a volt meter and we connected up to that with a spade connector. He also managed to find an earth connection down there too to connect the red and black wire to. So I suppose my question is what can we do this weekend to confirm that a connection we suspect to be an earth is in fact earthed?

I hope this makes a bit more sense or am I being a bit of a div?

Earth is anywhere on the chassie...there are loads of options in the area you are going to be working in.

Never been asked that one before..

If you havent got it earthed it won't work.

sleepwalker wrote:ok sorry I've just checked my van and can see why my choice of wording was confusing. As you say there is a seperate live and earth connection.
So if I can just try and explain myself better.... when my install was completed my mate found a number of connections in the area underneath the steering column. One of these was clearly the live and he confirmed that with a volt meter and we connected up to that with a spade connector. He also managed to find an earth connection down there too to connect the red and black wire to. So I suppose my question is what can we do this weekend to confirm that a connection we suspect to be an earth is in fact earthed?

I hope this makes a bit more sense or am I being a bit of a div?

To check that your earth is good use a multimeter on the continuity setting (often the 2k range on the resistance scale). Connect one probe to the battery -ve connector lead (with it still disconnected to be on the ultra safe side) and the other probe to the point that you will use for your earth. The multimeter should beep indicating a short circuit between your earth point and the battery lead. This is what you want.

If your multimeter doesn't have a continuity setting, use the lowest resistance range. You should get a tiny resistance if you have a good earth (a small fraction of an ohm).

Most of us are aware that the chassis should provide an earth, but we're also aware of poor or corroded earth contacts (fuel gauge faults etc) so this is a valid query. I had several electrical problems with my bongo that were solved simply by renewing the earth on the leisure battery.

thanks this is exactly the sort of tip I was after....thanks to all for responses

Sorry to hijack your thread but I hoped I could ask a question -
Is it just a normal screw that goes into the expansion tank and how come it doesn't leak coolant out?
Thanks!

It's a stainless steel self-tapper (spares available from Haydn). It doesn't leak as the screw cuts a perfect thread into a small hole drilled in the expansion tank and as its slightly tapered it forms a tight seal. I've not heard of one the has been properly fitted that has leaked.

Haydn
Why dont you do a you tube video showing how to fit your alarm to a bongo?
Being an engineer I will tackle most things, but I often forget to some people this is a massive complex job, but once they have seen it done it would give them the confidence to have a go.

A YouTube video would be great. Can someone do this?