ha ha!... as we near Halloween this weekend I have my own scary story, of some scary wiring!...
There used to be a joke amongst British Motorbike owners when we were teenagers riding Japanese Motorbikes from the 1970`s and 80`s about the the lights of these bikes and British motorbikes being useless and low power. Today's LED mountain bike lights are actually more powerful!, but when it comes to an Army vehicle I guess you don't want massive power lights - you may as we have a big Neon sign saying `Aim Here...`, but the Jeeps lights do remind me of those old Honda motorbikes with the same yellow glow 12 volt 45w bulbs, maybe their fine to get you home after dark on cats eye lit roads but their pure scary on a narrow country road in the pitch black, so always best to get home before they are needed....
The Wiring on my Jeep is a bit of a mess being untouched and as I have found out is pretty bodged , and recently I had to do some repairs which quite shocked me, Needing the lights now on dull days - also you need to switch the lights on to get the brake lights and indicators to work - you would not want them coming on in a battlefield!, and the bulbs have been playing up and first time I replaced them i discovered this - just who in there right mind would wind up and knot electric cable?, I know this would not have been the previous owner Paul who got the Jeep up and running after it lay 7 years in a barn, to be fair also he had only just got the Jeep running and not went fully through everything, when a 1950s Chevy pick up turned up for sale which he specialises in and seeing pics of these lovely restored motors he has done he did not do this to the wiring...
I knew there was knotted wiring but did not really pay attention to sorting this - which yeah maybe that's as stupid as the fire risk this represents, but... what sort of muppet did this which has no real meaning when you would just shorten the wires???
Now i am maybe a qualified Greenskeeper to trade, but that does involve needing some common sense... And while I am a self taught bicycle mechanic, and a self taught/learning on the job Jeep mechanic (with some assistance from others), it does not need an Auto Electrician to tell you you should never coil electrical cables that have a current through them big or small - you always reel your extension cable right out for your Electric hover mower to mow your lawns right?, so what previous owner of this Jeep did this?
When I see this it makes me glad to know the engine and stuff has never been out and dismantled on this Jeep (since it was in Military service) as who knows what bodged gremlins I could have found...
Fuel or electrics are the main reasons for car fires, there are fire extinguishers (new and painted green) on either side of my Jeep for this very reason...
So I ordered some new bulb holders and a box of connectors along with replacement bulbs form eBay and they arrived a few days later...
Still cannot believe someone did this!...
I do have higher quality 4mm (same as Honda motorbikes) connectors which are better for stopping water ingress on off-road bikes,
but decided to just use basic ones as they are already on the Jeep and it does not see much water (esp no real crazy off road stuff), and the Jeep already has these...
It was an easy job to cut out the knots and with new connectors on plug in and check the hi/low beams are the right way around...
