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Old 04-13-2019, 10:45 AM   #1
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No 12v house power.

Long story short. One of my 12v breakers to my house lights kept tripping last fall. I thought maybe it was a bad light. So I removed the light reset the breaker and it would work for a while. 3 or 4 days and trip again. This went on for a few weeks. I would trouble shoot but not find anything wrong.
Eventually I removed all of the batteries as I had depleted them pretty badly. (They are brand new) I thought maybe I had a lemon for a new battery. Took back to the local battery shop where they charged for a few days tested them and gave me one new one.
Came home and installed them and no house power at all. No breakers or fuses tripped. Worked on it a bit got frustrated and just stored it for the winter.
Jump to now. My two 6v house batteries and 12v chassis were on maintenance chargers all winter. This is what I know. All of the voltage looks correct. 6.6 for my 6v. Cross checked over both 6v.13.2. 12v Chassis battery at 12.87. Chased it to the solenoid and relay battery disconnect. Power at both poles on solenoid. Power jumps from solenoid to battery disconnect. Power at the disconnect from the solenoid. Nothing at the other pole of the disconnect. Should this be hot when I push my rocker switch ? The Mom and Aux battery switches have seem to never work. When I push them there is no clicking.
The volt reading at the battery disconnect right now is all over the charts. I’m assuming this is the load side of the disconnect. But when the rocker is pushed will 0 out my multi meter.
That’s where I’m at now. I know AC pretty well. But just enough about DC to confuse myself. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
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Old 04-13-2019, 02:23 PM   #2
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Here is a link to the wiring diagrams for Winnebago products: https://winnebagoind.com/diagram/Wiring.htm

There should be a picture of the solenoids to help determine which wire goes where.
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Old 04-13-2019, 02:44 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 40Below View Post
Jump to now. My two 6v house batteries and 12v chassis were on maintenance chargers all winter. This is what I know. All of the voltage looks correct. 6.6 for my 6v. Cross checked over both 6v.13.2. 12v Chassis battery at 12.87. Chased it to the solenoid and relay battery disconnect. Power at both poles on solenoid. Power jumps from solenoid to battery disconnect. Power at the disconnect from the solenoid. Nothing at the other pole of the disconnect. Should this be hot when I push my rocker switch ? The Mom and Aux battery switches have seem to never work. When I push them there is no clicking.
The volt reading at the battery disconnect right now is all over the charts. I’m assuming this is the load side of the disconnect. But when the rocker is pushed will 0 out my multi meter.
I think the silver solenoid is your MOM & the solenoid which connects the house battery to the alternator when the engine is running.
The voltage at both large power poles on the silver solenoid should be chassis on the left and the house on the right, at least it is on my 2006 Journey. Checking the voltage w/o engine running or w/o the MOM pressed I would expect to see chassis battery voltage on one side and house battery voltage on the other side. With MOM pressed or engine running voltage should be the same on both poles. This will also test your MOM switch.

The black solenoid that should be your house battery disconnect. What voltages do you have on the small wires on this solenoid? One should have 12V and the other ground when energized. I don't know if the AUX battery switch (battery disconnect sw) supplies 12V or ground to pick the solenoid.

I am not clear what you are saying with your statement: "The volt reading at the battery disconnect right now is all over the charts. I’m assuming this is the load side of the disconnect. But when the rocker is pushed will 0 out my multi meter."
The rocker, is that the MOM sw? What do you mean by "zero out my meter"?
What does "voltage is all over the place" mean? Specific voltages will help.

BTW a bad or loose ground wire back by the house batteries could give you flaky voltage readings. Since you did work with the wires on the house batteries it would be good to check.
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Old 04-13-2019, 02:47 PM   #4
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What RV you have, year/model please.

Did you take a picture or make a drawing of the house batteries before you did your battery work? Are you really sure all wires are in the correct place?

Can you post a picture of the battery wiring?
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Old 04-13-2019, 07:55 PM   #5
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1996 Vectra Grand Tour. Oshkosh chassis. Yes I took pictures. And I have 12v on the line going out.
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Old 04-14-2019, 02:37 AM   #6
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I posted a few pics with the voltage. Thanks for any input you all might have.
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Old 04-14-2019, 06:30 AM   #7
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Great photos and details.

The first thing I see is your sporatic voltage readings are showing very, very low voltages. I don't know if you noticed you have the meter on the auto scale selection.
-- The one that shows 105.4, is actually 0.1 volt (that is one tenth of a volt)
-- The one that shows 51.1 is actually 0.05V (or 1/2 of one tenth of a volt)

What I believe you are seeing are each wire going to a circuit that not a direct route to a ground or 12V. In other words the wires are going to an open circuit.

If I am understanding correctly the above readings are showing each side of disconnect solenoid small wire terminals, which would be the pick (energize) circuit. One side should get 12V and the other side should go to ground. What I don't know is, what supplies the 12V and the ground. A switch or a relay could supply either the 12V and/or the ground.

What happens when you press the AUX Battery on switch? Do you see 12V or a true ground on either terminal?

On my 2006 Journey the AUX battery switch is a momentary sw for both the on and off side. So I assume this sw picks or drops a relay somewhere which picks the solenoid.

I am guessing you could have a bad AUX sw or a bad relay.

Note: Zero volts on the meter can be a true ground or just an open wire. To be sure there is a ground, you need to put the + lead of your meter on a known 12V and then use the - lead to touch what you expect to be a ground. If the ground is present you will see 12V on the meter. If the wire is open all you will see is zero or maybe some small voltage, such as the 0.1V reading.

I don't have the time right now to download and research the wiring diagrams to see where the two wires go.

That would be the step, that is to download the wiring diagrams and locate the disconnect solenoid wiring and trace out where the wires go.

The physical location diagram is labeled " Front End wiring installation"
http://www.winnebagoind.com/diagram/1996/117915.pdf I don't know which of the other diagrams shows the actual point to point wiring (i.e. schematic)
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Old 04-14-2019, 06:32 AM   #8
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What is the model number for your 1996 Vectra Grand Tour? The wiring diagrams are different for each model.

And I think there is a different diagram for a Ford or Chevy Chassis.
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Old 04-14-2019, 07:49 AM   #9
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Additional info:

I was able to go out to my 2006 Journey and measure the voltage on the small terminals on the disconnect solenoid.

Both terminals show both no 12V and no ground. So both the plus and minus must come when the AUX sw is pressed.

This would also mean that the solenoid is probably wired directly to the AUX sw, that is, no relay is involved (probably).

I don't have a second person to press the AUX sw while I monitor the terminals on the solenoid.

I am thinking this solenoid is a latching solenoid. That is when the AUX sw on side is pressed the solenoid is latched in the on position and when the off side is pressed the solenoid is latched in the off position.

Also on my disconnect solenoid there is a fuse mounted on the top of the solenoid. Have you checked to be sure the fuse is good? (if you have a fuse)
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Old 04-14-2019, 07:56 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by al1florida View Post
Great photos and details.

The first thing I see is your sporatic voltage readings are showing very, very low voltages. I don't know if you noticed you have the meter on the auto scale selection.
-- The one that shows 105.4, is actually 0.1 volt (that is one tenth of a volt)
-- The one that shows 51.1 is actually 0.05V (or 1/2 of one tenth of a volt)

What I believe you are seeing are each wire going to a circuit that not a direct route to a ground or 12V. In other words the wires are going to an open circuit.
When I wrote earlier: "In other words the wires are going to an open circuit" I didn't mean a broken circuit, I mean that there is neither 12V or ground.
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Old 04-14-2019, 09:23 AM   #11
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Thank you for the great information. Like I said I am pretty green to working with DC. The Vectra is 96km35wq with the Oshkosh chassis. I will get one of my kids to press the switches for me inside. I have the wiring diagram. I will look at them a littler closer and let you know what I find. Again thanks for your time and help. That was a lot of good info!
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Old 04-14-2019, 12:03 PM   #12
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Thank you for the great information. Like I said I am pretty green to working with DC. The Vectra is 96km35wq with the Oshkosh chassis. I will get one of my kids to press the switches for me inside. I have the wiring diagram. I will look at them a littler closer and let you know what I find. Again thanks for your time and help. That was a lot of good info!
You're welcome.

Looking at the Front End Wiring diagram for the Oshkosh chassis, it looks like the generator connects to the battery through the disconnect solenoid. So if the generator starts, the solenoid should be good and the problem is the AUX sw or to or from the AUX sw.
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Old 04-14-2019, 03:47 PM   #13
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No power to generator. I checked all of the rockers switches and they are functioning. When I plug in my house power it shows I have 12v at the load side of the battery disconnect. Which currently reads 0v. I’ve been at soccer all day so I’ll be back in it here a little while. THANKS!
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Old 04-14-2019, 05:48 PM   #14
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So I jumped my battery disconnect and everything came on. I am assuming it’s bad. ��
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Old 04-15-2019, 04:11 PM   #15
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No power to generator. I checked all of the rockers switches and they are functioning. When I plug in my house power it shows I have 12v at the load side of the battery disconnect. Which currently reads 0v. I’ve been at soccer all day so I’ll be back in it here a little while. THANKS!
Did the rocker switches provide 12V & ground to each side of the battery disconnect small wire terminals?

Plugging into shore power would have caused your inverter/charger to start charging the house batteries. Interesting that it also supplies 12V to the load side of the disconnect as well.
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Old 04-15-2019, 04:31 PM   #16
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So I jumped my battery disconnect and everything came on. I am assuming it’s bad. ��
Is there a fuse on the disconnect solenoid, if so did you use your meter to be sure it is good? Just looking at the fuse is not a 100% check. Fuses have been know to break where you can't see the break.

You can remove the wire(s) from one of the small wire terminals and measure the resistance though the coil by measuring the resistance from on small terminal to the other. I would expect to see something like 20 to 1000 ohms. Infinite resistance does mean it is bad.

Also did you see 12V and ground on the small wire terminals when the AUX sw was held down?

Here is are a couple of links to good detailed info about RV 12V, batteries, charging, solar, etc, etc.
The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)
The 12volt Side of Life Part 2
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