Continental caravan wiring help needed

[Paulypaul]

Sounds like someone has been “buggering about” with the wiring. Get a good multimeter and test everything from the plug end of the caravan to a point where you can access the Des of the cable coming from it. Note which pin has which colour plus what colour goes from it. There MUST be an earth on the white cable which is probably the source of all your problems if you say that there is no earth

None of what autoroute says makes sense as those are not the proper colours. The CAMC and C&C have all the stuff. I would suggest that you take apart the 12N plug, identify what colours are on the pins and follow it from there. I had a Burstner as my last caravan and they were all correctly coded down to the lights at the back and front. but you have a very old caravan and maybe a previous owner get them all muddled. The white earth, as I say, is crucial as the caravan chassis should never be the earth. The earth is taken from the towing vehicle as that is the source of the power. I might be a better option to rewire the whole thing using a standard 7 core cable and distributing off from there by getting a mutiny connector as it enters the van body correctly wired and then branching off. Each light cluster will need the +ve to the centre pin of the bulb and the white earth to the outer
-ve. You will find that the side markers are duplicating the rear side markers, one cable acts as supply for the brakes at the rear with the two side brake likes linked together. If you do have a cluster with all the lights in one housing there will be only one earth connection going directly back to the white pin on the cars socket via the plug. Indicators use one _+ve for left and one +ve for right again a white earth on each. Note that if the lights are all separate then you will have to have an earth on each. Make sure that the earth connections are all clean and not earthed to the caravan chassis.

I don't know really cause the picture attached is how the wires come into the van and then get distributed. Its a 1975 Belgium made van but I can't find any reference to wiring on a Constructam Coral caravan anywhere. The lights suddenly stopped working altogether which has brought me to this point. Its been sat on the drive for a couple of years and how it was is becoming a challenge memory wise: The green, yellow, white and brown are the wires that go to the rear light clusters.

 

[Grummyb]

As it's a 1975 van have tried pulling the wick out a bit further

 

[Grummyb]

I think you need to identify which wires does what at the junction box then you can identify the corresponding wire at each lamp but I'm guessing you should have 4 wires to each light cluster
Indicator
Side light
Brake light
Earth

 

[autorouter]

I don't know really cause the picture attached is how the wires come into the van and then get distributed. Its a 1975 Belgium made van but I can't find any reference to wiring on a Constructam Coral caravan anywhere. The lights suddenly stopped working altogether which has brought me to this point. Its been sat on the drive for a couple of years and how it was is becoming a challenge memory wise:

To be honest, even if your memory was perfect and you could restore it to exactly as it was in 1975, that would not be a good way to proceed. I think it's best to rewire it to the modern 7-pin standard.

That won't be too difficult. That 7-core cable can stay - it seems to have the correct colours. First wire the connecting plug to a new 7-pin plug, with the wiring colours shown in Spriddler's post #2.

At the other end of the 7-core cable, best to fit a junction box. You will have to add in some wires. How easy would it be to run extra wires to the rear clusters?

Ideally, run a yellow, blue, white, black and red to the left side cluster. Run a green, blue, white, brown and red to the right side cluster.

If it's easier, you could run the blue, white and red between the two clusters instead of wiring separately to the junction box. Also if you're only having one fog light, you only need one blue wire.

Wiring it this way means the negative earth return through the caravan chassis is no longer necessary. The white cable is the negative earth return.

If you buy two or three metres of 7-core cable, you can strip off the outer sheath and use the coloured wires for your wiring.

 

[Lenny HB]

If you buy two or three metres of 7-core cable, you can strip off the outer sheath and use the coloured wires for your wiring.

If buying cable just be aware there is a lot of cheap undersize cable sold in the trailer market.

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[Ian Bosman]

I don't know really cause the picture attached is how the wires come into the van and then get distributed. Its a 1975 Belgium made van but I can't find any reference to wiring on a Constructam Coral caravan anywhere. The lights suddenly stopped working altogether which has brought me to this point. Its been sat on the drive for a couple of years and how it was is becoming a challenge memory wise: The green, yellow, white and brown are the wires that go to the rear light clusters.

View attachment 472134

You do not have the Red going to the brake lights nor the Black to the rear left lights although the Green could have been used to link across from the right to the left, it has been known to have been done by a bodger! Check that those Green, White (Earth), Yellow and Brown connect to where they should and disconnect those that should not and see if that works. then connect Red to the brake lights on both sides, check that this is OK. Does Yellow and the Brown go to the relevant indicators, connect them and check they also work. I would do one at a time personally ensuring fully working and a lot of plugging and unplugging but this is the methodical way to work.
Have you checked that the plug that connects to the car is correctly wired, the pins are numbered so you should get them correct. If they are incorrect it is an MOT failure.. check that the Blue on the car is powered with 12 volts with the engine off or is it only with the engine on, if the latter it is therefore for a fridge which will need the White (-ve) and the blue (+ve) for the fridge to work. If there is permanent 12 volts on the blue it is intended to connect to the battery in the van, do not connect this to the fridge as you will flatten the car battery as fridges gobble power on 12volts.

Would it be possible to have a photo which shows the incoming cable(s) and clearly show the cables attached to it internally joining the lights? The cables that go under the sloping piece on the right lower of the picture are they the incoming cables? Those connectors could have suffered corrosion which can induce dim lights or nothing at all.
If you could identify which of the internal cables go to which lights I can be much clearer as you really could do with a diagram/sketch showing which goes to where.
There is a heavy red cable as well in the photo, what is that connected to? Is there a fridge and how is that connected? is there any sign of a battery compartment or box as many vans of that era did not have much in the way of battery power other than a connection to the vehicle which really should have been through a 12S plug/socket these are white BTW, 12N being black. Do you have mains hook up and therefore do you have a fuse box or fuses from there to a battery charge, etc?

 

[Ian Bosman]

You know what, I would strip out the old wiring as much as it is a pain up to a point.

The way I would go about it is disconnect all the incoming wire bunch from the internal wiring, find which internal wires go to where noting all down (I find address labels wrapped round the wire with a label saying where it goes helps a lot). Buy one of those must-way screw type blocks to suit the size of the cables and fasten tthe end on the incoming bunch. My Burstner had that which helped. Ensure that the colours run in the block of pin one Yellow, Pin two Blue, these should be in the same order on the caravan 12N plug. Now find which wire goes to the Rear LH. flasher and connect it to Pin one on the block, do ditto for the RH L flasher, etc. Your challenge might be that of finding which one internally is the earth but it will be slightly heavier as it carries all the return -ve load. Then check that you rear lights work. If they do then proceed to find which wires connect to the front markers, brown on RH side Black on left hand side. Make sure that one earth wire runs to all the light clusters. If they are separate lights unconnected in any way then each will need it. Check that they still work. Don’t do all this with it connected up to the car until you start the checking, you can blow your car electrics/fuses. Do one light in turn, check, then the next check and so on

 

[Paulypaul]

The green, yellow,brown and white come into the van through the floor. They then exit the van through the back of the to the light clusters as in the picture:

Right hand side - 1 x white, 2 x yellow, 2 x brown.
Left hand side - 1 x yellow, 1 x brown, 1 x green

The heavy guage red wire is from the ehu plug in.

I think a complete strip out and rewire is the only answer as the wiring is snood its probably a broken wire somewhere, which may be a niggtmare to find.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Ian Bosman]

The green, yellow,brown and white come into the van through the floor. They then exit the van through the back of the to the light clusters as in the picture:

Right hand side - 1 x white, 2 x yellow, 2 x brown.
Left hand side - 1 x yellow, 1 x brown, 1 x green

The heavy guage red wire is from the ehu plug in.

I think a complete strip out and rewire is the only answer as the wiring is snood its probably a broken wire somewhere, which may be a niggtmare to find.

Thanks for your help.

Both sides look wrong, eg 2 yellows on the right and 2 brown on the right? where do the 2nd wires go to? So I think that the internal stuff disconnect and invest in and electricians snake to pull wires through. They often disappear into the between walls insulation so nightmare to get from one to another.