85 Mk3 Escort Fuse Board

[matt1812011]

Hi there

I just wondered if anybody ever had any issues with the underbonnet fuse board on a MK3 Escort and if so do you know how to remove it for inspection? trying to restore an 85 mk3 XR3I that has been stored outside for 12 years, and there's no power to the board but hot wired it to ignition and it cranked, so we suspect it has gone down.

Cheers

Matt

[vinnyvangough]

Never had any issues with them but removed mine in my track car.

Its hard as there is not a lot of play in the wires.

Can get pictures of mine in the next couple days so you can see the connections if you like?

Mind you this picture is the entire loom from a Mk3 1.1

[btmaldon]

I can remember this being a fairly common problem back in the 80's. I had an 87 XR3i in the Ford Motorsport Colours.

Fortunately I didn't experience the problem which was due to damp getting at the board and the terminals.

[matt1812011]

Hi mate

Yeah that would be great if you could, we have got the fuseboard up now but there's the huge loom attached to it undermeath but we cannot see how the loom detaches from the board to release it, is there a main multiplug underneath the dash that the main loom fixes to?

Matt

[vinnyvangough]

Unfortunately NO

It doesn't come away.

I know it sounds drastic but the easiest thing to do is to remove the dashboard, (20 min job Max) and then you will have enough slack to move it.

Here's some pictures

This is the fusebox from my 1.1 Mk3

As you can see there is no connectors from underneath. The whole loom for the dash and rear come up through the hole.

This is as much as we could pull through on my Mk3 1986 XR3i Cabriolet when i was doing the inner and outer wing

I hope this helps

[matt1812011]

Thanks mate that's great, all i need to do now is locate one which is very difficult or get this one refurbished, did you re-wire it when re-installing it or did an auto electrition do it?

[vinnyvangough]

No.

On the Cabby nothing was touched.

On the 1.1 it has been totally removed as i am putting a 1800 zetec engine in there so will be using the loom from the zetec. Its gonna be a track car so not a lot is going back in lol.

[matt1812011]

Ah right sounds good mate, I have had the idea of just getting the whole loom and box from a breakers wouldnt have to mess around wiring the box up then just have to wire the multiplugs to the dash - should be far more simple, plus i have heard orions and sierra's of similar age used the same fuseboard so that should make it easier to find.

[matt1812011]

Just an update well we have determined there is no power getting to the fusebox, so that maybe ok, for some reason we only have one positive lead off the battery rather than the two it should have which one going to the clock and one to starter, but anyway there's loads of power to the starter, the two choices I see now are to apply power directly to the fuseboard bypassing the loom running to it, which for this we need to find out which is the main live wire from a bundle of about 8 going into the board and see if the dash lights illuminate then, or to try and trace the wiring back from the main loom that runs behind the headlights to the earth on the battery, alternatively we could end up having two problems, a broken wire along that loom and a duff fuseboard, any ideas guys?

[vinnyvangough]

I'd def be tempted to check the loom for any breaks before you do anything else.