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toadog · 03-13-2012, 10:45 PM

I am sorry, I thought the red cable was hanging, I see the wire that you say comes from the left batt. I think you are starting from the house side too. Looks like the battery went bad and they just hooked up the to the house. Good luck sorry I was confused.

TNJack60 · 03-13-2012, 11:17 PM

apparently thats gotta be the case here because it starts well and everything works. my only problem is when i replace the left battery what am i suppose to connect the other end of that positive cable to lol thanks

Jim_HiTek · 03-13-2012, 11:45 PM

The last owners probably didn't have a charger for the starting battery and just replaced the two 6V house batteries wired in series with two 12V wired in parallel. The solenoid shown is not the type of solenoid used for the house and aux shutoff. It's an intermittent duty solenoid used to short house and start together to give more oomph to the starting motor to start the rig. Usually from a push button switch on the dash.

The loose cable (positive from the 'starting' battery on the left) went to that solenoid on the opposite post from the 'house' battery...which when they were 6V, only had one cable coming from one positive post.

The way it's connected now, with two 12V in parallel, suggests that the previous owners never realized that the converter only charges the house batteries and let it drain too often when they were camping so they were replacing it too often. So they bought two 12V, rewired them in parallel so they started the coach, ran the coach's 12V needs while on the road (refer for instance), and were charged by both the alternator when the engine ran, but also were charged by the converter when connected to shore power.

OPs problem is that he needs to restore the coach to original...because it's miss-wired now. I believe that if he held the AUX (or Emergency) start button on the dash, that the genset would start. Based on the pictures he shows.

I think that the house battery positive, when there were two 6V (one wire) would have gone on the right side of the solenoid, the loose positive he has from the battery on the left (start battery) would have gone on the left terminal of that solenoid. That's how they wire them. Shortest route.

But, it's best to try to find another rig (assuming you can't get schematics of that rig) of similar age in a campground and ask the owner if you can check it out.

Clay L · 03-14-2012, 11:52 AM

Here is a diagram showing how Winnebago wires the AUX and battery disconnect switch.

tomwalt · 03-14-2012, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garym114

Can't be right. The middle and left batteries are wired in parallel and have a charge, probably good batteries. The battery on the left is dead, 0 volts. Don't wire it up to the good batteries.
See what the voltage is on the two batteries in parallel with the engine running. If they are wired up as engine batteries the voltage will be over 14 volts. You never know what previous owners have done with wiring.
Then check the voltage on the two parallel batteries with the engine off and plugged into shore power. If there is a battery disconnect switch close it. This will see if the converter is charging the two batteries, voltage over 13 volts.
See when the right terminal on the solenoid has 12 volts in either case.

This being a gasser you should have one engine battery and house batteries. Is there an engine battery somewhere else?
Gotta find out what the left battery is for. If the two in parallel are the house batteries and the battery on the left is dead what is starting the engine?

You are correct - I see it now. I miss read the photo and thought the center battery (I called left) had a disconnected red lead but now I see the black lead fromthe left battery snake under the coach batteries to the disconnnected lead. So my post was wrong - you already have two batteries hooked up +to+ and -to-. This is typical for house batteries and if they hold at 12V+ you are ok there for now.
So the questions are where does the engine starter and genny starter get their juice from. I think you may need to follow the wires back and compare to the diagram recently posted. Sorry if my miss-read confused you.

Dunner · 03-14-2012, 08:09 PM

That solenoid looks new, so there is no telling if it is wired right or the correct solenoid.

Dave78Chief · 03-14-2012, 09:04 PM

If I understand corrrectly, the far left is dead (side post battery and would be your normal chassis battery) and there is only 1 battery cable coming from the positive post of that battery which is also the cable you say is discconected. If that is true, then the simple answer is the house battery (top post style) set are currently connected such that they are supplying current to both the chassis and house systems.

The pictures clearly show the house battery set (middle and righthand toppost batteries) are connected in parallel (+ to + and - to -). Thats the way you connect two 12VDC batteries together.

The silver solinoid is a 100 amp AUX start relay. Normally, the chassis battery positive cable is connected to one large side post along with the cable that goes to the starter solinoid (on a 454 the starter solinoid is mounted on the starter itself). I suspect that the chassis battery was disconnected from the Aux Start relay because the battery is dead. The positive battery cable from house battery connects to the large post on the other side of the aux start solinoid along with the main supply cable that leads to the coach DC distribution panel. When, 12VDC is applied to the small post on the aux start solinoid the chassis battery and coach battery systems are cross connected allowing the coach battery to aid in starting the engine. Not sure if your 82 model Itasca has a Dual/Norm/MOM switch on the dash or or if there is only a Aux start switch. The switch controls the AUX start relay. If you have the Dual/Norm/MOM switch then
Dual = Solnoid energized when ignition switch is on
Norm = Solinoid is OFF (batteries not cross connected)
MOM = Solinoid energized as long as you hold the switch in the MOM (momentary) position.

If only AUX start switch, it is just a MOM switch.

Please note that Winnebago did not use battery disconnect solinoids in 82.

Most everything I just said is actually shown in that drawing in Clay L's post 18 above however there is no battery disconnect relay on your 82 rig. By 2004 (Clay L's drawing) Winnebago was using more modern installation methods than used on your 82.

Dave

TNJack60 · 03-15-2012, 07:52 AM

Thanks guys sorry I wasnt on yesterday to reply back. The diagram may help but i have to admit im kinda confused about all of this wiring stuff. I plugged the motor home in yesterday but battery voltage didnt change any so apparently the converter thing isnt doing its job of charging the batteries when its plugged in. I started the engine on the motorhome and the 2 batteries connected together showed they were charging from the vehicle alternator. I also notice there is another solenoid thing mounted to the top of the alternator bracket that has several wires going to it. And also Dave it does have the Dual/Norm/MOM switch on the dash. It is set in the dual position now since thats where it was when i bought it and I didnt know anything about that. It also has a battery condition switch that shows voltage of batteries. There is another switch on the dash that has a label main/aux but i assume that is for the fuel tanks since it has 2 tanks. There is also a generator switch.. Also on the solenoid thing in the pic next to the batteries the left terminal has 2 large cables on it, one is the positive cable from the battery on the right and the other cable goes along the frame toward the back of the coach. I thought that was going to generator but theres no battery current at all going to the large cable on the generator. So now I think that other large wire on the left solenoid terminal must be going to the coach's DC Distribution panel. The right solenoid terminal has one large cable on it and a couple smaller gauge wires on it. The large wire on the right solenoid terminal goes to the starter solenoid on the coach's engine. Thanks for all the help I will eventually figure this all out with ya'lls help.

Dave78Chief · 03-15-2012, 11:48 AM

This is one of those situations where a drawing closely related to your actual configuration will help answer questions easier.

Dave

Jim_HiTek · 03-15-2012, 02:22 PM

Very cool drawing, Dave. OP can't go wrong with that. I see that some older units did use two 12V batts wired in parallel. I wasn't aware of that.

Dave78Chief · 03-15-2012, 07:29 PM

Actually it wasn't until the mid to late 90's that 6 volt batteries started showing up frequently. Mfg's stayed with 12 volt to reduce costs and reduce weight. Additionally, I believe the transition to use of 6 volt house batteries was driven by the desire to have big inverters. Many entry level to mid level rigs even in the early 2000's still used 12V batteries because they only provide 800 Watt inverters for the entertainment systems.
In the 80's they really did not have basement areas so height was an issue. I have four 115AH 12VDC plus 1 12VDC starter battery in my battery tray. It's really not tall enough for 6 volt batteries.

Dave

Dunner · 03-15-2012, 07:46 PM

My 2000 5er only came with one 12v. I wasn't happy with two 12v, so went to two Trojan 6v. They jacked the price up so much, I went with Sam's GC batteries the next time.

toadog · 03-15-2012, 10:33 PM

We went with the 6 volt battery's in the boating industry to get more battery power for the space. With the bigger inverters you needed what you could get. We did not worry as much about weight as I would with my MH.