Complete Wiring Harness

kmead said:
Inspecting and verifying is of course the process. Tedious but necessary.
Click to expand...
Steve Thomas said:
and worth investigating in detail
Click to expand...
Definitely. As I went through the process of rebuilding the harness (referenced in post #5), I found a lot of surprises. Naturally most of the insulation failures were in areas where it was exposed to high heat, direct sunlight, harsh chemicals, or any combination of those. However there were other failures hidden throughout the harness, and in the most unusual places. Things like pinched wires from the factory where something was installed over the wire, causing the insulation to be smashed off. Wires with internal corrosion inside excellent looking insulation (that's a tough one to find). Or connectors added in the middle of harnesses, buried so deep within things you'd never know they existed, having corroded terminals. Plus so much more. The other surprise was discovering how wires were routed. As you trace each wire you'll find they often go to a distant location and then back unnecessarily, before terminating near the origin. I removed a large trash bag full of redundant and excess wires...but that also provided a source of surplus wires to use for the other repairs throughout. On the other hand, lots of components are "daisy chained" together rather than providing dedicated wires to them. Fun times indeed. :)
 
lidox19 said:
Only for 72-82 but new harnesses are available. Found this a few years ago. No idea what the quality is like.

Click to expand...
Smartasses aside, given Marelli and Italian cars have a marginally better reputation and reality than classics from UK, so the pot calling the kettle black. :rolleyes:

I have seen that link before. Looks like a nice option, unfortunate they only make it for the early, EU only cars.

They are using OE type connectors and crimped

One wonders what the minimum order quantity would be to have them build up a run of FI car assemblies for at least the ‘early’ US FI cars. My recollection is some collector in the UK had the first ones made up and they have continued to build small runs of these (feel free to correct me).

Thanks for offering it up as an option, it likely would be pretty easy to adapt it to most early US cars and would be damn sight better than having to build it up oneself.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Interesting find. ;)

I got a little giggle from this part of the listing: "All our wiring harnesses are handmade at our dedicated manufacturing facilities in the East Midlands, ensuring that Classic British Quality which is admired around the world." Let's be honest, electrical component quality isn't generally considered great for British cars. :p
Click to expand...
Didn't stop you buying our sports car though did it? :D Say more about the US "sports" cars than British electrics. Shall we start a thread about how well US sports cars handle? or Italian cars rust?
Stereotypes!
 
Steve Thomas said:
LOL.... "Classic British Quality which is admired around the world" ahaahahahhahaahha. Seriously. I do love my 2004 Discovery D2a but when I think British and electrical, I think Lucas, Prince of Darkness
Click to expand...
Shall we list all the major contributions the Australian car industry has made world wide?
1,Ummm:rolleyes:
That said the late 90's early 2000's Landrover offerings were very quality challenged.
 
lidox19 said:
Shall we list all the major contributions the Australian car industry has made world wide?
1,Brabham
Click to expand...
There, fixed.

There are plenty more, but mostly behind the scenes at other manufacturers, as out home grown motor industry was simply too small to create anything which had an impact on the world market, back in the 1970's the total population of Australia was under 15 million people.

That said, the US and the UK markets both enjoyed Holden's Monaro - under different badge names - albeit with a US built chevrolet heart.

SteveC
 
So, the rookie (that will be me) tested my Thermo Time switch and it’s fine. So I’m going to see if the connection is getting 12 volts. If not, there must me a break along the way. If I get the right voltage, maybe it’s the cold start valve or the fuel injectors. That said, there’s a short or more somewhere. But for now, the engine harness is a good place to start. There’s way too many connectors have the wires exposed so I’ll splice in new ones and test each.
 
LoveX1/9s said:
So, the rookie (that will be me) tested my Thermo Time switch and it’s fine. So I’m going to see if the connection is getting 12 volts. If not, there must me a break along the way. If I get the right voltage, maybe it’s the cold start valve or the fuel injectors. That said, there’s a short or more somewhere. But for now, the engine harness is a good place to start. There’s way too many connectors have the wires exposed so I’ll splice in new ones and test each.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this goes back to testing from the ECU pins as well. Checking for continuity from the ECU pin to the sensor and then the same for the wire back to the ECU from the sensor. Continuity and appropriate resistance in the wiring itself.
 
lidox19 said:
Didn't stop you buying our sports car though did it? :D Say more about the US "sports" cars than British electrics. Shall we start a thread about how well US sports cars handle? or Italian cars rust?
Stereotypes!
Click to expand...
My comment wasn't intended to offend. However the notorious issues with British cars DID keep me from buying them, after the first one I had. It was one of my earlier experiences with owning and building cars and it had most of the stereotype issues that we've come to know as "British". Bad enough to keep me from ever buying another. However I am not singling out British cars. As you rightly say, there are issues with vehicles from many countries. For example I hate American cars and have only owned one or two my entire life. And Italian cars are about as bad as British ones. So I'm not singling out British cars. ;)
 
lidox19 said:
Australian car industry has made world wide?
Click to expand...
Relevance? Agreed - very low volume of mass production exports so we will never know what could have been. But - in the case of the English automotive industry, we certainly do know. Great concepts, lots of character, extraordinarily poor build quality.... Enough to make the designers weep. Everything trashed to achieve lowest possible build cost. Mobs like Lucas [Prince of Darkness] take the reputational hit for the OEMs cost idiocy. The PI Triumphs for example. Triumph dictated the detail of the Lucas system installed on the PI cars [cheap, cheaper and cheapest] and so those cars are unreliable and so Lucas gets the blame while at the same time and for a very long time, Lucas PI dominated Formula One. Pretty clear Lucas knew what they were doing.

Anyway, off topic :)

I am tracking this thread as 3 of my cars came with zero wiring. Been dismantled by PO and somehow separated from the rest of the parts. I will be building new harnesses for them. Luckily, I have 2 unmolested, complete cars for templates. By templates I mean - examples to show where the physical branches in wiring looms are, how long each leg is exactly etc. All the stuff that is not on the schematics. I will make/share drawings but am unlikely to start that for 12 months.
 
Last edited:
Steve Thomas said:
Relevance? Agreed - very low volume of mass production exports so we will never know what could have been. But - in the case of the English automotive industry, we certainly do know. Great concepts, lots of character, extraordinarily poor build quality.... Enough to make the designers weep. Everything trashed to achieve lowest possible build cost. Mobs like Lucas [Prince of Darkness] take the reputational hit for the OEMs cost idiocy. The PI Triumphs for example. Triumph dictated the detail of the Lucas system installed on the PI cars [cheap, cheaper and cheapest] and so those cars are unreliable and so Lucas gets the blame while at the same time and for a very long time, Lucas PI dominated Formula One. Pretty clear Lucas knew what they were doing.

Anyway, off topic :)

I am tracking this thread as 3 of my cars came with zero wiring. Been dismantled by PO and somehow separated from the rest of the parts. I will be building new harnesses for them. Luckily, I have 2 unmolested, complete cars for templates. By templates I mean - examples to show where the physical branches in wiring looms are, how long each leg is exactly etc. All the stuff that is not on the schematics. I will make/share drawings but am unlikely to start that for 12 months.
Click to expand...
I would start with the made in the UK harness. Presuming its affordable.
 
Steve Thomas said:
I am tracking this thread as 3 of my cars came with zero wiring. Been dismantled by PO and somehow separated from the rest of the parts. I will be building new harnesses for them. Luckily, I have 2 unmolested, complete cars for templates. By templates I mean - examples to show where the physical branches in wiring looms are, how long each leg is exactly etc. All the stuff that is not on the schematics. I will make/share drawings but am unlikely to start that for 12 months.
Click to expand...
Get yourself some pegboard, you know the masonite board with a zillion holes in it... lay out the wiring harness and cable tie it down to the board, makes it much easier to copy that way.

SteveC
 
So my Thermo Time Switch is getting zero current. Today, I splice the connector further up the harness. Tomorrow, I order the rest of the connectors and splice them in. Given that every one in the engine bay shows copper, it’s time. If that doesn’t work, the harness comes out and gets rebuilt.
 
LoveX1/9s said:
So my Thermo Time Switch is getting zero current. Today, I splice the connector further up the harness. Tomorrow, I order the rest of the connectors and splice them in. Given that every one in the engine bay shows copper, it’s time. If that doesn’t work, the harness comes out and gets rebuilt.
Click to expand...
Your car seems to have had a hard life at some point in the past.

Is it getting zero current or is it lacking a ground? Sorry not meaning to be pedantic, the two go hand in hand.
 
LoveX1/9s said:
my Thermo Time Switch
Click to expand...
You do know the thermo time switch and cold start injector are a stand-alone system, not influenced by the rest of the fuel injection?
It was carried over from the mechanical CIS system (K-Jet) that Bosch made previously; I do not know if it was also used for the even earlier D-Jet.
 
Jefco said:
You do know the thermo time switch and cold start injector are a stand-alone system, not influenced by the rest of the fuel injection?
It was carried over from the mechanical CIS system (K-Jet) that Bosch made previously; I do not know if it was also used for the even earlier D-Jet.
Click to expand...
Furthermore, a non-operational TTS will not prevent the engine from starting or running. It acts the same as a "choke" on a carb, so it helps in cold conditions for a brief time by adding some extra fuel via the cold start injector. Therefore it may take a little extra cranking to start when everything is stone cold, and it might stumble a bit for the first minute or two, but it will start and run.
 
LoveX1/9s said:
So my Thermo Time Switch is getting zero current. Today, I splice the connector further up the harness. Tomorrow, I order the rest of the connectors and splice them in. Given that every one in the engine bay shows copper, it’s time. If that doesn’t work, the harness comes out and gets rebuilt.
Click to expand...
As others have said, the FI electrical system is quite separate from the rest of the car electricals. The FI harness meets the rest of the car at the dual relay; the FI harness plugs into one port on the dual relay, and the car harness plugs into the other. Midwest Bayless shows out of stock on the FI harness, but it might be worth it to call them and the other usual suspect to see what they can scare up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top