how has everyone secured their cabling in areas where there's very few wires?
I'm trying to keep my cabling as simple as possible, and trying to avoid masses of cables.

for all my front lights, they will all run down a convoluted tube, clipped to the chassis down one one side of the car. keeps all the lights together. on the other side of the car i'll have all the engine electrics.

but, for example, on one side of the engine is the oil pressure sensor wire, does a single wire like this need to in any tube? can i just put it over the top of the engine as it is, then meet it up with the water temp sensor wire? the both go to the conv tube?

whats acceptable for single wires?

also, i'f i've got a wire which needs to come out of a convoluted tube before the rest of the cables do, how should this be done? should it be protected in any way? or just poke out the split?

[Edited on 26/3/09 by blakep82]

On my loom that was bought pre-made any single or double wires that exit the loom are sleeved in PVC sleeving which gives it some extra protection as well as looking a bit neater than bare wires.

I used some small PCV piping that came off various car looms... the cable (and bullet end) will go through

ah, excellent idea! i guess then you sort of tape it into the rest of the loom to stop it coming loose?

and also what type of connectors have you used for things like headlights? the kind of things that will get particulalry wet?

Would the connectors themselves get wet? I had a fishtank several years ago and the pump had to have a point on the cable that was lower than the plug so any moisture didn't run down to the socket if that's the kind of thing you mean

for the front lights (headlights, sides, indicators) they sit right in fron't of the front wheels, so i guess they'd get a fair bit of water flicked at the plugs/connectors, wasn't sure if i need to go the extra expense of waterproof connectors, or if standard ones would be fine.

I've used waterproof ones on the rear lights, as they are in the firing line of the back wheels, just didn't know if that was a bit overkill

In that case do waterproof ones if there's any chance of spray getting in them, they won't go on a dry sunny day that's for sure

makes sense do do it anyway, you're right

things like reverse lights etc, they're out the way of the water flicking off the wheels, so shouldn't be a problem i guess.

I dunno how much more expensive are waterproof connectors? I might be ultra safe and use them on everything

well... from the guy up the road from me (so no postage) have a look here
http://www.kojaycat.com/connectors.htm

note, for the standard ones you get 2 connectors, the waterproof ones are sold singularly. for head lights and side lights, i could use 6 way (if everything is earthed seperately, or 4 way if i join all the earths up before the connector.

plus i've already got some 4 way and 6 way connectors. wrap them in tape maybe?

What's the grease they put on the battery terminals? Would that work?

ah, vaseline, not sure, i thought the point of vaseline (petroleum jelly) was that it was conductive too?

well, i guess i can try standard one, if they disagree, i can always replace them i suppose

If you don't intend taking them apart often why not use bullet connectors a bit of vaseline on each then heat shrink should keep most of the moisture out. or just solder them and heat shrink