After removing the wiring loom from the mx5 today, i started removing all unnecessary tubing, insulating tape in order to check on the condition of
the wiring and decide what to do with it.
So what have you done to yours?
Thrown it away and bought a new one
quote:
Originally posted by phoenix70
Thrown it away and bought a new one
i'm not sure which of the 3 options really. taken off all the bits of tube for later use. i might keep the rest of the loom as standard to sell on the cheap as i'm not sure of its condition or if it works at all really. so i might take bits of it out to re-use where possible and bin the rest.
quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
quote:
Originally posted by phoenix70
Thrown it away and bought a new one
Sounds logical :p
I stripped my sierra loom of all insulation... catagorised the wires into different sizes...and then used the wires to build a brand new loom..
Recon it saved me about £100..... new wire is expensive!
cost me about £35 for all the wire to do my loom and due to making sure i had enough i'm going to have 1-2 meters of most colours left over.
i found it was all the other bits and pieces that costs the most when you add it all up
quote:
Originally posted by l0rd
After removing the wiring loom from the mx5 today, i started removing all unnecessary tubing, insulating tape in order to check on the condition of the wiring and decide what to do with it.
So what have you done to yours?
My recomendation is to strip back the loom, then plug in the bits on the engine you need and work your way back from there to the ecu, extend any wires you need too, and remove anything thats not pluged in. This way you disturb as little as possible, and use orginal plugs on the engine which look at lot better and lock into place preventing things coming loose. As for lights etc just make up your own loom. Try and keep that seperate to the engine loom as that makes things simple for changing engines etc..
I'm in the process of doing this with my Rover 600 loom. I plugged the whole loom in at first, just draping it over the car and got the engine
running. Now, bit by bit, I'm removing the old tubing/loom tape, removing the wires I don't need, extenting or shortening the bits I do need
and installing it properly and neatly.
What I do do, though, is periodically re-start the engine to check I haven't broken anything - well that's my excuse when the neighbours
complain anyway
[Edited on 18/2/09 by bilbo]
keep it simple and lightweight.
You whould know what lamps you will want to fit so have wires just for those; include a reverse lamp, not needed for SVA but useful to have.
The only extra wires you may need is if you decide to fit some electronic igntion/fuel type gubbins but there are quite a few variants hence
impossible to plan unless you know at this stage what you want.
Most of that will be in engine bay/driver compartment so easily accessible.
Spent ages carefully removing and labelling the Sierra donor loom. Ended up with a huge pile of sticky wire, enourmous fuse box and a headache.
Ummed and Arrred, then bought a Vicky Green loom for £80 IIRC and fitted it over 2 weekends. Kept a few bits from the Sierra loom (fuses, some
lengths of wire in useable colours and some connectors) and binned it.
IMHO it's just not worth the aggravation of trying to use a much more complex donor loom that's all the wrong shape and length - detracts
from the overall build of the kit.
I bought a Premier Loom- it's brilliant, easy to fit even for someone with no vehicle wiring experience like me, and well made.
I kept my Sierra loom so I could strip it for any extra lengths of wire or any extra colours I might need.
It's has been useful so glad I did.
For future proofing I actually ran extra wires to the rear of the car (future electric fuel pump etc.) and to get some more unique colours I spent £5
at the breakers to whip out the boot-to-engine loom from a 7-series. You get 3+ metres of unusual colours that are really clean cos they're
inside the car!
HTH,
James
quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
really? am i underestimating how much i need? i can get 100m of wire for about £22
Made my own from scratch with new wiring
Same as Mackei23B. Build your own loom from scratch.
Phil
quote:
Originally posted by James
quote:
Originally posted by blakep82
really? am i underestimating how much i need? i can get 100m of wire for about £22
Are you thinking of doing it all with one colour? Of course it's possible... but that's not gonna make it easy when it comes to fault finding!!!
Either that or you've found a bargain place... cos I found it was cheaper to go to Premier for a complete loom than to try and get all those different colours and connectors.
Cheers,
James
35 colours