It was a fine Sunday afternoon and a group of locosters were happily playing auto-electriacians. When they were just about finished playing they asked their host to put the battery in to see all the pretty lights flash.
But alas the lights they did not flash, so after much head scratching and "you'll need a new one o' them" , a desperate locoster stared at the battery in dis-belief, DOHH-nut who put the batery on back to front!!!!

Motto "if all else fails turn it round"


[Edited on 6/7/03 by GasGasGas]

Don't beleive a word everyone...it's not true!!!!!

Apart from that very embarrassing oversight by your's truely a very productive afternoon was had by ....well....me! and i would like to thank everyone who took part in getting my little car that much closer to being on the road.

A special thanks also goes to Jasper for taking me out in his little rocket........I'm still trying to get over it!!

Andy - the Electrition.......NOT!

It could only have been him do something like that, still it wouldn't have been a locost bbq if nothing had gone wrong at some point !
Just glad it wasn't my part of the wiring that was wrong, that Would have been embarrassing !

Only the engine to sort now mate, shouldn't take too long now

Jason

[Edited on 6/7/03 by Deckman001]

andy you really are a donut

Apart from cooking the meat on the bar-b you only had one thing to do in the garage.

And you got that wrong LOL

Guys,

Help. I spent the day trying to sort out my wiring using the sierra loom and I'm in a right mess. The Haynes manual bears no resemblance to my loom. For example it shows a 16 pin connector to the instrument cluster on every model and year but mine has a 13 pin connector and the wires for the battery warning light are supposed to be on pin eight but I traced mine to pin 1. Bob gave me an 8 way fuse box but I cant see how I can swap over from the Sierra monster box as it is integral with the relays with interconnecting wires in the back. I have a bundle of wires in the bulk head area as thick as a babys arm even though I have removed all of the unecessary stuff. If anyone can help please get in touch cos I'm really pissed off at the moment.
Next step could be unfinished project for sale.
I'm off to get pissed. I hate vehicle electrics cos I dont understand them - I dont even know what a relay is supposed to do.

remember I mentioned once that trying to use the donor loom - especially the fuse box, isnt really on.....



elecrics are one of my 'skills areas' so its not hard for me. However, it really shouldnt be that hard to understand cos you can just consider a circuit to be like a road map. It starts somewhere and ends somewhere.

I would suggest either you buy a kit car loom - which will give you a head start, or you use a simple diagram, like that in 'the book' and work from it. I find the haynes manuals a bit screwy to follow and I design electronics stuff.

car electrics isnt hard - you can either treat it as a challenge, bite the bullet, and give it a go, or buy a loom - which might be your best route!

The loom out of a donor car is a mass of crap. Its not anyway near that involved on your car. Junk the donor loom. Just look on lolo 's web site at the viki green loom - it looks tiny in comparison!

atb

steve

[Edited on 6/7/03 by stephen_gusterson]

I think i had better stick to the cooking!!!!

See...i'm not called Donut for nothing!!

Andy - the donut!

Just remember...

+ = positive = red = live
- = negative = black = earth

Following on from Steve's thread, agreed a Sierra loom is a nightmare although the Escort mk4 one I've used has been great.

Chris

Thanks Chris...i'll remember that when i'm wiring up your car!!!!!..............................................KABOOOOOM!!!

Andy the auto electrition!

paul,there is a wiring diag on the locost owners site,easier to pull out the wires u need and bin the rest,youd be suprised the ammount of wire left over

Try this site, looks help full, but i would advise buying a new premier loom, very easy to fit !! ask Andy !! LOL LOL LOL
Good luck, and don't give up !

http://locost7.info/index.php

Jason

And don't connect the battery up wrong!!!

D'OH!

Andy

Hey only 1 more post and it's the big 500...hmmmm

Mind you that will only last untill i post again!!!......poo

Andy - just never post again!

Its been nice knowing you.

yeah, you're good with the BBQ, put electrics and posting, well..... you know.

nuf said.

Ned!!
(the hypocrit with 564 posts at time of posting this)

Steve,

I agree with your sentiments re the Sierra wiring loom.

I had it all laid out neatly on the floor (trying to figure out which bits go where), and decided a Mini wiring loom was more appropriate, so chopped the Sierra one to give me yards and yards of various colour wire.

Scanned a Mini loom, rehashed it slightly (removed interior lights/door switches etc), and for those interested - it's in the archive. Quick word of warning - it's untried - so until I've made mine and plugged it in, I don't know if it's gonna work.

Chris - brown is the earth on Sierra's!!

ATB

Simon

Bugger it I'm going to convert my car to run on -48v then I can do all my wiring in blue for the feed and black for the return.

I started taking out a sierra loom. you're all right, its a sack of.. hundreds of wires and only a few needed. plus i still havent got the fuse box loose. started by cutting out the radio and speaker wires, then all the engine bay wires, batt and alt wires. I reckon i'm gonna bin the lot though.
a book called something like "design and build a sports car" has a good section on how to wire a loom from scratch, almost makes it sound easy. still a few months till i have to do that though so all good for now...

Actually, on the Sierra loom its the BROWN wires that usually go to earth. I'm using it on my Robin Hood, with minimal cutting down. Fusebox is fitted as-is (what me, a chicken??). Lots of Hoodies stick with the Sierra loom as the alternatives are too terrible to contemplate (eg, no relays in the VG loom... uh-oh!).

Stick with it is my advice. Making your own loom is a bit of a black art I reckon. And the Sierra loom really is (sort of) modular, if a bit OTT.

After all, you never know when you'll want the boot light or rear demister circuit.. I kept most of it (even the headlight wash/wipe circuit for some bizarre reason), but my car does run and all the lights work properly (even the clock is doing its bit).

Cheers
JonB

quote:

---

Originally posted by JoelP

a book called something like "design and build a sports car" has a good section on how to wire a loom from scratch, almost makes it sound easy. still a few months till i have to do that though so all good for now...

---

I'm afraid i just hacked my sierra loom to pieces, but then i'll be running a vauxhall so building my own loom anyway. it must be hours/days to get it all out and labelled correctly.

Ned.

I used the Sierra wire for my own loom so it would resemble the Ford wiring colours. I stripped the loom out complete and had to put it in a wheelbarrow to get it into the shed. I noticed that there are a lot of junctions for common feeds and that some of the wires change colour mid run, like blue/blk to red/blk. As well as the brown being earth I found that red is live as normal and black is a switched live.

yours, Pete.