Today ive started to re work the wiring in my car as it looks like a 'pigs Guts'

I have a Sierra loom with the Bike bits spliced to my knowledge.

The wiring however was simply dumped on top (to the side) of the engine and it looks dreadfull.

Ive seen so many people now with superbly clean and guts free engine bays, is it because they are using the bike loom and have less wires or are the y just hiding it well??

In the mean timeim going to try not to blow anything up

Unless someone wants to come over and do it for me

get it working first,

then, ......cut it to bits

If you make sure it works first you should be
able to shorten & tidy the loom quite easily.
I did mine a wire at a time. Solder up or use
proper connectors, checking that everything
still works as you go.

All my electrics (except rectifier) are under
the scuttle. Only 1 switch on view- start button

Wrap the lot up with loom tape or convoluted
tube & hey presto.

GeorgeM

In my bay I have hidden most of the wiring under the side chassis rails, it's a standard sierra loom cut down.. So it is possible..

At the moment my engine management loom full length cus I ran out of patience (and time for SVA!) even then you can double back bits of it and loom tape them and still hide most of it...

dan

The car and electrics are perfect its just a mess.
When people say "lets see under the bonnet" i get a bit embaressed and tell them its unfinished although it was built 3 years ago.

O well back to it i guess, i ventured inside to have 5 mins away from it.

All good fun!!

Fully understand you buddy.

When I fitted my ZX12 engine last xmas I did most of the work on the table and then just laid it on the car to get the positions for the parts. It was time consuming but made me understand the way the electrics work.

First off you need to choose the locations for the rectifier, ecu, relays and main interface with the car loom. For me this meant my ecu, relays, tilt sensor and bike fuse box was under the dash above the passengers knees. The loom then ‘T’ off to the car loom just after this and then only the engine loom and rectifier wired exited the foot well into the engine bay and joined the engine loom on the original plugs.

To move the relays and such took some time as some wires need shortening and other lengthening and it could quickly turn into a mess. But one wire at a time I got the loom sorted and plugged it in to find it all worked fine. I only removed unwanted wires out of the engine loom and it is too long so I looped up over the starter motor, but I felt it wasn’t worth shortening it incase of engine swaps or engine fires meaning I could just plug another one is and away I go.

I don’t know you car, but I would first try and get all the car loom plugs into one location under the dash, then sort the bike loom to interface with this. After this you can move the relays and such which means working on the bike loom OFF the car. Took me 1 week and a bottle of vodka over xmas to do mine.

I'm in the same boat as you, with the rush to get mine built in time for SVA I just connected everything up took out the bits I didn't need and laid it all on top of the scuttle (neatly but not hidden)

I really need to spend some time now and get it all tidied up, but I just want to drive it

Moorron, appreciate your advice think one wire at a time is sound advice.

All the ECUs, junction box, speedo healer, power commander are all mounted on the scuttle so ill be left with holes when i relocate them but thats something else ill tackle later on.

Bottle of Vodka at the ready

Hey Rob

You have U2U...

Stop messing about boys and follow my lead!!

quote:

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Originally posted by iiyama
Stop messing about boys and follow my lead!!

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If you wernt In foreign lands my boy Id be more then happy to help!

I know you would and id be happy to step back and hand you the tools

The one problem is after ive relocated the ECUs etc what to do anbout the gaps and the scuttle??

I can see me taking it off the road a few months earlier than planned to get a head start on what needs doing over the winter....

Better get my list together of parts to buy and parts ill be selling...

Tim U2u replied mate

As Said before, put the ecu etc where you want them then alter the loom 1 wire at a time.

my loom is overbraided but to do this you have to cut all the wires to length, overbraid them and then make off all the connectors. Not something i would recomend. I make looms at work and mine still took me 4 days to do.

Roger

wiring1



wiring2

[Edited on 9/9/09 by rgrs]

what gpas are you going to be left with? Can you post a pic to give some idea?

I've gone the other route entirely and left them as easily accessed as possible - one of the biggest causes of breakdowns is an electrical fault and the last thing you need to be doing at the side of the road on a rainy day is struggling to get at the loom!

It needs a bit of tidying up, and I'll probbaly go with some convoluted tube before I sell it, but it looks OK for now with some loom tape and cable ties.

Wires? What wires?


Engine pic

I have the same thoughts some times, i wish it was a real clean looking bay but it is a challenge and does take that much more effort. What ever you do make detailed plans of where its all going and wire colours - descriptions etc. I cleaned some of my wiring up but in my madness to get it done it got complicated with sva looming. StevieB has a very valid point when something goes wrong you want it accessible as inevitably it will and wont solder deteriorate over time with a very hide ride like that in a kit car.
This is my attempt, no where near the best but i am proud in the fact i have built an entire car.

Rob show us yours?

Damn i've just seen hellfires!


[Edited on 9/9/09 by bassett]

ok ive uploaded a few more pics.


Engine wiring01

This one shows my scuttle, it also just about shows where the loom enters the passengers footwell area. I The shiney allot piece enabled me to have a huge hole to pass the ecu plugs thru so i didnt have to keep striping them down if i needed to take the loom out. Then the alloy plate seals it all up nice and neat.


engine loom

This one show the almost standard engine loom, i moved the air box sensor wire and also removed the none used wires for the horns and lights. But i kept then in the plug with a small amount of lead attached incase i wanted to add other stuff and use the now spare terminals on that plug.Ignore the cable ties, they helped me hold it all into place while i made it



engine loom 2

This one show the untidy part over the sprocked adaptor. Im not willing to cut the engine loom shorter there (to lazy). I cut the power camander loom to the length i thought would fit my location for the unit.

You can also see where i tapped into the loom for the power commander, the wires that shoot off to the lower left corner or the starter relay wires and you can just about see where i routed the rest of the loom to the dash area where all the 'bits' are. I havent got a photo of that, but its a good job as theres alot of plugs, cables, sticky labels to ID them and such.

one tip is buy some reusable cable ties from Maplins, they have tags on them meaning u can loosen them when adding extra wires into that area and keeps the loom in the right shape when working on it.

JESUS!!!

I dare not show you my engine bay after seeing those. Fair play they are all superbly neat and clean and what i want from mine.

I will post some pics up to get some ideas tomorrow, ive locked up for the night now. Im all wired out for the day.

I inherited mine and there was lots of electrics on show originally with a few holes where the engine/loom had been changed from a zx9 to an r1. Thought about ripping it all out but ended up doing this instead for now:

from this:



to this:

[img][/img]

Its tricky to hide all the wires away. It makes a lot of difference keeping the loom as small as you can and then wrapping it in black loom tape or in convoluted tubing like matts.

I am redoing my entire loom at the moment, and have moved the fuse box, ecu, immobiliser etc all under the scuttle which will make a reasonable difference. There will still be a couple of wires crossing the tops of the footwell though as I dont have room in the tunnel for them.

Best way to clean up a wiring loom that is already work and you don't want to pull apart is a that split tubing stuff, works a treat, mine is not a BEC but you get the idea. The engine is almost finished, but you'll notice a few stray wires under the where the scuttle goes, they are for lights etc

ps to the comment above about solder, if its don't properly it'll last for ever..

Right...... well wires extended and loom which was dumped in the bay can now fit under the scuttle, hiden away nice.

Before i thought i better plug it all together and try it to make sure everything works.

All looks in order but the car wont start its just turning over..... Any ideas??

Panic over left one wire out (the live going to the Power Commander)..

All better

Panic?? Who? Where? I wasnt.....

Here is somethingn you can help me with old boy.... the Power Commander will it need to be set up again or will it have the map it was set on before i re wired it?

Should br the same. Only reason it will change is if you plug in a lappy and drop a new map into it. Unless youve been pressing those little buttons on the top.........