Rewire Of Whole Car

[Guest yellow peril]

Went for a drive last night, and where's the electrics gone, yep all of em, no indicators dash lights or anything, The wiring has always been a bit of a swine with my car as the builder didn't bother spending the pittance on a VG loom, and reused the original cut up loom. What are the chances that I could rewire the car from scratch with a VG this christmas, or is it impossible now the car is complete - what do ya think.

 

ps - presume the VG loom is fully labelled up. could make life easier by bypassing all the sierra dash and buying one of those handy looking £80 ish eleccy dash things

[Andy Spencer]

I'd have thought a rewire would be a major undertaking - may even be easier to build up your own loom.

If you have total loss, then the fault should be something reasonably simple to source.

At least with the Sierra loom, you can use the Haynes manual to do some tracing.

Andy

[steve in stockport]

i re-used the sierra loom, but for the amount that i cut out there was virtually nothing left - very basic system, lights,charging, ignition and not much else.

 

its not too daunting to think of making your own loom from scratch, all the gear is available out there or you could get a ready made loom, either VG or one of the other firms such as premier wiring or vehicle wiring products

 

Steve

[Guest yellow peril]

didn't know if it would be a bit of a crazy way to spend time or not, just fed up of sourcing faults that are down to the mollestation of the sierra loom - too many connectors etc have been used - Not sure the builder kept to the haynes colour chart when it came to the wiring. Thought if I kept it to the basics (no injection to worry about) it wouldnt be too bad, and I've always hated the sierra dash so I could stick in a leccy job - they have a fuel gauge and warning lights I think, and there a cheapish one from a manufacturer whose name escaped me at the mo.

[Guest vaux_red_corsa]

I rewired my S3 as i wasn't happy with the previous owner's wiring. It took about 3 to 4 days to do as i had some problems with the new loom.

[Guest gdc]

hi

i think i would rewire with a vg loom or a premier loom or the like, ford colours dont always match a haynes as it seems what ever they had at the time they used .at the very least the time saved stripping a loom compared to fitting a new one more than ballances the £120 ish cost of a new one.

the cable lengths are about right for the car and with your set up it shouldnt be to hard to fit ,i have used 3 vg looms up to now and would deffinatly use another if i could find one .

3/ 4 days easy work dont rush it . go for it as when its done its done.

regards graham

[Guest robinj66]

Personally I would go for the premier Wiring Loom rather than the VG. i found the PW loom to be much easier to deal with and at least you can speak to them on the phone .

 

Should point out that, for me, wiring is a job from hell but if you know what you're doing then you might get on with the VG.

[trextr7monkey]

We have a new VG loom ready to fit into a car but as it is x flow and mk 2 escort based I am toying with the idea of going with a Premier loom, if they are at Donington, to avoid messing up the other one, in which case "Vicki Green is going spare"

[johnlrichardson]

I used a Vicki Green loom and was not impressed. The colours and the diagram didn't match up and it was a nightmare to follow. I couldn't get any help at all from their website

[baj25]

If I was doing mine again I'd have made my own loom, but I have an advantage over some in that I do electrics for a living. The VG loom isn't perfect, admitted, but I think that all the problems with it are well documented in these forums so it's not too difficult to get it working. I haven't seen a VG problem that Longboarder hasn't got a pretty little drawing to help solve! HTH, Brian

[Guest macca]

I used a VG loom, its not perfect, but I'd use one again. biggest pain was connecting around the column switches as there are so many different types.

 

The engine loom stays as is on the carb setup (wires from amplifier to dizzy, temp sensors etc), If I remember correctly the VG just took power from where the +ve hits the starter motor and also provides the switch wire to the alternator to start it. and 1 further wire to the amp.

 

Apart from that its just:

lights (easy),

charging: VG loom has a plug ready for the alternator,

dash - not too hard, just take it 1 wire/instrument at a time,

column switches are a pain as mentioned.

odds and sods - fuel sender, fog light switch, wiper motor, fuse box, etc are all quite easy.

 

Take it 1 bit at a time and it should be done in a long weekend.

[Guest yellow peril]

thanks macca, thats a good optimistic outlook, one long weekend and it'll all be done,

 

I'm sure that there is a bunch of wiring that has no use on the car, so I imagine the wiring will be much tidier afterwards - too many dead ends left on original loom that don't help battery keep charge - another little winbter job for the list - along with tidying up the dash