Wiring And Lots Of Other Fun Things!

[Guest Ben Salt]

I have spent a bloody awful few days chopping up my sierra loom - I hope the necessary bits still work ! How have other peiople attached their wiring to the chassis? I've used a mixture of cable ties, P clips & cable harness things from Halfords. Also are there any rules about how frequently there should be a join to the chassis for the wiring, brake pipes and fuel lines?

Any help appreciated

Ben

[Guest paul thompson]

Hi,

I've used a mixture of fixings, from cable ties to OE clips, cable ties with riveted anchors etc. I don't think there are rules about how frequently there has to be a fixing, but the harness must not be free to move around. Satisfy yourself that the fixings you havbe used will not allow this to happen and you should be OK. As far as the brake tubes and fuel lines are concerned, OE's reccommend every 300 to 400 mm or as necessary to provide loacation. I have very few clips on the brake lines but they are not going anywhere because I put them in places where they work against each other to provide the location i.e. in different planes. Lots of clips close together all in the same plane doesn't do anything for you, again just satisfy yourself that it won't move in normal use. It doesn't count if 20 stone man yanks with 100N of force and it moves. Hope that helps.

Oh BTW, I used to work for a brake and fuel line company and it was my job to design the routing and clipping of these items, that's how I know what OE's do.

 

Paul

[Guest Ant]

Wiring - I too used the Sierra loom, and I found it pretty simple really. First step was to remove all the wrapping and put a single piece of insulation tape around it every couple of feet along. Then start with something you no longer need such as a front fog light or a door switch, and remove the wiring until you either reach another unwanted component, or you hit a junction. At that point consult the wiring diagrams to see if you need the things which the junction goes to.

 

Watch out for the warning modules if you have a Ghia loom - some connections are removed, but others need to be joined across where the box used to be. I re-mapped this based on the non-ghia wiring diagrams in Haynes. It's pretty simple if you compare the two diagrams and note the differences.

 

All joins in my loom are soldered together, and then sealed with adhesive heat shrink (available from maplin - more expensive than the non-adhesive sort, but I think it's better).

 

Then drape the unwrapped loom over hte car. First step - decide where your fuse box is going. I made up a box to go underneath it and fitted it to the top of my tunnel, behind the heater.

 

Then adjust the points where things branch off from the main loom until they're where you want them. Lighting wires will be plenty long enough so you can just coil these up for the time being and concentrate on the engine related bits.

 

Once you're happy with wire lengths you can either shorten as necessary, or simply take some wires along the loom and double them back on themselves. Up to you.

 

Then, and only then, start wrapping. I used insulation tape, but loom wrap is probably a better idea.

 

After that I used cable ties around chassis tubes in many places, but if you can't get all the way around the tube (ie there's a body panel in the way) then I rivetted to the chassis and attached a "cable tie with tag" - available cheaply by the hundred from vehicle wiring products. You'll only need one pack!

 

SVA requirements are that you attach all wiring to something solid at least every 300mm. Most of mine are at a smaller interval than this, but some are longer and I got away with them.

 

In the tunnel I fitted a piece of convoluted waste pipe from a washing machine, and run a piece of cord inside it. I then fastened this to the tunnel sides, and fed the wiring to the rear through it as and when required. There's some photos of this bit on my web site - around Christmas I think.

 

Hope that lot helps.

 

Ant

[Guest Ben Salt]

Cheers guys

[Guest Fred2b]

I could be wrong but I think brake pipes and fuel lines must be securely clipped at maximun 100 mm spacing but electrical wiring may get away with 300 as long as it's secure.

Also don't clip brake lines or fuel lines or wiring to the same clips - a definite SVA failure.

Fred

[Guest Ant]

Not sure of the rules, but my brake and fuel pipes go more than 100mm between clips, and they passed SVA like that.

 

Ant