Between thunderstorms today I have tried to crack on with wiring the headlights and relaying some things.
So it was off with the bonnet and out with the old loom.
I moved the coil to the bulkhead as per later cars, it seems to me to be a better place for a coil away from vibration and heat. The Lumenition module is mounted underneath, I just need to make a bracket for the resistor.
I pulled all of the front loom out and unwrapped it inspecting all of the wires for damage and labelling everything up. Good thing I did, the NS headlamp dip wire was frayed.
The main things I wanted to replace were the earth strap from the battery to the engine, the battery to solenoid lead and to fit the proper connector for the alternator.
First thing I did was to fit the earth.
Then I fitted the correct alternator plug, the brown and yellow trace leads and thick brown leads just had spade connectors on, the smaller brown lead was loose and looks like it was cut. As far as I can find out from photos and the wiring diagram this just goes into the plug. Can someone confirm if this is correct?
The main harness to battery lead connectors arent available anymore and I wanted something that I could connect other things to so I fitted a small bus box next to the battery. I could then make up a new battery cable to connect to the solenoid.
New connectors...
Connected to the new bus box and a new battery cable made up, I may have to shorten this. All of the existing loom brown wires have had new terminals fitted and have been connected temporarily.
The hotstart ideally needs to be situated here next to the battery for easy pipe routing to the heater inlet and outlets. It isn't connected into the car electrics, you basically plug it into the mains.
It makes sense to put it here as the new bracket for it can also have the new fuseboxes and relays mounted to it.
So it was out with the cardboard pizza boxes!
Looking good so I cut it out of 1mm sheet
The fuse boxes and relays clear the bonnet stay.
With a bit of fettling it is screwed to the inner wing and the hotstart test mounted. It is surprisingly rigid and looks like it won't need any additional support.
It needs some tidying up and painting, I may cut some holes in the sides and top for cable entry and exit once I have decided how I'm going to route them. Overall I am very please how it has turned out.
Tomorrows jobs are to wire everything up, fit the headlights and tidy the wiring to make it all look factory again!