37 replies to this topic

[bpirie1000]

Find a nice close wall near the mi i... prepare to bang your head off it....

[Clip]

Spent today tackling the speedo wiring. Turned out not too bad. Although once again it had cables that went no where, or looped under the dash then behind the speedo then back down again! So pulled out a heap of cables and tidied it all up and everything working fine. It’s still a bit messy, but not worth doing a complete re-wire. I’m so glad I listened to lots of your advice, so many thanks again.

One last question, is it good practice to run an additional earth lead direct from the battery to the engine or front subframe? I’ve got two discrete earth straps going to the the engine from two different locations on the front subframe (the second one goes directly to the base of the Peak distributor as advised by the manufacturer). 

[KTS]

it's not common practice as far as i'm aware (..unless you're running a GRP shell..)

 

i would recommend the earth straps are run to good clean connections on the bodyshell rather than the subframe though; one from a starter motor bolt and another from a water pump bolt are my preference

[GraemeC]

I'd agree with KTS - Although you have solid mounted subframes, I would run engine earths to the bodyshell too otherwise you are relying on getting a good connection through connections that may be painted etc.

[Ethel]

I’m now thinking I could buy an 850 harness and start with that. It would need modifying as I run the alternator plus a pre-engaged starter motor (still use the floor starter button as trigger), but all that heavy wiring is in place and was done neatly and correctly.  Plus I want to keep relays for headlights, wipers and horn, plus additional fuses (different fuse block though- I’m not a fan of those LED ones), but that mightn’t be so hard to adapt. Or I go with Spider’s suggestion of laying it all out on a board. I watched a YT clip last night of someone doing just that and was pretty impressive. 

 

I'm a bit late to the party &  just noticed you're down under. I was going to suggest that, when you add up the cost of all bits & consider how much you're likely to have left over in odd wire lengths & terminals from multi packs you'd be lucky to see much cost saving, even if you didn't have to redo any bits where you made a mistake.

 

Look at the features you want and pick the closest factory loom as a starting point. It wouldn't be hard to modify  a wiper stalk loom to  fit rocker switches or terminate the switch panel connections with spades. The earlier pattern rocker switches were also used on MGs, so you can find more varieties: 2 speed wiper switches etc.

[Clip]

I'd agree with KTS - Although you have solid mounted subframes, I would run engine earths to the bodyshell too otherwise you are relying on getting a good connection through connections that may be painted etc.

My mistake, yes the original one is engine to body shell, not subframe. The second one that I added was subframe to engine, but I’ll change that to the body shell now. 

[mini-mad-mark]

Wasn't sure if I wanted to chip in on this subject but having made a "custom" loom for the fibreglass kit car my experience might be useful or interesting

 

My customising was basically to have internal fuse box (instead of under the bonnet) and to run most of the under bonnet and front wiring in the front valance and up under the wing then behind the dash to hide it - "wire tuck" I think is what the custom car folks call it

 

It is broadly based on a Mk4 loom so no electronics/sensors etc

 

I basically started with a standard loom (one I had spare as the one on the car was garbage if you look at my build thread) and then bought a second hand additional loom for cables with the same/correct colours to extend standard items then added around 3-5m of several (about 10 IIRC) different non-mini (?) coloured cables for the extras on my car plus 3-5m of 3 different gauges of black for earths (can't use the body on fibreglass!!!)  I also needed plenty of terminals of different types and the tools to crimp them but I only bought two tools so only 50 quid

 

Agree with others though, it ain't a cheap way of doing it - probably cost me around £250 for everything - a new standard loom is around £250 I think - but would still need extras adding and wouldn't be custom fitted

[Clip]

Thanks Mini mad Mark, it all helps even if not me this time, I’m sure there’ll be a next time