Wiring

[graham]

My sons trying to sort out the wiring on the lightweight one of the things he's trying to sort is the temp gauge, he needs to know what the voltage stabiliser unit is and where it's located can anyone help.

Wiring dia would be  useful  too  :D

[Spacemud]

On my SIIa it's screwed on the bulkhead behind the instrument panel. A little rectangular box about 5cmx1.5cmx1cm as far as I can remember. It's job is to stabilise the voltage to the dials to stop them reading incorrectly. May be in the same place on a lightweight although I have no experience of them myself.

[Lucy1978]

on my series 3 the voltage stabiliser is attached to the back of the instrument cluster, (a little box on the back of the dial unit)


If you're not using the standard coloured wires, print off a wiring diagram and amend it to show the colours you have used instead.  It makes life easier down the line.

[graham]

Thanks spacemud and Chris   :D

[Evilgoat]

Take your time and dont scrimp on things like connectors. Use fully insulated spaces where possible and if you need to make multiple connections think about something like the Amp Champ IP65 connectors Simtec do.  Its worth taking the time and spending the pennies to make it last.

Uninsulated spades corrode and fall apart pretty fast. Lots of fuses and break the circuits up as best you are able, makes life simpler, means each item has the right fuse and when one goes you dont loose half the cars electrics. Plastic loom material is available from most places and makes for quick, simple, tidy (and waterproof if done right) looms. A smear of non conductive silicone grease will extend the life of connectors and provide a better seal, avoid putting connectors where they will be repeatedly soaked and exposed to road spray too.

Support the harness and dont allow it to flex, the wires will fail internally if a harness gets flexed (and it took me months to work out why I only had one foglight).

There seems to be a trend in LR cars to run high current items direct off the switches, this is bad for lots of reasons so dont be afraid to put relay in where needed as already mentioned. A 20A rathed foglight switch limits you to just that, but a 20A foglight switch wired to a collection of relays means you can add lights to your hears content.

Where you can replace old parts, retain as little as possible. Switches and relays degrade, even light bulbs degrade before they actually fail. I still remeber doing all the dash lamps on the Audi and the difference new bulbs made. Switches can actually fail low resistance meaning they still apear to be ok but you get the symptons of the controlled item being failed. If you have to keep switches, strip them as far as possible, lube then and dont be afraid to reject them. Pitted, burnt contacts will cause you issues, though a relay with a cap and resistor across the coil can save a 'jittery or noisy switch.

There will be some places you'll need to terminate multiple earths, make sure there isa good connection at these points, if you dont trust it, run an earth wire to a point you do trust. Earth bonding all panels can make a difference in terms of earthing and electrical noise and replace the engine earth strap while you are at it unless its been done. If you have to take the paint back for an earth remeber this is now a corrosion risk and a loose earth may also cause rapid electrolytic corrosion.

It may also be a good time to think about isolation or a master fuse at this point. Fit one of the commonly available high current terminals and connect any hig capacity loads to it, starter, relay supplies for lighting, winch etc. The via the isolation switch wire a second busbar for everything else. No need to isolate items on relays, isolating the relay supplies takes car of them :)

Busbars, best way I have found it to buy copper bar and nylon spacers, nuts and bolts and brew your own. On a veichle you may need more insulation and a lot of ICE suppliers will have seriously high current kit for pennies that will suffice, again though, watch for water ingress.

There, My 10 penneth worth :)

[hobbit]

I still suffer with bad connections on mine too, fuel and temp gauge went wonky intermittently, tried all sorts but it turned out to be bad spade connections on the back of the fuse block feeding the gauges

Good fun arn't they  :lol:

[Evilgoat]

I still suffer with bad connections on mine too, fuel and temp gauge went wonky intermittently, tried all sorts but it turned out to be bad spade connections on the back of the fuse block feeding the gauges

Good fun arn't they  :lol:

They are a Lucas creation, go figure :)

[tomarse]

is it best with the general wiring to colour code it? or can i just use black and red on it all?

If you use the same colour all the way through you will be cursing yourself in a few years time when you have to take the dash off to fix something!

I did my landy in mainly the same colour and used tape labels on the end. 5 years later the writing has faded off the labels and it took me forever to fix a dodgy connection and add some stuff in.
I had loads of trouble with the 4 way plug in bullet connectors (i used them on the lights) corroding and falling apart after only a couple of years. I use proper multiway spade connectors now (the same as marshalls did when they converted the 101 ambis as it happens!)

On the ones i have done since i have used different colours. Not necessarily the correct colours but different ones. Ive also drawn a diagram as i wired it up.

I reckon the uninsulated 'proper' double crimp terminals are better than the cheap preinsulated ones (like halfords sell). They stay on better. Buy a load of them, the proper crimp tool for them and some plastic covers from VWP and it makes a better job of it.

[The Landy Guy]

so you reckon colour code it all, will make it easier in the future?

[Evilgoat]

so you reckon colour code it all, will make it easier in the future?

Hell yes :)

[Welshbreed]

so you reckon colour code it all, will make it easier in the future?

Hell yes :)

put it this way, the guy before me has made everything purple. I now need to rewire EVERYTHING. it really, really sucks.

[Evilgoat]

All my car alarm installs use black wires, same colour same guage.

Loose the connection diagrams for what you've wired in where and life gets interesting very fast. So if thats done to confuse the scrotes imagine how fun your life will be when you have hundreds of wires to deal with :)

[The Landy Guy]

so you reckon colour code it all, will make it easier in the future?

Hell yes :)

put it this way, the guy before me has made everything purple. I now need to rewire EVERYTHING. it really, really sucks.

have to did a bit deaper into my wallet then!! :lol:

[Welshbreed]

i bought one for that vehicle, but m also making a few parts for my other vehicle myself, as it's not cheap