Wiring harness

[Ryder]

With the engine finally in its new position, I think it's about time to consider beginning to wire my car up. Going to be another steep learning curve for me

Just wondering what you guys think about kits like this? Are they good value, are they safe (not going to catch fire)? Do you have any other suggestions/recommendations?
Parts For Hot Rods - 21 Circuit wiring harness

My engine (LS2) appears to have most of the important stuff/emissions controls on the engine loom, which plugs straight into the computer. The computer then has another huge plug going into it from the body loom. I'm thinking I can take the computer to have the security disabled, cut the body plug of a wreck and just wire in what I need for the computer to run the engine. Then use a loom like this to complete the rest of the electrics, without trying to adapt a whole VE body loom to the car.

I'm thinking that a kit like this would not be a complete kit, and I'd still need to make extra looms for things like starter relay, horn, headlights ect. Sounds like a few trips to jaycar or something will be in order...

[Zedn]

I bought a transplant loom from PSI performance. Then a 12 circuit universal wiring kit for everything else. Needs a few extra bits here and there but overall its good quality. Only problem with the PSI loom is that the pedal connector is different and the O2 sensor plugs are different.

[sideshow]

Those looms are basically a fusebox with wires coming of them
U need to wire in the blinker stalk and headlight switches and wiper switches
And front headlights and rear lights
And then wire in the few wires to the ecu
It's not hard but still takes a good full week and maybe abit more
It doesn't sound like a big job but getting most of it done takes a week
Then u could take a week doing the fiddly finishing if bits
U will understand when u get close to finishing it

I'm abit over full rewiring cars as u just don't make any good money out of it
As there is not exact same jobs and any loom half made or full made that u buy pre made will still need a lot do work because every cobra is different

There is a shop who makes replica 1960 s cobra body looms which are useless in a new model cobra

[Ryder]

Ok, ty

would you say they are not worth it then?

[sideshow]

They are worth it
Saves u afew days in wiring
All wires are labelled. It's just u need to figure out where the ends go but the only other option
Is to make a fusebox from scratch which is what I do
Anyway
Goto painless wiring website and download some old school diagrams
Read thru them so u get an understanding how things work
U should be able to get it nearly all done then ask here for the small things u can't do
But make sure u get correct advice as I've had to fix a shop stufups lately hehehe

And how I fixed these problems is this
Google wiper diagram
Google headlight diagram
Google start diagram
Etc etc etc

Then click on images
And u should be able to find everything u need

[stephen low]

Ryder

I have that loom in my car and had it installed by a sparky as I'd had no experience and still haven't at properly using a multi-meter and then the smarts to wire up into other car parts such as the Ford ECU, the Hyundai light and wiper controls and so on.

The loom caused no issues and in fact with my re-routing of the wiring as part of the rebuild, having the marked wiring has been a bonus whilst chasing out wires.

Here's a photo of the sparky's efforts behind the dash and of the loom generally.

More relays than perhaps necessary but these bring in a bit of safety and were all not part of the loom kit.
I located the fuses to the right of the steering column so out of sight in this photo. And that bundle of 5 plugs on the right all hook into the back of the dash to make it all accessible.
Cheers

[sideshow]

If u paid someone maybe be prepared to pay between 3 to 5 grand
The last few I've done we're around 3 to 4 but I doubt ill be doing many more
As once I sat down and calculated time to do it all I should have charged 5 g
Because 90 % of full retires always get exa things added to the list once u finish it

[Ryder]

Mmm... Looks like a neatly arranged mess of spaghetti :lol:

Ill be having a crack at it myself, don't mind if it takes months or having to learn on the go. Only way to get good at something is to do it a lot
That said, pretty sure google will start sending me a bill for overusing their search function before I'm done!

Thanks guys

[Zedn]

The kits are pretty straight forward. They come with instructions and its just a case of running the wires and hooking it up. It's really only main power circuit and starter circuit in mine that required me to solve and fell in the gap between both kits.

Look at painless wiring if you are worried about quality.

[Jaydee]

I got a complete wiring loom with my half finished kit, and it would still take a lot of time working out what's what.
The fuse box is out of a Commodore, but the rest is all made up. I will draw up my own wiring diagram and colour coding. It looks daunting when you look at the whole mess. Just do one small circuit at a time, and try to solder joints and use shrink wrap. Don't solder terminals,only crimp with the right tool. Label wires as you go with masking tape. And always get a good earth. Eliminate as many connectors possible.
Have fun.
JD

[sideshow]

If u don't solder any crimps means u needs many different sized terminals which gets expensive and most p,aces won't stock them
3 and 4 mm wire needs no soldering
2 mm wire I fold over the copper end and it crimps fine
5 and 6 mm u need bigger terminals or I just solder

But as a guide while u r learning tug tight on the crimp and if wire comes out its too loose
And u need to get better crimping tool or solder the join
They say never to solder joins but if they are done nicely then u will rarely have issues
Unless your cobra is a plane

[Tonus72]

Hi,

Sorry to join in late, but...

Why is soldering bad?

Cheers

Tony

[sideshow]

in an airoplane they never solder joins they always crimp
solder brings alot of heat into join and right after the join where solder ends
it becomes brittle
now most solder joins i see done by others are always overdone
just need minimal solder and minimal heat

anyway soldering can be bad due to very thin wire can break due to vibrations over time
right at end of solder in a car its not so bad
in a plane well u can end uo with 300 deaths and thats no good heheh

[stephen low]

Ryder

That's not spag - here is some spaghetti!!!!



In his defence I know this cobra owner was really pressed for time to meet an engineering deadline but clearly the chosen auto elec was less fussed about finish than my bloke.

Anyway I too was limited for build time otherwise like you, I'd have had a crack - as much to try and learn something about auto electrics.

Sadly my timing advice was askew, as I actually did end up having another 12 months build time over what I was led to believe.

And so I am still a sparks and arcs newbie!!

But at least my spag is straight.

Good luck on this.

Slo

[trularin]

I have wire a number of vehicles, most have been prototypes. In the case of OEM prototyping, we use roll crimps for terminals that are inserted into connectors. NO crimped terminals are used.

If the same can be done on your car build, you might want to select 'weather tight' connectors with roll crimped connections.

Crush crimp terminals work fine, but you might want to solder the wire, and then shrink wrap the collar and wire at each terminal.

For those connections that you might be taking apart a few times - I use 'Posi-tap' connectors. Expensive but work well.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Hope this helps.

Tru

[sideshow]

The reason that pic looks like spaghetti is that it looks like someone has fitted a newer motor and because the person wiring it didn't know how to wire the motor stand alone he fitted the complete dash and engine bay loom fom the car that the motor came from
Which means u have 50 percent of the loom that does nothing

[stephen low]

That makes some sense as I know my bloke paired out the un-needed loom wires first, especially to the ECU which still has a jungle of wires leading to it.

Either way I'd have thought a competent sparky would make the whole set up neat to make it easier to trace wires during the installation.

That said that car did run after completion of the job. But I'd hate to go fault finding in that mess down the track.

[sideshow]

Normal sparkies don't know what neat means hehehe

[albanycobra]

Look at the Ron Francis harness's.

I have used them a couple of times and am very happy with the results. It's the harness that FFR use for their cars. Very easy to install and you can buy engine harness's to suit the main harness. Very well priced and you get a nice install booklet and a wiring diagram you can take to a spraky if you have problems.

FFR-06 Factory Five MK3 Roadster & Type 65 Coupe-Ron Francis Wiring

[sideshow]

That's a good price
I would not even bother making one
Just buy the Ron Francis one for only 520 bucks