making your own wiring harness

[Rubce]

Hi Guys

Over the weekend I had a good long hard look at the wiring harness in the project car. It's in worse conditon than I initially thought. A lot of the connectors and plugs etc are corroded:X.

Has anyone had experience of:-

a)making their own replacement wiring harness for a Stag?

b) sourcing replacement plug connectors?

c) experience of the new wiring harnesses supplied by Paddocks? For example do they come completewith all the plugs?

I recall an article on assembling your own harness in "Practical Classics" last year. Must go and see if I can find it.

Regards

Bruce

[Kevin Garrod]

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You may find some of the bits here.

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.e...e/homepage.php

[V Mad]

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I doubt if it is worth it. Would be more expensive buying all the different colours in small quantities.

If you do make your own, use the new thinwall cable andyour harness will be much smaller, and more flexible.

You may have problems finding all the original connectors though.

Try Vehicle Wiring Products.

[iani]

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Autosparks (http://www.autosparks.co.uk ) make the looms that RB sell, unfortunately their site still doesn't list Stag looms but you can request a quote, from what I've seen their workmanship looks good.

Ian

(no connection etc)

[Peter Hills]

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Hi Bruce,

In America there is a guy, Dan Masters, who trades under thev name of Advance Wiring Products and produces excellent wiring harness kits for UK cars. I've used his kit for an MGB V8; I know he produces kits for the TR series of cars but I don't know about the Stag.

I cannot reccomend his products too highly; they are truly excellent.

Regards

Peter Hills

[Rubce]

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Hi Guys

Thanks for the links and names etc. I have applied for a couple of quotations.

Not sure how straight forward making my own harness would be. Several advantages though:-

a) modern plugs so less resistance

b) upgrade of the wiring size to allow bigger loads to be drawn

c) integration of additional fuses and relays for alarm, immobiliser, 4 head dipped & main, etc

d) provision of additional earthing points.



Also, would it be worth installing a full earth return to the battery for all circuits thereby eliminating the problem of poor earth connections to the bodyshell?

I don't see the cost of lots of different wiring colours being an issue. One colour for live, one for negative, one forswitching and another for ignition etcetc. The use of good cable Idents would overcome the need for lots of different colours.

Thoughts gents please

Cheers

Bruce

[Rubce]

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Found the article. May and June 2008 editions of "Practical Classics" have an article on making and fitting your own harness.

A bit of bedtime reading for me

Bruce

[Paul B]

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Hi Bruce,

When I looked at this some time ago, several of the Stag connectors were not available and new looms were not available either. I guess this may not be a problem if you are prepared to use new non-original connectors.

My loom was in a bad state, mainly in the engine bay. I laid it our on the floor in the conservatory, un-wrapped the tape and traced all the wires from the engine bay back to their source. I then replaced each wire with the correct coloured wire which came from vehicle wiring products and replaced all the connector pins as well.

I also had to remake the two looms which run to the back of the car as these had been melted by previous repairs to the rear wheel arches.

A big task but worth it, not had any problems with electrics since the car went back on the road.

Regards, Paul.

[DJT]

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Rubce wrote:

Also, would it be worth installing a full earth return to the battery for all circuits thereby eliminating the problem of poor earth connections to the bodyshell?

I can see the point of that on a plastic car like a Lotus, TVR or Reliant, but it is adding a lot of additional wire for no benefit. After all, making body earth connections clean and using a protector such as petroleum jelly has worked for decades.

IMHO.

Dave

[Rubce]

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DJT wrote:

I can see the point of that on a plastic car like a Lotus, TVR or Reliant, but it is adding a lot of additional wire for no benefit. After all, making body earth connections clean and using a protector such as petroleum jelly has worked for decades.

IMHO.

Dave

Hi Dave

I disagree with you but hey that what debates all aboutOver 50% of the faults I experienced with my donor stag in the two years it was on the road involved electrics. Bad earths were listed highly.

My initial plan if I made my own harness would be to provide earthing points at strategic positions around the car i.e. one in the boot, two in the endine bay, one inside the body, three under the dash. Each would consist of a direct wire to the battery neg terminal and finishing in a junction box. Then, instead of connecting the earth wires to the body I would run them to the nearest earth junction box. This eliminates the requirement to remove paint from my freshly painted shell and provides a better current flow thereby reducing resistance and load on the alternator/battery. All the earthing points would be inside the car and so protected from the worst of the weather unlike the existing ones which are dotted all around the shell inside and out.

The extra wiring involved would be minimal apart from a couple,of wires running the entire length of the car.

Bruce

[Rubce]

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Paul B wrote:

Hi Bruce,

A big task but worth it, not had any problems with electrics since the car went back on the road.

Regards, Paul.

Hi Paul

Thanks for the feedback. Is it okay if I pop round to discuss this further? This weekend perhaps?

Cheers

Bruce

[KOY 23]

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DJT wrote:

Rubce wrote:

Also, would it be worth installing a full earth return to the battery for all circuits thereby eliminating the problem of poor earth connections to the bodyshell?

I can see the point of that on a plastic car like a Lotus, TVR or Reliant, but it is adding a lot of additional wire for no benefit. After all, making body earth connections clean and using a protector such as petroleum jelly has worked for decades.

IMHO.

Dave

Absolutely correct. Earth return system used on all metal bodied cars. If it's good enough for Rolls Royce, it's ok for me. A bad earth is a bad earth whatever wiring system is used. The body gives a low impedence earth return which a seperate earth may not unless correctly designed.
IMHO.
John.

[Rubce]

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KOY 23 wrote:

Absolutely correct. Earth return system used on all metal bodied cars. If it's good enough for Rolls Royce, it's ok for me. A bad earth is a bad earth whatever wiring system is used. The body gives a low impedence earth return which a seperate earth may not unless correctly designed.
IMHO.
John.

The body will only give a low impedance earth if the connections at the body are free from dirt, rust etc. Why not eliminate the risk in the first place?

As regards Rolls Royce, whats so good about them?I imagine old RR have earthing problems just like any other old car.

I am simply looking at how I can improve my Stag if I went down the route of making my own harness. Lots of people fit different engines, diffs etc, why not electrical improvements?

Bruce

[Gresley]

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A lot of triumph 2000 owners put a new large diameter wire from the alternator to the battery terminal. The result is much brighter headlights, so I assume that Triumph electrics can be improved in some areas.

[KOY 23]

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Brian

I am sure that they can be improved but I wonder how many owners uprated their alternators without uprating the wiring, then later discovering that uprating the wiring made an improvement.

John.