Sooner or later, i am going to have to start on my wiring and i wondered if there were any programs (free?) that could help me design a wiring diagram for my car.
I looked about when I was doing the engine/megasquirt wiring on the pinto, and got bored trying to find one - paper and pencil worked fine for me....
Paper n pencil.
1. Make lil squares/circles in an aproximation of final layout.
2. At each square circle make marks for every wire needed for that item
3. Play join the dots.
Remember that some items will want a constant positive and others will need to be switched.
Don't be shy with fuses, the fewer items running on a fuse the easier it is to trace the fault when they do go faulty.
Edit: Use as many different coloured wires as possible and try not to use similar colours for similar circuits or items close to each other.
[Edited on 20/5/09 by Land Locked]
Have wired a few cars and found the best way for me was to draw out the dash (and all wires needed), then what's needed in the engine bay, then
what has to come from the rear, then just start wiring it, taking notes of the colour of wires as you go.
(None of them were perfect when I first turned on the ignition, but none of the problems were biggies!)
Hi
I like the 'look' of Smartdraw however couldn't source a Locost version. I found Visio OK but limited, (probably by my ability), and
search as I might I couldn't find a program where you could design a circuit and then the software would 'test' it for you.
Regards Mick
Depends on how you value your time versus your cash. If it was me I would contact Premier WIring, tell him what you are building, and get him to make
you a loom.
It's not just the time saved, it's the fact that in order to make a reliable loom, with different colour codes for all the different
functions, you are going to need lots and lots of different cable, and as you don't know the lengths you will need, there will be quite a bit os
wastage, so you probably won't save any money anyway (unless you do what some of my previous customers have done, and just use two or three
different colours 
)
John
quote:
Originally posted by mr henderson
Depends on how you value your time versus your cash. If it was me I would contact Premier WIring, tell him what you are building, and get him to make you a loom.
It's not just the time saved, it's the fact that in order to make a reliable loom, with different colour codes for all the different functions, you are going to need lots and lots of different cable, and as you don't know the lengths you will need, there will be quite a bit os wastage, so you probably won't save any money anyway (unless you do what some of my previous customers have done, and just use two or three different colours
John
quote:
Originally posted by mr henderson
It's not just the time saved, it's the fact that in order to make a reliable loom, with different colour codes for all the different functions, you are going to need lots and lots of different cable,
John
I fitted a premier loom a while back, and wen I saw what went into it, and considered what had been paid for it (something like £130 including VAT and
postage, I decided there and then I was never going to make a loom from scratch unless there was some compelling reason, and money saving was not
going to be one of them!
Learn plenty just installing and connecting one, don't need to make it up for that.
John
i used microsoft visio too. works ok. not perfect, but allows you to place all the symbols in the right kind of places, print it out, and that way you
can count out what wires go where.
i split my car in 3 sections. front middle and back. all the rear lights, fuel pump etc wires all went into one budle, split tube and routed that,
front lights were the same, not done the middle yet, or engine electrics, but if you know roughly where things are going, its easy to work out after
and how many wires go together.