What does everyone think of these:

http://locost7.info/mirror/electrical.php

bottom of the page, wiring 1 and 2

The Diagrams look fine but remember to add a rear fog lamp if you are in the uk, Lights (especialy the halogen spot lamps) should be wired up through a relay unless you are using a heavy duty switch, there seems to be all the neccessary bits to wire up a locost so use it if you are happy!

Dave.

Making your own loom is FUN!
Almost finished mine. There's not much you can tell me about electrifying a standard Locost now!!
I had to go this route due to using Manta steering column and Escort instrument cluster.
The hazards / indicators with this setup are a piece of p***. 5 wires and 3 of them are power or earth!

First car used Escort loom / Sierra column.
They say it plugs together easily - it don't!! Spent more time sorting that out than building this one from scratch.

Marcus

Looks good,

Just wish I had it a year ago

Mark

If building your own loom then why not save some money and use all one colour wires.

Simply buy number tags for each end of the wire. This way you could probably do the wiring for about a tenner (Three rolls of cable)

Regards
Vince Gledhill
Time Served Auto Electrician
Lucas Leeds 1979 - 1983

I second that!

I used all the right colours - and now I have a large bag of bits & pieces that are little use for anything else.

If I was doing the loom again I'd buy one large reel of thin wire and one of thick, probably grey, together with a large bag of heat-shrink numbers from somewhere like RadioSpares ( or a bag of mixed-colour heat-shrink tubing & make up my own colour codes - a stripe or two sealed on each end will do the job nicely).

David

I cant resist a nananenanana right here.

I got a bit of a ribbing cos I did my car all in yellow wire.

I did exactly as is being described. Us eone colour, and use cable numbers on the ends. This is standard electrical practice in industrial machines - different colours are used for mains power an ddc feeds, but general wiring is one colour.

You can do a car with a single (or poss two) 100 mtr reels of one colour.

atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by stephen_gusterson
I cant resist a nananenanana right here.

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one colour looms are fine until you try and start fault finding, the french build cars using lots of the same clour wires, very hard to diognose faults in the loom, locosts are just a simple loom and i expect none of you will sell the car on or make the loom badly and experience any problems, make sure you use lots of fuses! very cost effective tho so good luck, just remember to use nice connectors and not hideous crimps and scotch locks (shudder)

if you leave the numbers on the end then its not such a big problem fault finding.

As you say, a locost doesnt have a massive amount of wiring anyway........but it does look quite a lot after your have put it in. having efi and abs on my car doesnt exactly keep things to a minimum.

I used 18 fuses. I really shoudl have used a few more, such as having rear lights on seperate fused feeds (a good design woudnt have all rear lights out if a single fuse went).



BTW David.....

ya should have mentioned you were doing your loom first!

could always sell on your unused bits on the reels at newark...


atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by stephen_gusterson

could always sell on your unused bits on the reels at newark...

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Hi,
I intended to rip a few wiring looms out of some cars at my local scrapyard. Ideally from cars which have had engines removed or interior removed to make it easier to get at. That way you also get a selection of different connectors, fuseboxes and relays to graft into your design.

I used to work for Lucas Automotive where one of my tasks was to draw up plans for wiring looms for development engines. We used to use three different colours for power, ground and signals (Red, Black, White resp.) for most things although there were exceptions.

It's always handy to have different colours for power (12V) and ground because you never know when you will want to tap into an existing wire run to add a new instrument or a radio cassette or something and you don't want to have to trace it back to the numbered sleeves. We used to use those a lot by the way and they are handy for the ends. I also recommend the braided sleeving and adhesive lined shrink sleeving but you need to ensure that you have a sound design before wrapping the loom in this way.

I'd also recommend that you build a separate wiring loom for the engine so that it can stay in place when the engine is removed. Just be sure to use a good quality waterproof connector between engine bay and engine.

HTH,
Craig.

Bought a Mondeo loom from Donnington last year, more than enough wires to do a Locost. Cost 4 quid!

Marcus

PS I can sit in my car and all the electrics work!! All I need is the engine finishing and Gearbox fitting.

Marcus

How do you know if the electrics work if the engine isnt finished ??
have you heard that roar yet ?

steve

And, dont forget to either use a ballst resister and coil
or a straight 12 volt coil and no ballast resister

I think i may have learnt after 4 years on the road and FOUR coils later

If you are using a sierra for a donor, surely cant you just rip the loom out of the donor make sure you label it as you take it out, then everything should just plug back together maybe with a bit of lengthening/shortening.

Or am i being stupid