Hi all, may sound like a silly question but im not totally sure so thought id ask...
im currently building an mx5 powered haynes roadster, and having taken the mass of wires that is the loom out of the donor, the spaghetti mess of
wires is already giving me a headache, so i might start fiddling with it in my spare time ahead of schedule. but am i right in thinking that the wires
that i dont need: radio, mirrors, windows, interior lights etc etc, i can remove from the loom by tracing single wire at a time to where it terminates
and remove it from there?
any help much appreciate
I started on the floor scratching me head then hung it on the garage wall, unwrapped all the gunk off the outside and used the manual to remove all
the circuits I didn't need. I ended up moving the fuses into the top half of the box and cutting it in half!
Hanging it on the wall in 2d fashion with each corner resembling the car on its side worked wonders...
Once I'd laid into the MNR, trimmed them all back everything worked first time..
I would leave the 'extra' wires in the loom only adds a few grams,
however if removing wires, you will then have to re-wrap the loom.
I don't know about the xm5 loom, but normally wires are colour coded, so don't need to be traced.
I did mine several weeks ago,mx5 loom, take your time, my advice is to start and continue till finished or you end up getting lost trying to recall
things,, make notes, don't just assume that because you aren't using a particular part i.e. Interior lights, that they don't feed
something else. I measured out loom length required for particular location on the. At then transferred that to a board with straps to lay out the
loom and made a new loom using the original one
Wiring diagrams
I found this link really useful as they seem to have differing colour wires for each year?
Mine was an NB Mk 2 and was a pain. Take out the dimmer for dash lights and the ECU won't fire up - take out lots of wires and suddenly you find other things don't work - its a real pain and I took out all the electric windows, air con, radio wires to start and then took out anything I thought I didn't need, then came making wires the right length, that really took some time, mainly shortening but keep at it and eventually it will get there. The alternator on the NB is controlled by the ECU and the control wires take a very strange route, be careful not to lose those - guess how I know that one!!
hi, thanks for all the replies....
quote:
I found this link really useful as they seem to have differing colour wires for each year?
quote:
I would leave the 'extra' wires in the loom only adds a few grams,
quote:
Mine was an NB Mk 2 and was a pain..... and the control wires take a very strange route
quote:
Mine was an NB Mk 2 and was a pain..... and the control wires take a very strange route
I'm just finishing building a Westfield with an MX5 Mk2 donor.
I stripped all the unused circuits off the harness and fitted it to the car-I had to pass a load of connectors through the bulk head so ended up
taking a lot of plugs apart to do it-fun!
I then shortened the harness so I have a really neat, tidy run.
The one thing I would do next time would be fit the harness to the car, get everything working and then start stripping the unused parts off! I did a
lot of head scratching as I had some wires that didn't have a plug on the end and all the wiring diagrams I could find were for US or Jap spec
cars.
I couldn't start the car when I fitted the harness, there were 2 wires, both green and red, but one was live on cranking, the other wasn't.
I had them the wrong way round!
I have a complete MK2 harness going cheap if anybody wants it-I bought it with an ECU kit to help me fault find my car.
Ian
Sorry that I'm reviving an old thread, but I'm about to start this painful process myself.
My only saving grace is that I have a complete loom and ecu from an MX5 and labelled all of the bits as it was taken from the donor.
I'd planned to lay it out over the car and connect it all up, then ensure it starts. From there, I planned to use the pinout diagram to remove
what I didn't need, ensuring to frequently turn the ignition ove to make sure that I didn't remove something important.
quote:
Originally posted by kevyo89
Sorry that I'm reviving an old thread, but I'm about to start this painful process myself.
My only saving grace is that I have a complete loom and ecu from an MX5 and labelled all of the bits as it was taken from the donor.
I'd planned to lay it out over the car and connect it all up, then ensure it starts. From there, I planned to use the pinout diagram to remove what I didn't need, ensuring to frequently turn the ignition ove to make sure that I didn't remove something important.
That's a good plan.
I still have the spare harness, I was contemplating removing the unused wires out of it and selling it on as it has sat in the garage for nearly 2
years!
Ironically, I started the Westfield yesterday, I considered taxing it and taking it for a spin until I read this weeks weather forecast!!
Ian
generally speaking unless your using the ECU from the donor car its really not a good idea to reuse the donor loom. if you are using the ECU the
wiring associated is generally easily removed from the car....
rewire the basic functios for your car from scratch ITS EASY and there is an article on here on how (How to wire your car the easy way)