Time to start thinking about the electrics. The big question is do I buy the loom fron Luego or make one myself.

Got plenty of time over the next few months as cash is low so no major work to do on car.

Any ideas or help ( ie a loom plan.)

hi there
As i dismantled me xr4 i labelled absolutley everything and sstripped it from car, then one of the first thiings i did was to lay roughly in chassis and then cut off the loom tape and started discarding the crap that wasnt needed;central lock, leccie wins, abs etc and in doin this i chucked away approx half of the loom

Next was to find a suitable location for the fuse box, get some fuse holders and then one by one transfer each fuse wires to the new ones.

At the same time shortening the wires where reqd, I now have a custom made loom from the original sierra one and have checked it all works using bulbs/wipers etc, just have the engine to check once its in (a while away yet thou)!!

Like your self money, is a bit tight for me and time isnt so thats why i chose to do it this way.

cheers colin

Buy one here for about £100

http://www.premierwiring.com/

It's neat, new and you get really good support

HTH

Mark

Buy One,

I started to strip my Sierra loom, but after 3 day stripping it I gave up and bought a Premier Loom, wish I had done that from the start

All depends how electrically minded you are. If you can deal with relatively simple *ducks* electrical wiring, it wont be too difficult to adapt a sierra loom, and it will cost you next to nothing. (All depends on budget)

If you are talking of making one from scratch I would say dont bother, especially if you want to use some form of colour code. Buying all the wire and connectors will cost you about as much as a new loom.

Both premier wiring and vicki green (sold through lolocost these days) make looms especially for sierra based kit cars, for around 80-100 of your hard earned pounds.

I can only agree with buying a loom. I started out using the Sierra's loom, but soon got fed up with trying to untangle it and make it fit. I used a Vikki Green loom from lolocost for £75 - worth every penny. It's worth pointing out that I am using a Pinto, for which the loom is designed though.

Nick

I had a premier loom that i sold and I built my own instead. I wanted to do a few things differently to make life easier in the future and modifying the premier loom would have been more work.

Designed it all on paper (actually computer) first and what i've been able to check so far has worked.

Advantages are that everything is exactly as it need to be first off no need to shorten or extend wires, plugs and sockets where i want them. For instance all the wires to the dash go through one plug so it comes out easily, the engine wires all go through another plug so if I change to injection I can make a new engine loom and just plug it in rather than modify the original one. I also laid in a few spares for any possible functions on a future ECU, or for if i change to a digidash/

Worked out more expensive and took longer than I expected but I'm glad I did it.

Build your own - follow a logical path and you'll be fine. Use the original wire from the Sierra as a guide for thicknesses etc... a bought loom will not provide you with everything you need/not need anyway. Therefore you will end up chopping it around a little. If decide to DIY - it brings so much satisfaction when it all works!

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Originally posted by Hellfire
Build your own - follow a logical path and you'll be fine. Use the original wire from the Sierra as a guide for thicknesses etc... a bought loom will not provide you with everything you need/not need anyway. Therefore you will end up chopping it around a little. If decide to DIY - it brings so much satisfaction when it all works!

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Its easy to make your own and as said previously everything will be where you want it. However do a diagram and standardise your wiring colours.I just hacked a couple of looms and connected as i went along, all worked correctly first time, but i had a problem with the imobiliser i built in and ended up stripping the dash as i couldnt remember how I had connected it two years ago as no drawings etc.
Paul.

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Originally posted by givemethebighammer

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I second that, work logically, document everything into your own wiring diagrams and sit back and grin when it all works at the end (or if not you have the diagrams you made to trouble shoot it !)

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Paul (Notts) - 25/5/05 at 06:52 PM

Thanks for the advice...

Might as well go the whole way and build my own loom..

( may take a long time )

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grusks - 25/5/05 at 10:15 PM

Depends on how eletricly minded you are. Ive made loads over the years kit cars and my race cars, but im an auto electrian and got all the wire / terminals etc from work, and takes me a few hours.

But if i was not electricly minded, for the sake of £100 take the easy option and save all the head scratching and smoke from under the dash

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Peteff - 25/5/05 at 10:24 PM

I made mine from the stripped sierra loom and some caravan cable to the rear, wired from the fuseboxes to the lights first then connected power to them after from the switches via relays where necessary. Just needs a bit of logic.

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Hellfire - 26/5/05 at 12:13 AM

Buying... it's more fun DIY What else have you got to do with your time?

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DarrenW - 26/5/05 at 08:28 AM

If you are building from scratch with no materials in stock i think you will be surprised how much the wire and connections etc will cost. Unless you are only using two colours and a wire tagging kit (AKA industrial machine stylee).

Buy - you know it makes sense.

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JoelP - 27/5/05 at 09:42 PM

petes idea of trailer board wire (7 core stuff) is excellent, i did it that way (probably after he first mentioned it) and it saved loads of effort. I put two down the full length, so i had a total of 14 wires to play with. I limited each to 21w, as thats what each took in the beginning.

i bought a lot of blue wire, and never bothered to label it. Now im stuffed, trying to rewire it and i dont have a clue whats what. Theres a lesson there somewhere

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splitrivet - 29/5/05 at 03:51 PM

I havent bothered with a loom at all, used flexible conduit and adaptable boxes at either end to hook up the rear and front lights.An electrical waterproof box holds the relays which are soldered into veroboard.Should have it finished tomorrow so I'll up some pics when done.
Most of my wires was stripped from trailer cable and the heavier stuff scrounged from sparkies.
Cheers,
Bob

[Edited on 29/5/05 by splitrivet]

[Edited on 29/5/05 by splitrivet]

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RazMan - 30/5/05 at 09:07 AM

Veroboard? Are you sure this be hefty enough for the current required?

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splitrivet - 31/5/05 at 11:19 AM

Beefed it up where required not going to be carrying a great deal of power any way largest current draw is headlamps =6 amps tops each.
Never got to finish had to take the dragon out for an airing..
Cheers,
Bob

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