First Power On

Momentus occasion, I turned the car on from the ignition from the first time. I didn't realise until later that there was no switched live so it wasn't actually on, but we'll get to that later. Headlights and tail lights are on permanent live, so they were the first things to get working.

They are actually brake lights, not tail lights. Easily sorted but didn't realise for ages, as the brake circuit appeared not to work. I fiddled around for a bit and popped a few fuses, due to the unbelievably crap bulb holders. I bought some bulb holders from Auto Electrical Supplies (AES) which were £7 or so each and it was worth it, as they actually work. The old ones had the wires badly soldered on the back of the bulb contact, and the wires appeared to have about 3 strands of copper in them. The new ones are much better and take bullet terminals, although I soldered the wires in.

I put these in and the brake lights still didn't work. The path from switched live, through the fuse then through the brake light switch was fine, then I realised I had used the most rubbish connectors on earth for the main power to the loom. They are a type where male/female are the same and they snap together so you can have as many as you like. They are rubbish. I cut them off and went through a connector block instead, hey presto, brake lights!

I ran the wire for the brake light switch to the master cylinder through the bulkhead on the drivers side, then realised that I should also have a brake fluid level warning wire somewhere. Annoyingly its on the engine spur, which comes through the passenger side of the bulkhead, so I have to choose if I want an unsightly cable running along the bulkhead, or remove all the loom to re-route the wire. I think I may do what I did with the forward loom and hide it under the bonnet lip with countersunk screws.

All in, this job took about 3 hours for troubleshooting, then installing the new bulb holders. The plan to be finished by Christmas is looking less likely.....

Loom 4

The garage has been silent for a week or so and that gave me time to think about the mess of wires around the fuse box. I found some spare bracketry and came up with this:

Ignore the wonky brackets on the fuse box, it was later adjusted. I can now get to the terminals at the back of the fuse box for future troubleshooting. The wiring is now slightly tidier and I got some proper fabric loom tape which is over everything then pvc tubing over the top. Lovely.

Only problem now is the hole in the firewall where the fuse box used to be in the engine bay. Well, I say firewall, I mean 3mm thick fibreglass. My plan is to etch the names of everyone who has helped build the car onto a stainless steel plate then rivet it over the hole.

 Also, a windscreen wiper motor has appeared out of nowhere.

Luckily, I had a massively over-thick and oversized aluminium right angle lying around which is perfect for mounting the wiper motor on. It only just fits at the jaunty angle required to minimise the bend in the wire that goes to the wheel box. The wire will eventually be covered in some copper tube to protect it.