Thread: Electricals - phew

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I'm in the midst of wiring my car - no problems with the American Autowire stuff. There is w-a-a-a-y more wire then I'll ever need so any add-ons, no problem. My "problems" have been some of the other items. The MSD - the coil and distributor wires were about 6' too long, no problem.....but the ignition wire and the two power wires...about 6' too short - some #12ga, about $11 worth later, corrected. The Vintage Air - the schematic says hook up the pink and green wires to the 87A speed control relay.....where are they? There are no pink and green wires, they're orange and red instead and that particular loom loom of 4 wires, it was about a foot too short. Oh well no big deal !!! The main battery wires, 1 gage. The red positive cable is about 16-18 feet long, the black might be 2'....this was a $35 fix for an 8' length (did I say copper wire is expensive now !!!).

Just had to whine a bit as this wiring is really going well with some time eating aw s**ts. I'm really happy so far with the quality of the wiring kit. It has everything that I paid for with probably enough wire left over to wire another small car. I've added a couple of switches and a few connectors but those were my choice. I don't have the fenders on the car yet to reduce the chance for damage, but have wires hanging for most of the components. Now I'm trying to see what I can do about hiding some of the wiring coming from the engine compartment, fan and headlights - might just go inside the frame rails yet. Then hang the rest of the tin, crank 'er up and terrorize the neighbors (in my dreams )

That American Autowire kit isn't cheap, but is really worth the money IMO. It is the one Dan is going to use on his RPU too. You get more circuits than you usually need, but that's ok.

Sounds like you will be making sounds (real ones) pretty soon. I always like it when you flip switches for the first time and stuff lights up and turns on.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

That American Autowire kit isn't cheap, but is really worth the money IMO. It is the one Dan is going to use on his RPU too. You get more circuits than you usually need, but that's ok.

Sounds like you will be making sounds (real ones) pretty soon. I always like it when you flip switches for the first time and stuff lights up and turns on.

Don

Don,
I only hope those sounds are of a mild 5.0 rumbling to life after 6 years of dormant sleep, not the crackling and popping from a wiring error

AAW has a good Customer Service mgr, Donny Bock. I'm using a big CCS electric fan - I asked him via email about a half hour ago if I needed another separate relay and have already gotten a response. Unfortunately yes, I need a 30 amp for this one but later CCS fans need a 70. I don't need relays for the halogen headlights though

Originally Posted by IC2

.... The Vintage Air - the schematic says hook up the pink and green wires to the 87A speed control relay.....where are they? There are no pink and green wires, they're orange and red instead....

On a Vintage Air system, there are usually 2 relays; a power relay, and a fan relay, and they are pre-wired from the factory.
The only wires you should need to hook up are the red wire to the battery via a supplied circuit breaker (I connect this to the BATT terminal on the ignition switch when I use an AAW kit), the orange wire which is connected to the accessory terminal on the ignition switch (to trigger the power relay and turn the system on and off with the key), and a blue wire to the compressor clutch (preferably wired through the binary switch, or a trinary switch if you have an electric radiator fan).

Joe G.

Originally Posted by Joe G

On a Vintage Air system, there are usually 2 relays; a power relay, and a fan relay, and they are pre-wired from the factory.
The only wires you should need to hook up are the red wire to the battery via a supplied circuit breaker (I connect this to the BATT terminal on the ignition switch when I use an AAW kit), the orange wire which is connected to the accessory terminal on the ignition switch (to trigger the power relay and turn the system on and off with the key), and a blue wire to the compressor clutch (preferably wired through the binary switch, or a trinary switch if you have an electric radiator fan).

Joe G.

Joe,
I wish that was what I had - but I got 2 separate looms with individual spade type connectors, one to the control from the evaporator and one to the 2 relays along with a schematic with my Gen ll Mini. It's all connected, after a few choice words and some time spent "wringing" it out. No big deal - but my time, and Vintage could have "fixed" that had they used the right colored wires. I'm using a binary switch - regardless of the fact that I have an electric fan. AAW has a connection for the relay trigger(#9) then to a module Acc terminal (#10)

I've been wiring my car also. Crawling over / around / underneath and using muscles that have been dormant for too long! Ouch, I am sore today! LOL.

Like you I'm trying to hide as much of the wire as I can. I hadn't thought about going inside the frame rail. We'll see.

I used the American 22 circucit,you're right it has a lot of circuits built in plus relays.I was concerned about the elec.fuel pump and I gave them a call and they said the circuit was set up for more amps.than what my pump required.

All my wires are run through the interior,trunk,headliner and kick panels.The headlights are the exception.I went to the hobby shop and bought a 1/8 dia.piece of spaghetti tubing and ran it through the panels,run the wire thru the tubing,slide off the tubing and bingo the wire is routed without being seen.Some of the wiring is routed prior to the panels being installed.My head liner was fixed thus ,the tubing was a time saver.

Mike, I haven't even done underneath the car yet - but most wires will be in a raceway inside of the car. I still have my trans cover off, though about ready soon to install. The only under car wires are the speedo sender(3), brake switch(2) and trans temp sender(1). These will enter the car under the drivers seat through a grommeted hole in the floorboards. Even the starter solenoid wires will be in a conduit and on top of the floorboards.

Don, it sounds like you have the same or similar module as I have. All of my wiring will be hidden except the engine compartment/front end. With an Ford motor in an early Ford roadster, hiding wires back to the module is a challenge as there really are no easily available places with a boxed frame and the engine wires at its' front. These wires will go in some sort of a loom or conduit: headlights 2 + 1 ground, MSD 3, fan 1+1 ground, fan sender 1, water temp 1, oil press 1, a/c comp 1.

Regardless of my whine, it is a fun part of the project

I have just spent the best part of the last two days under the car doing the starter wiring - oh my achin' bones. I'm using 1ga wire and it really doesn't make curves well from the starter to the trunk around all the claptrap I have between the frame rails and cross members.

I really would like a lift of some sort, but it isn't in my budget now (or ever!!)

One more day doing the final bracketing of those wires and then finish up the rest of the body assembly and wires. I did find that It was a lot easier to do much of the wiring with the fenders off but now I'll need 'em on for headlights.

Wiring's kinda fun.

As noted, it can make you sore all over.

Set the car up on ramps or jackstands, put some old plush carpet remnants on the floor and it'll make life a lot easier.

Kneel on the carpet when working to the side of the car and lie on it when underneath.

Since roadster doors are easily removable, take em off.
Makes it a lot easier to get under the dash.

Originally Posted by C9x

Wiring's kinda fun.

As noted, it can make you sore all over.

Set the car up on ramps or jackstands, put some old plush carpet remnants on the floor and it'll make life a lot easier.

Kneel on the carpet when working to the side of the car and lie on it when underneath.

Since roadster doors are easily removable, take em off.
Makes it a lot easier to get under the dash.

I'm way ahead of you - the right door is off, it's up on ramps, the carpet is under it - but every time I crawl under it - there is always one more tool needed - and unless Susan is just wandering through, it's slide out, get the tool and start all over.

And I am enjoying the wiring challenge - I only wish I could have mounted the battery between the frame rails but the '31 chassis is too narrow

To change my pain factor, its' a lawn mow morning. We have had just enough rain every day that the mower and I get a workout about every 3-4 days.

Ibuprofen (and/or a wee nip in the evening) works miracles

Hi Dave...

Maybe too late but I was going to suggest welding wire for the main feed to the starter. I used 2-ought and it was easy to work with as the fine strands make it really flexible... I think I used about 17' from the trunk to the starter solenoid. It wasn't cheap at $4/foot but I'm sure 1-ought or 1ga. would be cheaper... something to keep in mind for next time

I went through my wiring project over the winter and it turned out to be a lot more work than I anticipated but it's worth it not having to worry about which electrical problem is going to bite me this week I used a Painless kit... and of course it wasn't (neither on the body or the wallet ) but it went pretty well and I didn't have to do any additional cutting on the firewall.

Good luck wrapping it up!

-Chris

Chris,
I considered welding wire but I already had a 20 foot chunk of new red 1ga Taylor wire so all I needed was a chunk of black. My never used buzz box almost sacrificed its' leads for the 'cause' but it is 4ga.

So far my American Autowire 'kit' has been close to pain free - it's just the starter and ground cables that haven't been.

Do you recall when Boyd's show was on - and on the list of work was "wire the car this afternoon"? No way did they custom wire a car in an afternoon - even with several guys working on it. I always got a chuckle out of that after doing a couple of cars previously. My dash, which is off of the car took 2 days to sort out!!

A tip for those who have not started their wiring yet. Regardless of if you buy a "wiring kit" or wire from scratch, the first step in the wiring project should be a drawing of the entire system....use 17" X 22" paper or larger (or multiple pages) and do a sketch of every component. Like the diagrams in the shop manuals, located the components in some order...like the tail lights on one side and the headlights on the other.

Then, you can lay in the locations of the fuse block, battery, etc. Your connecting wires are easy to draw and you can label them with their color, wire size, and wire number. As you run wires and attach them, you can mark off the completed wire with a yellow highlighter so you can keep track of the remaining wires to attach.

The diagram will also let you organize the wires and to see improvement possibilities.....

mike in tucson

Originally Posted by robot

A tip for those who have not started their wiring yet. Regardless of if you buy a "wiring kit" or wire from scratch, the first step in the wiring project should be a drawing of the entire system....use 17" X 22" paper or larger (or multiple pages) and do a sketch of every component. Like the diagrams in the shop manuals, located the components in some order...like the tail lights on one side and the headlights on the other.

Then, you can lay in the locations of the fuse block, battery, etc. Your connecting wires are easy to draw and you can label them with their color, wire size, and wire number. As you run wires and attach them, you can mark off the completed wire with a yellow highlighter so you can keep track of the remaining wires to attach.

The diagram will also let you organize the wires and to see improvement possibilities.....

mike in tucson

Mike,
This is why I like the "kit" that I have. My American Autowire kit has a full schematic ( on two pages that I have taped together - I also printed up several extra 17x22 inch 'B' size copies). Whatever I've added has been drawn in with colors of the added wiring labeled. AAW also break it down by system - which is another set of schematics. Then to make it even better, they have it drawn by individual significant component - it's almost an information overload Every one of these pages has instructions as to why you do what