wiring loom

dylanp · #1 13th June 2004, 22:41

Hello All!

Hope everyone is making good progress in the nice weather?

Has anyone looked at the wires yet? I've unpacked the wires and got pretty depressed straight away!

I thought that the Marlin colour coding would match the Rover colour coding - not really (or maybe I'm just particularly daft!).

Anyone got any tips on how to approach this challenge? I looked at the haynes wiring diagrams but not much help if the Marlin wires follow a different colour scheme?

Surely it must be easier than having to trace every single wire from A to B - that could take months!

Dylan

JG · #2 14th June 2004, 10:22

Surely it must be easier than having to trace every single wire from A to B

That might be exactly what you have to do but look at it as you say as a challange.

I don't know why but many people become jibbering wrecks when it comes to the wiring (not saying you are of course

) but if you approach it logically and with patience and make notes and label things then it will go like a dream and give you immense satisfaction.

What you are doing now is basically making your car 'come alive' and that is a great feeling. Getting the engine going, seeing the first light turn on etc etc is a huge milestone in a kit car build.

Good luck with it, here's to your first spark

John

Madabout-kitcars.com

dylanp · #3 14th June 2004, 13:58

Hmmm...

I really appreciate your reply John... But it really wasn't what I was hoping to hear

Ah well, I guess the challenge is there... I accept!

I'll be in touch in about a year or so again...

Cheers,
Dylan

holgate86 · #4 14th June 2004, 21:45

I have gone a different route with the wiring having a fairly new model rover 25 donor I decided to remove the full harness and cut out what I didn't need. It has worked out perfectly for me and as it was part of the donor cost nowt.
I have read you shouldn't use wiring from the donor due to the fact it deteriorates and corrodes but as I say my donor was only 4 years old.

I have seen universal wiring harnesses at kit car shows and I presume these are similar to the Marlin harness. I did note they were marked up for all the relevant functions. If Marlin have already wired one of these universal harnesses then I think they should provide with the harness the colour codes required because once it's been done once the hard way it could be recorded and provided to everyone. I'm pretty sure the wire colours Rover use for all the indiividual circuits doesn't change from model to model.

The only other advice I can give is to treat each circuit individually and not get confused with wiring diagrams which have many circuits overlayed making it look complicated. The thing to remember is everything needs a neg and a pos to work, a simple circuit, stick a switch in there, protect it with a fuse, and that's about it. I hope this helps. Brian

dylanp · #5 14th June 2004, 22:58

Hi Brian,

To be perfectly honest I expected more help from Marlin in this part of the build - as you say, once the wires have been connected once on a car, surely it would make sense to record the colour codes in some sort of a 1 page instruction sheet...

Or they could label the chunks of wires - e.g. ignition, instruments, lights, etc.etc..

I guess wire by wire its going to be for me though...

Cheers,
Dylan

dylanp · #6 18th June 2004, 22:15

Update...

Got some hand written instructions from Marlin which could be just what I need...

I'm gonna give it a go over the weekend... If they work I'll type them up if anyone's interested?

Dylan

tony-g · #7 19th June 2004, 12:20

any help with the wiring side would be most welcome. if it saves time and my temper.

cheers
tony-g

dylanp · #8 19th June 2004, 19:02

OK, just got back after several hours of trying to work out the wires... nope... I'm giving up!

The instructions Marlin provided me were useful in connecting the lights, radiator fan, fuel tank, instruments, etc...
But there is no mention of the ignition switch, ECU, alarm, etc... which is just a bit too much for me to work out...

Can anyone recommend an electrician based in London?

Cheers,
Dylan

p.s. if anyone wants the Marlin instructions please let me know - they work for the above mentioned parts...

Tim · #9 7th July 2004, 20:25

Dylan

I asked Mark about this at Goodwood (cos I was worried that I would hit exactly the problem you describe!) He said that although the rover wires differ from model to model there should be a theme to then eg Rover does purple with a white stripe and you look for white with a purple stripe on their loom.

Might be worth a longer chat with Mark before you get too frustrated!

dylanp · #10 7th July 2004, 20:51

Fair point...

Actually its true - most of the wires match up!

Where I got stuck is with the ECu and the Alarm box - the fact that i'm missing the connector plugs for the alarm box didn't help either :-(

I'm getting some connectors this week and I'm also going to Marlin on Saturday so a quick chat with Mark is in order (together with a close look under the bonet of their demo cars :-)

Cheers,
Dylan