New rear wiring loom, make it or buy it?

[Boris113]

Hi guys,

The rebuild of the 90 has been on the back burner recently as a result of dissertation and exam revision but i'm now starting to look at the rear wiring loom once again.

It's a 1989 90 but I will be fitting a full set of NAS lights to the rear also. The rear wiring loom is a total mess and I was considering making one. I'm not an electrical genius by any means and don't have all of the correct coloured wire but was thinking of using a length of 7 core trailer light wire.

My plan is to cut the loom where it enters the chassis by the gearbox and run a length of the trailer wire to the rear. When it exits at the rear crossmember, I can strip the main insulation and route the wires accordingly, solder the NAS connections on and then re-insulate it neatly.

My theory was that trailer wire has a much thicker protective cover and is also cheap (i'm on a student budget). Also it would be easy to trace electrical faults because all of the wires are bright different colours and avoid using the horrible connections that sit in the covers behind the rear lights.

My other options are:

Try to decipher the tangled mess of old loom and repair it (I dont have all the connectors/correct coloured wire, somebody has messed about with it before and i'm colourblind!)

Buy a new loom from autosparks with all the NAS connections on it already so its literally a case of plug and play (as above i'm a student and therefore would prefer to spend money on beer )

Any ideas welcome, thanks in advance.

[mmgemini]

Make your own. That wau you can make it in one piece from front connection to rear lights. What horrible connections sitting in covers ? The NAS lights should have been supplied with the correct connections.

Vehicle Wiring Products will supply the correct colour coded wiring for your loom. You have the choice of a sleeve or Spiral Wrap. I used Spiral Wrap when I put my 12S socket down the chassis. I don't see any problems with it after eight years.

Please follow the correct wiring colours. Much easier for somebody following after you.

Here's a list of colour codes.

http://www.vord.net/cars/wiring/colours.php

[ejparrott]

You can use 7-core, I've just done it on the Series 2, but remember that trailer wiring uses white as earth when you come to fit the socket. Using the proper colours makes a neater job, and it isn't that expensive to do. I use a PVC insulator rather than spiral bind or braided sleeve

[UdderlyOffroad]

I’m probably going to do the same as you, I.e. makeup a new loom with NAS light connectors already attached.

The problem with 7-core is that it doesn’t help if you have a heated rear screen or a rear wash wipe, or for that matter your fuel tank sender and low-fuel light! The Autosparks loom is about £80 inc VAT IIRC, and for that money you could make your own with all the correct colours.

I was going to do it ‘properly’ with convulted tube, t-pieces, and proper boots on the NAS connectors. I reckon I should still be able to do it for less the £50 – the Durite catalogue is your friend here. The only problem is likely to be the connector at the bulkhead end, but again you have 3 options:

You could probably get one from Autosparks

Use a better multiway connector

Just use individual bullet connectors onto the existing connector

I’ve actually removed and measured up the existing loom and dimensioned it up in CAD, ready for me to draw a new one with correct connectors. will try and post this up for you when I get home tonight.

[UdderlyOffroad]

Whoops, just noticed you have a 90, ignore the bit about the fuel tank sender, no idea if you the sender is on the same loom on a 90.

Also you probably want to make yours shorter than my 110 dimensions. Unlike LR. Spec'd by accountants, built by brummies....

[Boris113]

Thanks for all of the advice guys, in that case I will start to price it up in the Durite catalogue and also ring Autosparks for a quote, I'm not planning on selling the 90 for a very long time so it makes sense to do everything properly.

I've currently got a soft top 90 that is soon to become a caged up- truck cab so other than all the normal rear lights, the only leccys in the back are for the tow bar. Thats where the plan for using trailer cord came from. Also the 90 is going to spend a lot of time doing play days and challenges so the heavy outer cover on the trailer wire meant one less thing to get damaged, especially if I decide to run the loom inside the galv chassis.

@mmgemini i meant the round rubber connections that all the loom connects through, there are loads of them behind the wiring light covers in the corners of the tub (i don't know the proper name for them)

Many thanks again, Harry

[Guest]

Harry,

Just one consideration if you go down the route of making up your own loom, put some extra wires in there, even if you don't use them for now, you never know when you want to add a work light a 12v outlet for a camera or something similar when I did the same on an old truck I wish I had run 4 extra feeds to allow for different choices of equipment to come back to the main fuse box/switch panel.

Jason.

[mmgemini]

Ah Harry. You mean the bullit connectiors. Throw the things away. Vehicle Wiring Products sell some three and four way Lucar connector blocks. IMO a much better thing

Here we are C3B at the bottom of the page

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/VWP-onlinestore/terminalsnonins/noninsblades.php

HTH

[PieEater3142]

I have recently been connecting all the lights to my project and the bullets have been the bane of my life - wherever I could I've put sheathed spade connectors and then wrapped each individually with amalgamating tape.

[Boris113]

Thanks for all the advice guys

I was going to run a couple of lengths of dual core household wire inside the chassis also (i know it's a bodge but it's hefty stuff, cheap and will easily cope with lights etc)

Mike, thats exactly what I meant, thanks for the link, looks like I'll be putting in an order soon!

I'll be sure to insulate everything properly, I used amalgamating tape to insulate eveything when I lopped the loom in 2 during a rear crossmember change a couple of years ago... At least I won't do that job again with the new chassis!

Harry

[mmgemini]

I've found that one of the problems with tape of any kind is that it holds moisture. I've changed a lot of my ways with my Defender compared on how I did my rally cars.

Harry

If you call VWP they will send you a paper catalogue. Good for small room reading.

[ejparrott]

If you call VWP they will send you a paper catalogue.

And one with every order.....

[mmgemini]

Right a blast from the past. HELP please.

Today my left rear indicator stopped working.

Looking at things tonight in the dark it appears that I need some new wiring.

SO

How does that wiring go across the rear crossmember ? Is it in the loom with the fuel gauge wiring or not. I was hopeing that two new wires across the back would do. Will they ?

[western]

runs out of right hand chassis main rail right rear lights go up into the rear body, left rear lights & fuel tank wiring runs across rear cross member then up into rear body to the lights, fuel tank wiring is a sub loom with a inline tubular connector approx half way along the rear cross member. thats how mine was routed prior to & after my chassis change 2 years ago.

I have a new autosparks chassis loom to fit, hopefully this summer.

[TheKeymeister]

I had a fault in my loom where the brake light feed was shorting to something permanently live and flickering on every so often,

I found that when the rear crossmember had been replaced by a previous owner, they'd chopped it and re joined using red straight through crimps, which had let water in, corroded and shorted together....

I pulled the whole thing out from the bulkhead end, wrapped it in split plastic conduit, strapped it to the chassis out of the way of everything, this gave me enough length to cut back the corroded part and re join properly and heat shrink each core afterwards.

It's been like that at least 18 months now and there's no problems at all - just a thought depending on where yours has gone faulty. Next step is to remove all the bullet connectors in each corner and either make them solid or replace with Econoseal as I'm going to the later style indicator/rear lamps anyway.

[Maverik]

I had the same problem... cut rear loom after chassis replacement, horrible crimp connectors, I cut back and installed a couple of rounds multi plugs, filled them full of grease then wrapped them up in denso tape. Been fine since.