Spark in the Dark!!!

Well there has been some progress since the last update... all be it slow, but iv had a mental few months. I had left it last time with me a little miffed with the loom i received from AK, all has been resolved as when i contacted Jon i was asking for some identification of some of the dash wires and he said "its all very simple, it tells you on page 14"....... "page 14 of what??" i replied, and then the penny dropped!!! So a couple of days later i had also received the key/guide for the loom identification. Without the pun it was like someone turning on the light!!

So i started to wire up the dash loom first, the main loom was layed out in the body tub and so just required fine tuning and connecting to the terminals in question. The dash loom went together fairly well, I'm not happy one bit with how tidy it looks, but its working and so shall be ok for the moment. I have made some changes to the dash loom as i have fitted an oil temp gauge, which i have just used one of the fan speed wires and then cut the wire on the loom side of the multi plug and rerouted a wire from that to the sender down by the clutch slave. I used one of fan speed wires because i only intend to have the fan set on one speed, i don't see the point on having a 2 speed heater fan on a car with no roof.

 Now i started to make some terminations for each leg of the loom. Wiring is very logical and its just a case of start at the start and work your way through. So i started at the front offside and extended the loom to the headlight cluster and indicator, then worked my way back to the side indicator, brake line pressure switch (brake lights) etc..

I extended the headlight loom to reach the cluster, and made the connections to each side,dip and main beam. I'm using the blue plastic cheap connectors, which i don't like, but i might upgrade them at a later date. After all so long as they do the job required and are safe, they will do for the moment.

So after a most of the connections were made it was time to connect a battery and start testing some of the circuits..... fire extinguisher on stand by.

I didn't tighten the battery terminals, just in case i had to quickly kill the power, even though everything is fused, I'm not taking any risks. So first things first ignition on, and the oil pressure light lit up (good start) handbrake on and red warning light came on... two in a row. So going for a hat trick and side lights on and all the gauges lit up and sidelights came on.

Also with the side lights was the rear lights and a quick push on the brake pedal and on came the brake lights. Hazards also working 100%, i had a few issues with the earth points and how it affected the rear indicators, linked through the common ground for the brake lights, but after some logical thinking and testing all was sorted fairly quickly.

I haven't made any connections to the steering column yet, as i don't have any multiplugs on that bit of the loom and so will have to get some systematics and trace each wire, so i cant test main beam, indicators, washer fluid or wipers yet... but fingers crossed.

 
One thing that i am extremely pleased with is my choice of headlight. The P700 tripods look superb with the crisp white light of the h4 xenon bulbs. There are debates regarding these lights and the use of them for IVA because they are not "E" marked. This is because they have no area within the glass lens for driving in Europe and main beam dazzle when driving on the left. However as advised and researched through the IVA rules, so long as the beam is adjusted correctly to give the correct light pattern, they do not need to display the "E" mark.

Here is a little video which shows me testing some of the circuits. This video also shows what a ridiculously small space I'm trying to build this car in, and how tight it is getting in and out. However who cares, car making progress, radio on, brew in hand... and its not raining = happy little me.

Since i have done these few electrical bits it has left a superb sense of achievement, the fact i can now press a button and on come the lights etc... makes me feel quite please (Sad i know)



And probably the most satisfying experience of all is the test of the starter button, or the "Go Baby Go" button in my case. Pressing the button makes the beast roar!!! enjoy!!