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Post by Bilbo on Nov 7, 2022 21:09:06 GMT
Good progress. As it’s a V reg means it’s a 79/80 car- does that mean free road tax, no MOT & ULEZ? Thanks. Yeah MOT and tax exempt, and I imagine being historic age vehicle it'd be ULEZ exempt, but not something I'll need to think about as I'm not in London. While it will be MOT exempt, I am going to get an MOT on it. It's been off the road for 25 years so will be good to get it tested, and also it'll be it's first digitally recorded MOT which I'd like to have as well. |
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 7, 2022 23:49:12 GMT
Spent a while today working through various bits of the wiring, labelling wires that need splicing and starting to get the interior loom tucked up. It's looking like it should all fit quite well, I've started to place the various relays and brackets into place, and everything should just about fit with the complete original dash in place. I need to make a few mount points, but the driver's side is starting to look a little bit less of a mess.  I also replaced the stalk assembly with the other one that came with the car. The original stalk wasn't bad but the windscreen wiper selector was a bit tired and didn't nicely click into each position like it should. A lot left to do on the wiring but it should be great when it's sorted. Also spent some time today starting to convert the loom into H4 bulb layout, not too much work really, should have that done in the next couple of days. |
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Post by wannabe on Nov 8, 2022 11:04:25 GMT
Can you lend me some of your motivation? I can barely find the energy to walk downstairs and get breakfast, never mind actually leave the house and be productive!  lol |
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 13, 2022 3:41:27 GMT
Can you lend me some of your motivation? I can barely find the energy to walk downstairs and get breakfast, never mind actually leave the house and be productive! lol Haha, the motivation is going well, but I am tiring myself out working on this until late most evenings now, I need a break haha. |
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 13, 2022 3:43:48 GMT
Plenty more progress made on the wiring the last few days. In terms of updates there's not a lot to show, but a good chunk of the required wiring has been sorted. Started off getting the front lights all wired into the 5 harness. The dipped beam, main beam, sidelights, indicators and foglights are all sorted, as well as the main grounding block on each side bolted to the body.  Looking fairly neat now down at the front, doesn't look out of place at all. The 5 harness used 2 separate headlight bulbs. Fairly simple to convert this to a single 3 pin H4, utilising a common 12v on one pin, and the dipped and main beam grounds on the other 2. After sorting this I moved onto the column stalk and switches, and the instrument cluster plugs. Took me a while to work everything out, but it is all done now and will all be tucked up neatly when the full interior is back in.  There was a lot to do here, and all being well I have now sorted out the sidelight/dipped switch, main beam/flash switch, indicators, wipers, and washer. The original instrument cluster will be kept in it's entirety, I have spliced various pins from the 5 instrument cluster plugs which should give me a working battery light, indicator/hazard lights, full beam indicator, handbrake warning light, oil pressure gauge, temp gauge and fuel gauge. The voltage stabiliser in the original instrument cluster has also been wired in. From what I can find online this apparently converts a couple of the gauges to 10v rather than 12v, something to do with accurate readings on the temp and fuel gauges. Anyway it's wired in so should hopefully work as intended. The speedo hasn't yet been sorted, it is a cable drive speedo gauge, I am going to see if I can adapt an MX-5 one to fit the cluster. Overall very happy with the progress, it just takes a lot of time, and until I've got the loom fitted properly I can't test any of it. But I have been very carefully comparing the 2 different wiring diagrams, so I'm hoping not to encounter many big issues with any of the wiring I have spliced so far. |
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gbuk
Chats A Bit
Posts: 130 
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Post by gbuk on Nov 13, 2022 9:14:44 GMT
Although I've tinkered with mains electrics over the years I've always viewed car electrics as a dark art. I find just reading what you're doing daunting, so as someone who cba to even wire up my hardtop heated rear window in the last five years I tip my hat to your skills and patience.
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 14, 2022 2:17:44 GMT
Although I've tinkered with mains electrics over the years I've always viewed car electrics as a dark art. I find just reading what you're doing daunting, so as someone who cba to even wire up my hardtop heated rear window in the last five years I tip my hat to your skills and patience. Well, household electrics are beyond me, so you're doing something right 😂 It is a bit daunting tbh, mainly due to the fact I can't properly test the loom until it's all in and the ground points are all attached to the body and everything. I am using a multimeter to help identify particular plugs. Has been very handy seeing as the rear fog wiring is not included in any of the wiring diagrams I can find, likely because they're US market ones. But really I just do it 1 wire at a time, get each thing done and see each wire/plug as an individual job. Definitely helps make it seem less of a massive job. |
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 16, 2022 13:35:51 GMT
My mate got the final bracing points added to the engine mount plates. I have now painted them and the gearbox mount ready to be fitted onto the car.  I made some progress on the engine loom routing. Made a couple of holesaw holes that overlapped, and cut the middle part out straight to make a hole that matches the engine loom grommet:  Turns out I actually cut the hole a little too big lengthways, but I'll sort that. The engine loom is now in the bay and all plugged in inside the car:  Slowly getting the interior harness tucked up and hidden inside the dash. The heater transfer box on the firewall now fits in the car, with the loom around it, so that's great, and the vent connector pipes for windscreen and dash vents should just about squeeze in to, so heat distribution should be close to the original setup. Also got the lower part of the main dash refitted to check the harness doesn't foul it anywhere. All good:  I have routed the ECU wiring up behind the dash, and the ECU will sit comfortably inside the glovebox. This isn't the final fitting, but just a test fit to see that it would work:  Keeps everything nicely hidden, which is great. Also this is a far better place for the ECU than MX-5s use. In the 5s the ECU is under the passenger footwell kickplate, if you suffer from a bad leak on that side it can reach the ECU plugs/ECU itself and cause all manner of issues. Glad I have managed to fit it much higher up here, and out of the way of any potential harm. Pretty happy with how it's going. I have also wired in the handbrake warning switch, located the placement for several loom grounding points, and identified the required wires for the hazard switch and heater fan switches. Dash and instruments wise I just need to lengthen the instrument lights plug a few inches, wire the front and rear fog switches, wire up the hazard switch, the heater switch, the horn, door open switches, and the rear screen defog heater element. The rest of it is more "nice to haves" like a modern radio, upgraded speakers etc. which can be done whenever. All fairly straightforward stuff. After this is sorted I'll be getting the rear loom wired in to the rear lights, boot light etc. and getting a battery tray made, and connecting the main earth point to the body. Wiring should hopefully all be done and ready to go in the next week. The other big thing to do is re-fit the engine and see if my current clutch master fits, if not then I believe a LHD MX-5 one will work as the unit doesn't jut out to the left as much as my current one, which I think will likely contact the rear VVT pipes on the engine. Once the engine is re-fitted we will measure up and get the propr sent off to be adapted. |
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 22, 2022 1:23:23 GMT
So I've been pretty flat out on the wiring stuff the last week. Got a load done! Hazard switch is wired in, as are the front and rear fog switches. I got a radio converter harness and made a bracket to hide the modern radio under the passenger side of the dash. I'll likely upgrade it to something better, but this one will be good enough for now.   It sits flat on the firewall shelf, but the dash itself isn't straight at the bottom, so it looks a bit wonky here haha. Didn't realise this until it was all fitted. Still, you can barely see it when you're up at passenger height, so it's not an issue. For now I am keeping the original 70s radio in its centre holder, just to keep the interior looking completely original, though it won't be functional. I've located the door speaker wiring and will get some speakers wired in and fitted somewhere soon. A few wires left to sort and tuck, and a few others to cut off or tie up and leave for potential future use, but the dash wiring is all going to just about fit and be hidden well. I've also got the rear lights all wired in. I've removed the ugly smashed bolt on rear fog, found some rust behind it so that was just as well, will get that sorted soon. I have wired the rear fog into the right side reverse light, much like I have on 5s previously. It is a clear lens so will just fit a red bulb.  The lights are in absolutely mint condition, all the wiring contacts inside could have been made this year, they're perfect. The original rear light wiring ran up along the upper edge of the rear wing panel, with little bendy metal clips holding it in. I've fitted the new wiring the same way, so it's all completely hidden as it was before.  Couple of bits left, boot light and number plate light to sort, but that's it for the rear. It's amazing the condition of the rear of the car, inside the boot there isn't a spec of rust, it's all perfectly red as it was when it was new. I also got all the body ground points on the loom attached. 9 in total I believe, excluding the engine block ground which I will sort when engine is final fitted. I've checked them all with a multimeter and there's good continuity on all the ground points. So then came the scary part. I took a fire extinguisher off the wall, handed it to my mate and told him he was on electrical firefighter duty, and grabbed a battery. The good news is there was no fire. No fuses blew, nothing powered up unexpectedly. Great start. Turned the key and the hazards were going off all the time, which was weird. No alarm on this loom so I had a look at a few things and it turns out I had the left and right indicators permanently grounded on the switch. Some minor wiring alterations needed, but I'll sort that soon. I've also wired the headlight switch a little wrong, but after fiddling with the order the pins were wired in we confirmed we have working sidelights, dipped beam, and tail lights.  Ok yeah I have a dodgy H4 bulb on the passenger side, but they work! Hazard switch works as it should, on or off the key. Brake lights also work perfectly on the pedal I installed which is great. Cig lighter works, didn't think it was going to, so obviously I touched it as it wasn't glowing red. It does work, it burned quite a bit haha. Need to look at the cluster as a couple of things aren't lighting up, but the indicator light does. Overall not bad, it didn't all melt and burn or blow any fuses, so I'm counting that as a win. Now I know where I am with it all I will get the bits that aren't quite right sorted, and get a battery tray made up in the boot.  Can't wait to drive this thing, so much work, I can't wait to get it done. |
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 23, 2022 2:11:11 GMT
So I've managed to work out a fair few of the wiring issues. Little bit of twisting wires differently and working out where the issues were. The hazard switch behaves strangely with the MX-5 loom, causes issues with the indicators. I'm moving it to its own switch elsewhere. I'll probably do the same with a few things and have a little toggle switchboard with retro pressed sticker labels for each. Should look quite cool. Indicators are sorted now and work as they should, and despite not having bulbs in the side indicator holders on the loom, they don't flash fast. The mk1 5s do flash quicker when bulbs are missing/blown, so it's interesting the mk2.5 loom doesn't, must be an upgraded flasher relay or something they moved to. Indicator light in the cluster works as well. Anyway so I worked out the hazards, and the hazard warning appears in the cluster now when they're pressed. Perfect. I didn't think the radio worked, so I tried to ground it better. Anyway long story short I then pressed the On button and it worked. Probably should have tried that first to be honest 😂 Also worked out the sidelight/dipped headlight switch, that's all working now, and that meant I could test my fogs. Front and rear are both working perfectly, the rear just needs a red bulb in the reverse light housing, and one of the fronts is blown so I'll replace that. Also this meant I could test my full beam, which also works perfectly too. I quite like the vibrant blue of the main beam warning in the cluster:  Annoyingly it's currently reversed. It's coming on with dipped beam and not main beam haha. Need to work that out, my initial guesswork as to why didn't work out, but I'm sure I'll have it sorted soon. I have tail lights when sidelights/dipped are put on, which is great, but none of the interior lights were coming on. I went over the 5 wiring diagram again and noticed all of the interior lights that come on with the lights are grounded in series. That ground runs through the original interior light switch. I don't have that switch installed, hence no grounding on any of the lights. Found one of the grey/red wires in that grounding system and attached it temporarily to a main body ground point, and they now work. Will sort a proper solution for that, and that's something else sorted. This meant I could now test my instrument illumination. And errr, yeah this is it:  Hahaha, these are terrible! This was in pitch black with all lights turned off in the unit. I knew the cluster was front lit rather than backlit, with just 2 tiny bulbs with light diffusers, but my god this is just unacceptably bad 😂 I'm going to have to look into backlighting them, seeing if light will bleed through the gauges. If it will I'll drill some holes in the back of the cluster and get a few lights wired in, because I may as well not have any currently, they're hilariously poor. I think the rear lights look really cool in the dark too:  I just need to get the number plate light wired in and the rear light wiring is all completely done. Just need to solder up all these new wiring changes and get everything reinstalled and then the instruments and light wiring is all done, and I can get that subframe braced and get the engine in! |
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Post by dadbif on Nov 23, 2022 7:50:22 GMT
Is there a dimmer on the dash lighting? ISTR it was a popular feature on VX/Opel back then. Rotary switch somewhere on the dash.
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 23, 2022 9:29:01 GMT
Is there a dimmer on the dash lighting? ISTR it was a popular feature on VX/Opel back then. Rotary switch somewhere on the dash. A very good suggestion! Unfortunately nothing like that I can see anywhere, and nothing for it in the pre and post '78 wiring diagrams. I'll get some different lights wired in, see if I can improve the output. |
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Post by boggissimo on Nov 23, 2022 9:58:51 GMT
Replace the crappy little incandescent bulbs with LEDs? Might be enough difference, and they're cheaper than chips
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Post by Bilbo on Nov 23, 2022 16:31:28 GMT
Replace the crappy little incandescent bulbs with LEDs? Might be enough difference, and they're cheaper than chips This is probably the best option yeah, I'll get some and see how it looks. |
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Post by Zed. on Nov 23, 2022 16:45:01 GMT
Is there a dimmer on the dash lighting? ISTR it was a popular feature on VX/Opel back then. Rotary switch somewhere on the dash. ^^THIS unless tou've the cheapest 'poverty spec' car ever made  Rich. |
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lol
