[royce]

OK a few people would have heard of this thing around the place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvnQgqFU ... r_embedded

A little while ago (a year!) it was decided Barbie I was getting a little worn so Barbie II was started, now seeing I spent a weekend adding some wires to Barbie I I got dragged in to sort out the new one.

Being the first lot was a mess I decided this time to build a good loom up that catered for everything and could be pulled out by anyone and and stuck into a new shell and all plugged in with no mucking about, given the budget was about $50 and whatever could be scabbed up around the place that meant there were a few compromises

Anyway some pics

[royce]

Some from inside, everything standard that wasnt needed was removed, extra relay blocks and fuse panels were added in for the extra garbage (this thing draws over 100 amps at idle with the lights on) bits were robbed from a heap of Commodore wrecks, we got a heap of fuse and relay bits and some mini relays for $15, perfect for the budget

The smaller panel is inside the rear cab wall, it powers the stuff that is in the tray area, as the batteries are also back there it made sense to have the wiring as short as possible for the high current items

it runs
the roof lights
twin thermo fans (one fan runs slow all the time then both cut in at higher temps with a sensor on the top hose)
electric water pump for the engine
fan for the intercooler radiator
water pump for the intercooler

Another panel (more commodore bits) was wired up in the area where the glovebox used to be
it runs
the radio
the gps's (has 2)
fuel pumps
rock lights
head lights
some spot lights on the front bar
control for the 24v alternator
interior lights
some power outlets for the fridge and inverter and whatever else
endless air
reverse lights
heaps of other stuff I forgot about, oh yeah there is a relay in there that shuts a heap of it off while cranking cause it draws to much and wont turn over
the 2 smaller relays with the stripe are for the roof lights up and down, when you turn the high beam on it powers an airlocker solenoid which flips the roof lights up and then when you turn them off it flips em down, it also only comes down with the ignition on so its not powered all the time and they can be flipped up for shows to look all cool.

[royce]

Out the back

All sorts of shit goes on out here, Engine Radiator, Intercooler Radiator (Both with fans) 2 electric water pumps for them

2 Fuel pumps, one lifts from tank to surge tank, one to feed the injector pump, it doesnt always need this but sitting on a stupid angle its useful

3 Batteries, 2x 120 ah/hr AGM batteries, all they do is run in series for 24v for the winch, and sometimes with the help of a big shifter jump start the 12v side the other battery is 12v for everything else, sometime once a fuel tank is removed Dual batteries for 12v will be fitted as lots of idling runs this flat pretty quick, 95mm2 cable is run form them all via isolation switches on the tunnel.

Roof lights, 4x lightforce 240 blitz with lightforce 35w HID conversion
Reverse lights, 2x lightforce 140's, still halogen
Rear winch, just a generic chinese low mount, still with 24v up it
normal tail brake and blinkers, all LED

[Joe]

I hate joining two bits of wire together stuff doing all of that

[royce]

Engine bay

because the inner guards and radiator support were removed it meant the standard mounting location of the relays and battery were no longer there and the way the engine bay loom ran (mastercyl forward then across the front and back up the passenger side) was no good so a lot of work was needed here, all the relays were moved inside and the passenger side wiring was run inside along the dash and out the passenger side, what was interesting was things like ALL the indicators all joined together near the battery, so there would be 8 wires joined in a big mes there!

A temp sensor from Jaycar was added to turn the fans on once the engine temp got up there and 2 alternators fitted, a 12v 120amp straight replacement and an 80amp 24v one off an undisclosed brand of truck

all the headlights were also rewired through relays along with extra wiring for the bar mounted spotlights, winch lights and controls and the winch contactor pack

[royce]

Thats about it I think, so there you go, the time Mr Suzuki is awesome and everything else is shit spent way too much time playing with a Nissan

[31zook]

it's cool to see some new things on here, ie non zook related....

does it all work?

top job royce

[royce]

to this day the only dramas are the 4wd light doesnt work and makes the low fuel light glow dim (I think its in the cluster cause no combination of wiring by the book or not fixes it) and of late its blowing a fuse for the glow control and injector pump, but I dont think that was my fault cause it used to work

It even has a horn!

[tanshi]

did they manage to get it sorted from the weekend? they had what appeared to be electrical issues with it on monday

[royce]

yeah thats the fuel pump fuse thing, its only ever happened when i'm not around, you dunno what happens when fitters get together and play with the sparks

[Bruce]

And that's why Royce does my elect work.
Cause I suck at it

[tanshi]

well it looked sweet when it was running. good work !!!!

[atari4x4]

tidy work royce, good to see a few more commodores being raped for their electrical components.

[royce]

Few more random pics I found of pulling the loom to bits

[mnemonix]

Awesome wiring job. Wish I had the patience (and know how) to make mine look that professional.

[royce]

Whilst I dont find wiring stuff hard in the actual process, a huge part is knowing what your end result needs to be, what you have to work with and plan plan plan, I easilly spent as much time working out what was needed and the best way to do it as I did actually chopping and soldering.

Having the whole loom laid out was a big help too, mostly so you can sit on a stool and watch foxtel through the window and not have to worry about a place to rest your beer

[atari4x4]

royce, did you do it all on the fly or did you have some sort of schematic/diagram that you created first & worked from?

my old house mate used knock up heaps of stuff on the fly but every so often when doing full rewires on road/rally/race cars he'd pull out a big sheet of pegboard & a roll of masking paper & draw/plot & build the loom off that usually doing it in 3 sections engine bay/interior/rear, it was cool to see what went into it especially the rally cars with the comms & lighting.

mnemonix start with the small stuff like headlight loom upgrades & spotlights etc & work up from there.

There is a link to some excellent soldering tech in this thread http://auszookers.com/index.php?name=Fo ... ic&t=15301

[mnemonix]

The technical aspect isn't a problem, I used to work as an electronics technician.

However the functional/aesthetical aspects kill me. Getting everything in the correct location, Having the same game plan from start to finish etc.
Too many of my electrical jobs end up being butchered time and time again as components change, leading to a new mess of spaghetti.

[royce]

I had some plans as to relay and fuse box layout, mainly lists of what needed to be put in and where so it would all fit, then a lot of this was altered to suit what was real, I did actually design a fuse and relay panel using some real nice modular bits from teh uk but there was close on $500 in parts for that alone so its wasnt going to happen

Once I had that sorted it was jsut a case of running the wires out, I had locations of most of the key parts marked on the concrete and jsut followed it along, things like the engine bay wiring I jsut terminated once it was in so the lengths were correct.

Not butchering it with addons later was the main reason for doing this, the first one really was a mess and hard to manage, I have built a bit of expandilbility into it so some extra things can be added in fairly neatly if need be, though I cant think of anything it could need

[atari4x4]

how many meters of electrical tape did you end up using?

[royce]

19 rolls of tape, a full refill cannister of gas for my soldering iron.

Dunno about how much cable cause sometimes bits were literally stripped out of the old one and patched together to make do, interesting fact, other than some factory wires, there is no yellow wire in this car cause there was none in the shed, not even any trailer wire to slice up

[stocker]

Geeebus... there is an electrical god ^_^

[just_cruizin]

No one has mentioned the Vitara Heater box and fan. Go the mighty zook Good job Royce.

[royce]

just_cruizin wrote:

No one has mentioned the Vitara Heater box and fan. Go the mighty zook Good job Royce.

Sierra

fixed its electrical issue today, the plug for the injector pump loom had shit in it, dunno how it got in there but anything possible when Nissan is involved.

[monley]

That is some nice wiring royce.