Wiring harness

[kram350kram]

Starting to think about wiring a TCS. Has anyone in Europaland rewired with a complete universal kit? If so, any recommendations welcomed. Thanks in advance.

[BDA]

britishwiring.com has a harness (http://www.britishwiring.com/category-s/206.htm) and lotus-supplies has them also (https://www.lotus-supplies.com/part-category/electrical/looms/). In addition, Dave Bean and r.d. enterprises might also sell wiring harnesses. The only experience I have with britishwiring is buying some wire and bulb holders. They have the proper colors for Brit cars. I can only assume their harnesses are good. Lotus-supplies is the parts end of Richard Winter's Europa Engineering which produces and supplies quality upgraded and stock parts. I would not expect to have any problems with their harness.

I considered rewiring my car when I built it but I chickened out and just glommed onto my original harness!

[Dilkris]

I considered rewiring my car when I built it but I chickened out and just glommed onto my original harness!

I intend doing the same, (I think), what does "glommed" mean? Is this a typo??     

[BDA]

By “glommed”, I meant that I added circuits and fuse blocks to the existing harness.

[Gary t]

I also just repaired the original  harness. Sticking to colours as best I could and making  notes on the working drawing. I added spare wires from the panel to both the front and back while it was all exposed. I had mounted the panel components on a rough plywood panel held in place about 6 inches aft of its location on threaded rod so I could reach the forward side easily. Just do 1 circuit at a time.

[dakazman]

   Certified replaced his harness and it is documented here , just do a search.
 As I remember it was marked very well and he worked off a blown up schematic. You can remove the harness and mark the routing with yellow tape. Remove clamps and Mark wire with the exact point.
Dakazman

[Sandyman]

I bought a replacement wiring harness from Autosparks UK. 97% complete, some wrong plugs,  some missing connectors and wires to left hand front lights missing.

[kram350kram]

Thanks for the responses. Thought of using part of the original harness or even a new one, but that might just be counterproductive and more costly in the long run as the car now has a V-8 in between the frame rails. Two fans, larger output alternator, voltmeter vs ammeter, GM starter, mechanical gauges, need for power in different places, etc... Was wondering if anyone wired from a kit like Painless? The only issue I can see that might be difficult is connecting to the original controls on the steering column.

[dakazman]

  I heard good things about Painless. I would still try to overlay the schematics and add or subtract from there.  They may even have some support that can guide you along.
  Dakazman

[BDA]

Our own Grumblebuns bought a modular wiring system that might interest you. I’d send him a PM or an email and ask about it.

[Sofa King]

When I built the LS6 powered Europa, there wasn’t any wiring left in the shell, to start with so I went with a generic hot rod harness from Summit Racing. The quality of the harness was great, but the instructions were terrible. It didn’t come with a schematic, so even though the wires were clearly marked it was hard to determine what needed relays and what required additional switches, etc. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent a little extra and gone with the Painless harness. I don’t know that the harness would be much better, but my experience with them has been that their documentation is great!

[Sofa King]

By the way, I connected the harness through the controls on a Miata steering column. The Europa wiring to the harness would be much simpler. Mine took some head scratching and planning but with my limited wiring experience, I was able to make everything work fairly easily.

[kram350kram]

Thanks Sofa! 

[RonPNW]

I'm in the middle of refurbing my harness as we speak. I did make many changes including more fuses and some different gauges but assumed it would be easier to tweak the original harness. Results have been mixed:
-  I found that most existing connections / connectors were either loose or corroded.
-  When trying to install new connectors / crimps I found that the individual wire strands were often corroded inside the rubber casing. This made for a poor, high resistance crimp. I did find that careful and prolonged use of standard electrical solder rosin (not acid core) could remove the corrosion and make a good solder joint. So all my connections are solder.
-  I was able to salvage enough properly colored wire to make a harness that conforms to standard color codes for about 90% of the harness.
-  There are many wire runs that deserve a larger gauge wire (the window motors being the most obvious) and also many that can use a smaller gauge.
-  Since I found I needed to redo every connector I took the opportunity to add multi-pin connectors to allow easy body removal and easy engine operation with the body removed.
In retrospect it would have be much quicker and easier to simply buy a new harness but I would have been stuck with the original design (important if you want a authentic restoration) with some of the original issues. On balance, I'm happy that I did add more fuses, got rid of the ammeter and ammeter wiring from the engine bay, removed the high current alternator wiring to the ammeter, moved to a modern alternator, increased the wire gauge for several wires and added connectors to allow easier maintenance.