1982 MY wagon wiring overhaul.

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Sat Mar 23, 2013 10:03 pm

The instrument cluster is out of an 1982 touringwagon. It has something like 485K on it

. Well, changing the headlights to relays instead of switching it thru the hi-lo selection switch has easily increased the brightness by LOTS. It actually glows more then just orange

. Also, the indicators are not as erratic, more consistant. These are just some of the obvious difference Ive noticed. Cant wait to take it for a drive now I know the coil has good wiring. In all honesty, nothing is really that hard or complicated in wiring a car like this. Because of the vintage, nearly everything works by pulling high or pulling low, pulling low mainly for lights in the dash, everything else to 12v. It just takes a lot of time. I pretty much tore every wire out and replaced it. I think it was worth it. Regardless of what I say on here, I do enjoy working with electronics, both at work and at home.

Regards

Doug

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 12:40 pm

Nice work Doug.. wanna do my wiring jobs?

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 12:44 pm

Yeah sure mate, already made up,

Il swing by and drop it off

. Jokes aside, sure, if you ever need some done.

anyone want anything from the old wiring loom? Its gonna go in the trash so Just sing out and you can have it.

Going out for a "maiden voyage" soon, hopefully Ive done my homework

Regards

Doug

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 12:56 pm

LOL thanks buddy.. so generous

Hope the car is ready for ANZAC long weekend

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:10 pm

Well, took the car up the freeway, good 100km round trip. Good news is all the electrics worked flawlessly, apart from one little thing I stuffed up, actually quite funny. I hooked up the enable for the alternater into the ignition circuit, to excite the electromagnets. This wire then pulls high when the engine is running. Long story short, when you turn the key off, the engine continues to run because that wire continues to supply power to the coil and fuel pumps

.
Bad news is the engine ran like crap. I installed a MSD Blaster 2 coil and it hasnt run properly since. Wasnt sure if it was my leads, rotor cap and button being in poor condition or weak spark, so as a quick test I retarded the ign timing back 3/4 of the nut width. Even worse and now the plugs are fouling.....hmmmm Seems like the blaster is a bit weak? It came with a ballast resistor which I installed, but it could be a bit on the light side at only 1 ohm. Il stick my scope on it tomorrow and make sure the voltage on the coil is dropping all the way to 0v. If the resistor is too small, it may only be dropping a few volts and that will give me a weak spark. If it is dropping to 0v, then the MSD blaster has gotta go

. If you guys like I can make a video showing how that works. Sometimes its hard to picture whats going on with electronics like that, but the scope will show it clear as day.

Other than that, very happy. All the little things make me happy, like the voltage gauge not even dipping as the indicators cycle, and the thermo fan clicking on as it should, and the hibeam not shutting off randomly while Im driving. Hmmmm, going to have to come up with a new way of staying awake at night now

.

Regards

Doug

RSR 555 · Post by **RSR 555** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:20 am

Good work Doug.. glad to hear it's back on the road

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:51 am

When you say you rewired the beast - the whole thing ? New plug terminals, wire, relays, the whole lot ? !!
Hope you made up a new wiring diagram and colour codefor the next fella to come along

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 9:15 am

Cheers Paul, good to have it back on the road. Lovin the 4spd.

Well yeah Steptoe. Replaced most of the plugs that I could. Only wires that really stayed was some tails from the blinkers, brakes and taillights. I kept the old relays as they bolted up nicely to the origonal bracket. It has a bosch starter relay, and Im using a bosch relay to drive the thermo fan. Only plugs I didnt replace was the one coming out of the key switch and the plug on the indicator switchblock and headlight switch. Some of the connectors were completely corroded, even some of the wire. Strip off some insulation and its still corroded

.

Net fella to come along? that'd be me

. Nah just used red and black and red with black stripe. Actually in the tail I used multi core which was colored. If I had to I could draw up a wiring diagram.

Regards

Doug

Brumby Kid · Post by **Brumby Kid** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 11:01 am

What would you charge if you were going to sell me a new wiring loom?

Cheers Cam

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:49 pm

Hmm, I donno Cam. I didnt really make a loom, I just wired everything in-situ and wrapped it all up afterwoods. I also havn't finished yet. Short answer is no, I cant make you a loom that will plug in and work flawlessly. What sort of issues are you having with your current wiring? I only replaced mine because of the sheer number of faults and the rate of which more were occuring. That being said I probably didnt have to pull the whole loom out. I could of at a pinch fixed the problems.

Going to look into the windows tonight before it rains

.

Regards

Doug

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:36 pm

Hmmm... I should really get around to sorting out my minor wiring issues:

- an earth issue - my fuel pump can be heard pulsating with an indicator on

- find out where my taco wire is again so I can hook it back up so it works again!
- upgrade the alternator to the square plug EJ unit that apparently resolves the charging issue the round plug alternator can have (which I think I've got

)

Other than that, everything is peachy.

Sorry for the hijack! But I'm glad to hear everything is working well - seems like you had a quick turn around!

Cheers

Bennie

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:50 pm

Doesnt sound too bad Bennie. corroded ground connections and plugs are probably the villan.
Yeah, everything still chugging along down here. Waiting for the weekend to really get into finishing the wagon off. I just cannot be bothered after work at the moment. Taking a bit of time to get stuck into my EFI controller.

Regards

Doug

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:25 pm

Hey all,

Just a small update. Got all the power windows going. I had to dissasemble the main toggle switch blocks and remove the corrosion from the contacts. One of them needed building up with solder. After that, wired it all up and boom, all working. I didnt reinstall the auto feature as I mostly found it annoying, especially with the corroded main toggle switch in the center console. Made it impossible to have it partially open.

Anyway, my back is killing me, time to sit down for a while. Main things left are the wipers, radio and 2-way. They should be a walk in the park, though Im pretty much out of wire.

Regards

Doug

Post by **TOONGA** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:46 pm

Doug I have a set of those switches if you want, In good condition (they look good and work well) no cover just the switches.

Don't have any wire though sorry

TOONGA

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 7:57 pm

Nah thats ok mate, this one is working great now.

Regards

Doug

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:36 pm

Subydoug wrote:Doesnt sound too bad Bennie. corroded ground connections and plugs are probably the villan.

I've been thinking of running a direct earth wire between all the body earth mounts. Just time and motivation I don't really have at the moment - got loads going on!

Sounds like you're getting there

Cheers

Bennie

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 12:07 pm

Latest on the old girl. Installed an accesspack onto it this morning. The company I work for manifactures accesspack's which are an RFID acces control systems for industrial equiptment. A video clip tells lots of words,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxVgAB7aoNM

This is a new feature we've just added and Im prototyping it in the wagon. Now all I need is keyless entry and Im rolling with the big boys

.

Regards

Doug

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 6:24 pm

Haha! Brilliant! Like some of those new Ferarris I think

Would it be very hard to crack it open and hot wire it?

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Wed Apr 17, 2013 6:50 pm

About as easy as hotwireing a standard wagon with an immobiliser. I could probably get it running in about a minuite without a card and a bit of damage to the underpanel footwell. 2 min's with a screwdriver

. That would be bypassing the whole system. Relay circuits are pretty easy to crack. Newer cars with wireless keyfobs are harder to crack because the keyfob lets the ECU know that your alloud to use the car internally. Doesnt mean that its impossible, just harder

.

Like I said but, these systems are mainly for industrial use.

Subydoug · Post by **Subydoug** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:13 pm

Hey all,

Bit of an update. Finally decided to start finishing off my wiring for the old wagon. Major things Ive changed is the way the headlights were wired. I had done something with diodes and jumper wires. It made for a nice dull low beam and a good hi beam. Now Ive done it properly with no diodes and the correct headlight plugs.
Also finally made up a central power box which has found a home behind the drivers side shock tower. It has 3 power bus bars inside it and 12 fuse holders.

I got ten 40amp 12v relays from china for about 50 bucks, so I mounted them directly onto the box. I think I was using about 4 relays before. Should have plenty spare now.

The front of the car is done upto the engine loom connector which needs running into the dash for relevent signals. I got some spiral wrap and went banana's, certainly well worth it and looks better then tape IMO. The Blue wire going to the terminal will also be moved upto the power box thru the engine loom connector.

Other side, you can see the loom attached to the thermo fan housing. I was going to have it go down to the bottom of the radiator like the original loom did, would have been smarter too as it would make removing the radiator easier....but I didnt, oh well.

Where the power goes upto the box from the starter motor, also with the starter solenoid wires. Two lengths of wire upto the box. 1 would have been fine to run everthing but overkill is good. It will get some Spiral wrap once Ive run all the wires over to the window wiper and sprayer.

Worst thing so far is Ive used the old key switch. Its a bit crusty and it means that all the power has to go upto the switch, then back to the box. I used heavy wire but its still crap. I can measure resistance thru the switch. It worked fine before so Il just leave it and see how it goes. If it turns out to be a problem Il just hook up two spare relays across the power bus bars which will close the loop substantially.

Thats it for now, went to get some larger connectors for under the dash but supercheap were out of stock and the people at repco didnt seem to know what I was talking about, even after I showed them a picture

so Il get some tomorrow from somewhere else and continue.

Regards

Doug