Mk2 Wiring

Evening folks, thing this is my first post here, long time stalker, first time poster and all that.

Anyway, I'm been tasked with the unenviable job of rewiring Charlie's new Mk2 in time for the Easter off roading thingy and just want to check I've got the right end of the proverbial stick while she’s off playing with fancy lah-de-dah cars in Spain.

The only thing I’m not so sure on this the coil/dizzy setup, I was a prepubescent teenager the last time I played with points and the like. The donor was a 1972 Mini pickup, theres no little black box of sin or ballast resistor so judging by diagram 10.31 of Confucius’ ubiquitous “Assembly is the reverse of removal manual #646” it should be as simple as +12v feed to the coil positive, coil negative to dizzy via white wire, dizzy grounds itself through the block and everyone is happy. Correct?

The plan is to strip everything out, put a bulk order into VWP and wire everything from scratch along with a new dash from my friendly laser profilers. The headlights are still sealed beam efforts and they’re only getting 10v with the engine running there is so much corrosion in the works, green oxide in every joint, and a distinct lack of Lucas OEM grade smoke, which I'm not going to even bother trying to replace. My only dilemma is do we try to seal everything to stop water ingress or leave it all open to aid water egress and have a regular WD40 application schedule? Any thoughts?

Regards
Iain

Chris Yates is your man,he managed to make his distributor basically waterproof by sealing the cap to the distributor body.If my memory serves me correctly he drilled a hole in the cap and connected a breather pipe for expansion purposes which he led away to a higher point on the chassis. As far as the water ingress in to the car,well,that's a personal preference,with my Mk1 it has 1/2" holes on all 4 corners of the floor,what water does come in does eventually come out!!If you're going posh with carpets inside then sealing it somehow is your only option. And yes,you're right with the dizzy wiring,white with black tracer to the points on the negative side of the coil.

Step 1
Throw away the old Mini fuse box, they cause more diagnostic probs then any thing else.
Get a couple of modern boxes.

Step 2
The Indicators and Hazards have 2 in-line fuses. Norm on a Mini they are behind the air filter............mine are behind the dash board, so that makes them even harder to get at. Fuse them through one of the new boxes.

I will leave the other steps/ideas to others

I used Calortite (tight) ?, Calor's own brand sealant for gas fittings, on the dizzy on Cyclops. It never really sets and so you can take the cap on and off but never had water ingress.

Cheers Gents, I'm going all posh and banging everythign thru relays to try and avoid any unnecessary voltage drop and load on the switch gear, after having a Defender go up in smoke cos all the headlight feed was unfused to the switch I'll be putting all the major circuits on unique fuses too. The flasher circuit is going to be stolen from the BMW e30 cos I've got a dozen spare e30 hazard switches from a job lot of spares I got a while back. The dilemma is really do I plump for the likes of the standard BL open bullet connectors or "invest" in some AMP Superseals for the likes of the headlights.

Regards
Iain

If your going that Scary i hope that your not using Mini switches?

If you use anything other than the design voltage across them, then the contacts tend to weld together or melt as the circuit draws to much current/heat.

The idea is that we draw mA across the switches not multiple A by using these new fangled relay thingy-ma-bobs, all the rage in Soho this year I believe. The Boss I think wants to use some later stalks that are self-cancelling other than that I've a job lot of Valeo rocker switches that again I aquired as time went by which will be replacing the mix-match of BL rockers that are currently fitted and crumbling away.

Oh sorry i thought you wanted to know about Mini wiring and probs with it.

At first take it would appear that way, but as I'm slowly disappearing up my own nether regions I'm not so sure now

Given the frailty of the BL electrics, as highlighted, keeping heavy current off of the original switch gear is a goal for sure. I’ll take a look at sealing the Dizzy too, can’t find any Calortight but a quick search on the Bay throws up http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rocol-Gas-Seal-Non-Setting-Sealant-28042-300g-/290544302921?pt=UK_DIY_Materials_Plumbing_MJ&hash=item43a5ca3b49 , similar stuff?

Mini Spares' dizzy shield (here) isn't a bad investment.

Cheers, I think the Boss is putting an order in for some bits and bobs so I'll suggest thats added to the list.

Wiper wiring...is it a bad idea to have the "park" feed to the wiper motor as a permanent (albeit fused) 12v?

Part of me is thinking it's fine, what could go wrong once the wipers are parked everythign is dead and it avoids that really annoying situation when its raining when you stop driving but dry when you come back to the car and the wipers scrape and squeal across the windscreen. The rest of me is thinking cars all to often have a mind of their own and everything should have a control to prevent this spread of autonomism from the liberal left.

Its an easy wiring mod for me, just take the park feed from the back of the wiper fuse and send it thru the ignition relay terminal box.

Any thoughts?

I always thought that the park wire was a green,fused,ignition fed one.Any wires that are permenatly live,that are fused,are normally purple(like the horn).And yes,you are right when the wiper's are parked the gearing trips a switch and disconnects the park feed.So it's a personal preference really if you leave it connected or not.

Thing is the Prince of Darkness (and I dont mean Mr.Osborne) gives you
Orange/Black "Switch to front screen wiper motor parking circuit" and
Orange "Wiper circuits fused via ignition switch"

Which I guess all thing considered, reading between the lines, means dont trust your wiper motor wiring otherwise you'd end up with the charred remains of a wiring loom.

I'll swap it round once I've put an order in for another volley of copper based items from VWP.

Regards
Iain

If I get chance I will check the wiring charts and the necesssary colours tomorrow.

Confucius has it that the ignition switch feeds the fuse for both the flasher relay and the park feed to the wiper (like you say green wire). For safetys sake I'll make the park an ignition fed wire, if it becomes a real bugbear I can always fit a discrete momentary switch to park the wipers, or condition the Boss to switch off the wipers before the ignition!

Evening folks, progress is well and truly being made,the original rats nest of 40yo wiring has been stripped out, how anything worked I've no idea more green copper oxide than one could shake a whole tree at, crimp connections about as loose as the proverbial and wired randomly going through connectors for no obvious reason


The view currently awaiting you in the engine bay has changed somewhat, a nice modular fuse and relay box, loads of that braided stuff like a Chinese finger trap that has kept me entertained for hours, the job would probably be done by now if I'd not spent so long playing with it, anyway this is what it all looks like

The starter solenoid and ignition circuits have been jury rigged so that car is still mobile so we don't have to push it from the house to the barn and back again every time we want to work on it. All the loads are fed via relays now with each circuit individually fused and wiring colours as close as practically possible to the Prince of Darkness' charts. In addition to the starter solenoid there is an ignition relay to take the strain off the ignition switch and that's housed in its own box along side the flasher relay. While there are more components to the wiring now the hope is that by taking all the load off the original switch gear, especially the stalks it will be more reliable long term. This is what's the other side of the bulkhead now


The temporary ignition switch


And one question is this a 16ACR alternator and as such both the large terminals are outputs?