1984 electrics

[Gridgway]

I am just starting the refurb of my 1984 "hot-rod" 7.  It's an arch chassis, has been home built and registered as a Lotus 7 with the AM frame number as a VIN.  It's known by a few people on here.

I've started assessing it before getting into taking it apart and making it shiny again.

One of the obvious areas is the wiring which is messy!  I'd like to identify if it's completely made up or if it started life with a Caterham loom of the era.

Does anyone have an appropriate wiring diagram of the era?  I do have a Jan 1988 one, which is probably very close, but would be helpful to know one way or other before I start trying to match up wires.

Cheers

Graham

[OldAndrewE]

Graham, I have one for my 1985 Caterham.  Does your car have circuit breakers instead of fuses?

[Gridgway]

Hi Andrew, it has two fuses on the engine bay side of the scuttle upright if that makes sense?

[Jonathan Kay]

I have 1988 and 1995 (and many later and lots of variations).

The other useful tool is the "standard" British wiring colours, and I recommend this version.

Jonathan

[OldAndrewE]

#3, Graham, by fuses do you mean two things like this that plug into sockets on the bulkhead

My wiring diagram is on page 51 of the Tony Weale book.  Says the diagram is standard from '81 to '87

[Gridgway]

Thanks Andrew, looks like that 81-87 wiring diagram will be the right one.

I'll post a picture of my 2 fuse arrangement later, but it's not like your picture.

Thanks for the link to standard wiring colours JK.

I've not had to do wholescale wiring before so it's going to be a fun learning process.

I can't really imagine that two fuses is properly sufficient for the whole car, but what do I know?!!

 

[OldAndrewE]

This is the 81-87 wiring diagram Graham. Hope it is legible enough for your purposes, if not PM me your email and I will send original scan

Incidentally circuits with only two fuses used to be fairly normal (certainly on BMC cars).  Early Minis had two, 30A I think, one for the permanently live circuits and one for the ignition switched ones.  Later Minis changed to four fuses and when I rebuilt mine I changed it to eight fuses of various ratings

[Gridgway]

Thanks Andrew, will pm for a scan if that's ok.

Here's what I have:

[Gridgway]

Interestingly as I look at the pic, I don't understand the multiple wires on both sides.  I think that 12v is fed to the bottom of both.

The LH fuse has three wires at the bottom.  One will be the 12v feed, the other two go off unfused to their destination.  Although you can see that the yellow wire goes through an inline fuse.  I wonder what the other one does?  I assume all 12v feeds should be fused somewhere.

[Jonathan Kay]

I remember British cars that had unfused headlamp circuits. And IIRC traditional ignition systems aren't always fused.

How about sketching the connections to those two fuseholders with wire colour and "standard" use of that wire colour?

Jonathan

[OldAndrewE]

It would be easy to check which side is the feed, remove the fuses and see which side has 12V to earth.

You could well have an earlier Lotus wiring loom, that had two fuses like your pic, I will scan that wiring diagram from Weale and send that as well.

[Gridgway]

Thanks JK, will start my investigations proper shortly.  At the moment, I am focussed on finding the electrics to get the motor running.  At the moment, that's fuel pump and spark!

[Gridgway]

Yes, it's definitely the bottom that has the +12v

PM send

[Neil220]

Looks the same as that fitted to 60's minis and many others at the time, a standard Lucas part

https://www.autosparks.co.uk/lucas-2-way-glass-fuse-box

https://oldskoolminis.co.uk/shop/classic-mini/switches/classic-mini-fuse-box-2-line-1959-76-606253a-rover-austin-glass-cooper-bmc-4h2/

[Gridgway]

#14, good find, that's it

[Jonathan Kay]

High resolution version of the "1981 onwards" wiring diagram from the 1985 Assembly Guide. Thanks, Andrew.

Jonathan