series 3 re-wire

Hello Forum,
I have recently taken the ownership of a 88" 1979 Series III.
Originally a petrol which has been converted into a diesal with a Ford York engine. (i know...i know its not the better engine..but i didnt fit it)

Its generally in reasonably good order apart from the wiring. Not much of the original wiring left to go by.

I have studied a copy of the wiring diagram from the Land Rover parts manual and have some questions.

1. how easy is it to make your own loom...?
2. if not that easy are the looms supplied by Autosparks value for money..?
3. anybody have any idea of the quantity of cable required.
4. wiring diagram mentions tracer colours is this in fact 2 cables...?
5. The diagram shows only 1 cable although most things connected either have 2 or even 3 wires.
6. can i make the loom outside of the car easily....?

Would anybody have any tips or advice on setting about this task.

Many thanks in antisipation.

Steve

looks like were both in the same boat here matey ive managed to get the entire loom out of mine with the clocks n evrything still attatched

the way i did it was unscrew the clocks from the dash and disconnect the indicator stalk go into the engine bay and begin removeing connections from the headlights back towards the bulkhead where they all go through remove the cover over the hole in the bulkhead and feed them all through carefully

note the speedo cable will be brittle and delecate to get off the back of the speedo gain as much slack as you can from the engine bay before removeing this bit

if its negative earth settup most of the live wires will be on the starter solenoid remove all these ( making sure the battery is off )

now while removeing evrything from the dash youll notice the heater motor and wiper motor wires run through the dash somehow

to get at these you need to remove the plastic tray from the dash shelf youll find the wires clipped to the bulkhead behind these the heater wires involve feeding them through the other oval hople in the other end ( passengers side ) of the bulkhead there is also a brown earth wire there near the heater matrix houseing undo this aswell

the whole lot should pull through the dash with little effort

you can then lay the entire loom out on the kitchen /garage / patio floor and see exactly what is intailed

the striooing out process took me no more than 45 mins

looking at the state of my loom with all the loose ends burned wirews covered shorts and dodgy repairs useing household appliance wires im gonna get a new loom when the time comes

i decided to strip my loom out as im doing a full rebuild and within the 2 weeks of haveing it have had 2 electrical fires so it needed to go

i hope this helps matey

i know yer new and probably not seen the introduce yourself thread so i wont bother roasting yer for it but warn you with brace yourself someone probably will

and :welcome: to loonyzone

Not too difficult to make your own. The wiring diagram is in the manual and drawings of the layout are in the parts book. Dunno if pre made looms are cheaper than home made. The tracer colour is the second colour on the insulation so R/W would be a red wire with a longitudinal thin band of white. Only one wire per device is shown as the earth return is usually wired to a nearby point on the body or chassis.

I made a new loom for mine in a weekend
I made it from scratch with no diagram
I used 7 core trailer lighting cable only trouble with that is the lack of diffrent colors. It's plenty thick enough to handle the amps needed for most of it just look at what is required and work it out from that

Thanks for your replies chaps.

and thanks for the pointer johnny i have made that intro...

pobby said:

I made a new loom for mine in a weekend
I made it from scratch with no diagram
I used 7 core trailer lighting cable only trouble with that is the lack of diffrent colors. It's plenty thick enough to handle the amps needed for most of it just look at what is required and work it out from that

Click to expand...

think im gonna go down this route useing the original loom as a staple guide with the entire thing off the vehicle it cant be that fekkin hard

i have drawn the wiring diagram to assist but am struggling with cable quantities. Not much left of my cable loom to remove and use as template.

Have also found another supplier with the engine and chassis wiring harness.
Autosparkes - £ 206
Hollandrover - £ 246

100m of single or multi core 1 colour is £ 16 per roll
7 core trailer cable is £ 30 for 30m roll.

Decisions...decisions

the 7 core trailer wire should be enough to do the job but for the main trunk live feeds id get roughly 10-12m of good thick single wire probably anything 50 amp or above just to be on the safe side

johnny curt 1 said:

you can then lay the entire loom out on the kitchen /garage / patio floor and see exactly what is intailed

the stripping out process took me no more than 45 mins

Click to expand...

Jesus - I knew there was a good reason to buy a Landie. Worst case scenario, I'll need to rewire the whole thing - that's just become much less scary than I was expecting.

If you follow the diagram you will have a far better understanding of how it all works. If your using different coloured wire to the diagram make a note of it. Good luck, its easier than you think.

when i made my loom, my first job was to label each wire as i removed it untill the whole loom was discon.
i removed the loom and lay it on an old sheet of ply.
i marked the cable runs and ends with nails tapped into the ply. again label the nails.
i got the wiring diagram and ran new wires onto the ply/nail template.
when all wires had been run you can wrap the loom with self amalgamating tape or cover it with heat shrink. i use heat shrink for main runs and tape arround branches.

may be worth re-routing the alternator cabling round the back of the engine bay instead of over the front of the engine. the hot/cold cycle tends to make the insulation brittle.
i think 7 core looks untidy, but is ok to run to the rear.

not sure exactly how much cable you will need as i "aquired" a lot of cable from work. but arround 200mtrs would be my best guess.

i took my time and bimbled at it and it took me a week of evenings to do. it wasnt difficult but i triple checked everything before putting the heat shrink on.

hope this helps and good luck.

I bought an Autosparks looms. Every wire the correct colour, every connector the correct type. Piece of ****.

i only have the wire to the front lights left on the vehicle to use as a template.
all the rest is bits and bobs and a right mess. Alot is also melted.
Although will all this good advice the Autosparks Looms are starting to appeal to me although the cost is not.

Protactor did you purchase all 3 of the looms...?

Yes.

I bought engine bay loom, main loom (for the dash etc), and rear loom. In addition I bought the hazard loom and tow connector loom.

For me leccy is not my strong point... at all. But with those looms I managed to do the whole vehicle on my own.

If you start pricing up all the relevant connectors etc, the Autosparks ones turn out to not be so pricey after all. Also, they help you out if you have a problem over the phone.

Good luck whichever way you go.