Help defender wiring

Hi
I am new so please be kind, I have a 110 station wagon ,I bought with no bulkhead and all in pieces (boxes) I have managed to get one
and a second hand loom with glass fuses as the others are very expensive, Has anyone any photos of the fuse box bulkhead location ie layout routing etc.
thanks

joe

Recon keeping a loom that old will be a bad move, at the very least change the glass fuse box out for a later blade fuse box and check all lines for continuity.

I agree with @tottot Glass fuses are a pain and vey old now, so the wire sleeving will be brittle.

A 300 engine bay loom is about £1k. I doubt it's a sensible answer to the chap to just say "your loom is no good, get a new one" : (

@joec110 -

Get the wiring diagram for your loom. Go through it all on the kitchen table before it gets anywhere near the car. Make sure it all works (ie have a battery, have headlight bulbs, the wiper motor, etc.etc) and label it all (just some tape and a sharpie is fine)

Don't try and fix / test it after install. Get it confirmed good prior. Once you've got it all labeled, then it will be pretty obvious where it goes.

Old contacts corrode and you may find that you need to plug in and out some stuff a few times to make the connections, but, either way, trouble shooting on a table with a multimeter is so much easier than climbing about an engine bay doing the same.

You may like to replace the fuse holder itself whilst you're doing this. Again not much bother at the table in the warm. Nicer than upside down in the car.

I recently replaced the rear crossmember on my defender. I tried to get the loom out but couldn't manage it. I eventually had to split the loom but after inspecting the rear section I found places where individual wires had broken previously - some had been repaired but one, the permanent live, had been left. I decided that this could be an ongoing issue as broken wires can cause very hard to diagnose intermittent faults.

As my rear section of loom was very basic due to it being a 1993, I decided to replace that section with a heavy duty length of trailer cable. Whilst the colours were different, it had all the wires I needed but in standard trailer colours.

Whilst I wouldn't say buy a new loom, I would consider perhaps making my own by copying the existing. If its an old loom I presume it's going to have limited wires so hopefully an achievable option. Your old loom could already be suffering age related breakdown of the insulation, the wiring or the protective covering.

I know this is one more difficult part of a restoration, but if this is a long term keeper it may be something that will save you grief in the future.

What ever way move forward I hope it all goes well.

julianf said:

A 300 engine bay loom is about £1k. I doubt it's a sensible answer to the chap to just say "your loom is no good, get a new one" : (

Click to expand...

They may not be cheap but unless prices have shifted significantly in the last 12 moths they are not that expensive. I fitted new bulkhead main, engine, and rear loom to my 110 as part of the rebuild, upgrading it all to the later style 300tdi loom in the process and am fairly sure I got all three looms for about £1k. but I would echo the above that it is worth every penny to get a ne loom and not have the issues with brittle/failing wires and then added problems of trying to fault find and old harness. but I am fairly paranoid as the fire that caused the rebuild was an electrical fault!

I know it is not quite the same but my thread here (LINK) shows the 300tdi wiring loom install and routing etc. as I rebuilt mine.