Sidelights Wiring HELP!!!

Im having alot of trouble trying to rewire the sidelights into my B reg, defender 90 2.5na. The wires in the fuse box hav all fused together and the previous owner has made a mess of the wiring at some point as most of the wires are all black! I have a multi-meter and any advice on tackling this job before the early evening set in (and so that i can drive at night!) would be great Also any ideas how much it would cost a garage to do the job! Although I am keen to learn as I go, just don't want the 90 to go up in flames due to any error i might make!

wow. where to start,

to make it easier i would run a new cable, either through existing switch, new switch or wired to ignition,

existing switch, you will have to find a way of only having you side lights switched on, then look for the 12v pos, when you think you have found it, switch them off to ensure. benefit of this being from the dash it looks nice and original.

new switch, from ignition on pos, through propper rated inline fuse, through switch. benifit being that new cables, so you know what goes where.

wired to ignoition, from ignition on, tap a wire through inline fuse. benefit being no worry about forgetting your side lights, and when you switch off you will never leav them on.

once you have decided on the course of action, it is a case of running the the wire to a good point to splice into the side light circuit, to make sure you do not short circuit back, cut and protect the cables back from the splice,

other issues are your head lights, they should come on only once your sidelights are on, so i hope they are working.

other wise, get some masking tape, a pen and test all day mark what you know, isolate circuits by pulling fuses or switching off, multimeter away or look for obvious signs, it will be tedious but if you mark each cable as you go it will be better in the future. maybe look into a rewire.. not to hard to do yourself, just think about it logically and do one circuit at a time.

Thank you for the advice, going to start on it tonight when its a bit cooler going to explore some vehicle allowed byways on the island first before I put the 90 out of service for a few days!

i dont know how much help i can be without actually seeing it/ being there, but if you get stuck, pop on the question and i am posotive you will get an answer, Not always helpful though. lol

i will do my best.

taffi_jj said:

i dont know how much help i can be without actually seeing it/ being there, but if you get stuck, pop on the question and i am posotive you will get an answer, Not always helpful though. lol

i will do my best.

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Just about sums up electrickery stuff. You might as well have a go and if you fail then send it to the garage. Make sure you have a proper set of strippers and crimps don't use halfords ****e or you'll be doing it again in 3 months. Proper fitting is easier than fault finding. Use stripmasters and rs crimps like these:-

http://blog.makezine.com/upload/2009/03/toolbox_ten_tools_you_wont_want_to/stripMaster.jpg

RS | Connectors | Crimp Terminals | Crimp Kits | Crimp Kits_Insulated Terminals & Kits

TBH if you want a permenant fit, i would solder. regardless of how good your crimping is, sooner or later the connection/ the crimp will breakdown for any number of reasons... if i have to use connections i use water proof ones from autosparks!! sounds like i am spamming which is far from my intention,

soldering a joint is permenant and if you wrap it in bodge tape, will outlast the chassis, lol

if your loom is in a bad state, requiring more than a few patches, i would consider a re wire, if the previous owner could not be arsed to even label up what cable does what, who is to say they have used the corect guage in the first place!!

Solder plus heatshrink - it's dead easy and makes a decent permanent connection. I've spent the last six months slowly replacing all the bodged wiring on my Landy!

Ian.

six months! I best get started lol, soldering and heat shrinking sounds like the ultimate way to go about doing this, and whilst its all dry before autumn/winter sets in I think now is the best time to go about it Thanks for all the advice I will let you know how I do (or when I give up and hand it over to an auto-electrician!)

i mentioned crimping solely because if you don't know how to solder it is the easy option. Personally I would use hermetically sealing splices and a heat gun. Plus if crimp correctly using decent crimps then they will be fine. Most problems come when people use cheap crimps with no witness marks or don't correctly match the colour to the gauge of wire they are using. I use crimps on leaping heaps all the time they are fine if used correctly...

oh yea water proof ones are superior. If you are going to solder make sure you are doing it right before you do it on your rover. Might be a good idea to go to an evening class and have someone show what a proper solder should look like, what a dry joint is and how to avoid getting one, what type of solder you should be using and how to properly tin a wire. I have seen some proper abortions (even from people that should clearly know better). Crimping = much simpler as long as you can see the conductor, have a witness mark (little dot left where you crimped to show you used the right pressure) you shouldn't have any problems. DECENT ones will out last the crap land rover are using in manufacture. Have a look online for a good crimping guide.

decisions, decisions! If i crimp to start with and leave a little extra length on the wires I suppose I can always go back and solder them when I have acquired the appropriate know-how? Since getting the 90 I have enjoyed learning as I go and although automotive electrics are not my favorite area to learn I suppose I will benefit a lot from undertaking this task Should provide me with many late nights and headaches!

soldering is easy so long as you stick to one simple principle....


BIGGER THE BLOB BETTER THE JOB


LMFAO

crimping is easier if you are going at it blind and need to disconnect something coz it's wrong, crimp em and leave a bit of loose wire. when you know the circuit is made, then you can start soldering em up

since all your cables are black, to save you a lot of time, it may be worth starting again with a new loom! easy to get hold of,

mechanic yes...novice no lol, if it goes wrong hes gunna have no electrics then some garage is gunna pull his pants down for over a grand to fit it all...

just label the wires up...

however by using a ready made loom and doing it step by step, ie match the colours. then plug up each circuit at a time, even the most basic of home diyers can do a full re wire, the only issues would come up when plugging in switches, and i am sure that on post on this site and more than one pic would come flying in..

this forum is superb for help the only thing you gotta do is ask.

but ultimately it is your choice, i would go with the crimp and longer wire with nice labels on everything, and once i have everything ass i want it, would order cable and replace the full loom one circuit at a time, that way, no mistakes, bit messy during but then nice, neat, and easy to faultfind.

get yoself a replacement loom. cheaper in the long run.