Tank surgery

 At the last car show in Newark, I bought myself a short length of fuel filler hose, just to finish off that particular job. Shouldn't be too much a problem I thought... then I got home and remembered how things sit;

Unfortunately the distance from the fuel cap location to the tank is longer than I remembered. It's also way too sharp an angle. And finally the roll bar support is in the way. Here's a better view of the issues;

Last night I had a thought about making a steel pipe to get from the tank to the filler location, but even that is not possible. So unfortunately it's going to be open surgery on the tank. Quite extensive open surgery in fact. What I did spot was a gap on the side;

There's a sufficiently large gap between the corner of the tank and the roll bar support. If I move the end piece to the side of the tank, it then becomes a shorter distance for the fuel filler pipe to travel. It's also a less severe angle to get to the filler, which means I can use the length of flexi filler pipe that I have bought.

The downside to that is I need to remove the end cap and the existing filler hole, and replace the lot with a repositioned hole. It's not going to come off without a fight so it's going to have to be a fresh piece of metal. And of course it's only thin steel to start with so that's going to be a fun task again. My wife described the tank as 'home made', and that's purely because of all the extra welds that had to be added to solve the pinprick holes! Still, I don't think any of that is a bad thing, I've got a lot more experience with welding so I might do a better job this time round. 

The last thing that is a worry is that I open up the end plate and find the tank is rusted to hell inside. This has been sat for many years, and in theory it's been sealed but water seems to find a way. Fingers crossed it's not too bad, but if not it'll be a whole new tank. I still have steel so it wouldn't cost anything other than time. I've got some 2 inch tube left over from my exhaust, it's not seamless but there's no requirement for seamless for a fuel tank. 

Wiring change of plan

 Ooh, a change of plan, I've not done that before... anyhow, I tried fitting the fuse boxes, but in the right location and using the existing brackets they end up looking like they're stuck in mid air. 

So I'm going to abandon the tabs and print some proper brackets. They'll get bonded on to the side and then they can be screwed down properly. 

A couple of other jobs have been done. First, the rear number place mount, looking massively overkill but really secure so no chance of failing IVA for it;

It looks good with the donor plate. I've also fitted the coolant bottle, although it needs a couple of nuts added inside the car;

And that's the last of the protective film too, whether that's good or bad I don't know. Perhaps after the second tube of metal polish I might rethink the whole aluminium look!!

Engine wiring part 2

 Rather unsurprisingly the engine wiring is still going on. It's really tough going, but if I get it wrong it's either a dead car before I start, or an AA callout on the way back from Malvern 2025.

The engine sensors are now cut to length, with the ECU mounted on the back of the firewall and nicely protected from the elements. I did think about putting it flat but it seemed like a waste of space. Then again, even sat on the firewall I can't put anything in front of it because I need to maintain access!!

The wires will all come across the bulkhead to the engine via a single location, so that will bind up quite well. The sensor wiring has been substantially shortened for the most part, the only one that is still factory length is the airflow sensor and that's because it's right out at front.

I've also picked up a few other sensors as I've gone. For example the cooling fan sensor is situated underneath the connector for the fuel injectors, so that got trimmed.

The next big job is actually what I thought would be the first, which is the 'big' wiring. I've got the alternator and starter motor already wired up as expected, because I didn't take them apart. But on the other end is the engine fuse box, and on the end of the other loom is the interior fuse box. Both mounted on to the chassis in the original car, so they've got mounting lugs. Problem is I can't seem to find a location where I can reuse the lugs. I don't want to use a different fuse box at the moment as it will just be that one extra complexity and cost. So I need to mount the two fuse boxes somehow.

The logical place would be above the steering column on the platform of the bulkhead, here's an earlier view with the body not in place;

However I wouldn't call it majorly structural, given that it's basically the same aluminium sheet bent out of the way and reformed, rather than having anything substantial added to it. I think to mount the two boxes I'm going to need some vertical mounting structure as well as some platform reinforcement. It does need to be off the surface, mainly because the wiring comes out the back of both. 

Putting them in place it actually looks like horizontal is better. The engine one can be horizontal, pointing out towards the engine. Then the interior one can be behind it, pointing to the left. That also means the wires to the ignition switch have a fairly short distance to travel, as does the main power feeds (blue and white/red). 

However the first job is to figure out the fuse layout. The engine sticker looks like it had fallen off as it was upside down compared to the box, and the interior fuse box has no lid! That's kind of expected, it would have been a dashboard panel rather than a lid. I wonder if I could design and print a lid, that would be ideal. 

Anyway, some random pictures;

The first picture of spaghetti would make any Italian cry, and the fact that it's a car loom in the midst of being chopped up would make any electrician cry! The second is the back of the front plug, with indicators, sidelights, dipped beam and main beam. 

Engine wiring

 There's no two ways about it, this is probably the biggest job remaining. The main loom is about two inches thick, and I reckon maybe half of it is redundant. More importantly it's designed to go down both sides of the engine bay, whereas I think I only need maybe one or two wires to go down the passenger side. In fact it may just be the O2 sensor on the manifold.

So the plan will be to take out each sensor individually, route them as required, shorten the wire if needed, then bundle them back up. I'm planning on doing this in stages, and I'll tick them off as I go;

Stage 1: High current

This includes;

• Starter motor. Partly complete as I left it in place.
• Alternator. Similarly partly complete.
• Ground to chassis. Big wire to be connected.
• Ignition switch. Done. 
• Fuse box. This is more about physically locating it in the right place.
• Battery. As above, getting it physically located and connected.

Stage 2: Engine sensors

This will include all of the following, traced out individually and then taped up once they're all complete. I'll need to put the ECU in place before I start here, as basically all of this connects to the ECU. Depending on what is required I might also need to put the fuse boxes in the relevant locations as well. 

• Igniter (C4) Now extracted. 
• White (to ignition coil)
• Brown/Yellow (to ECU)
• Blue (Ignition switch)
• Yellow/Blue (to ECU and to rev counter)
• Black/White (to ECU)
• Black (Ground)
• Brown (to ECU)
• Red (to ignition coil)
• Ignition coil (D4)
• Spark plug leads
• Red (to igniter)
• White (to igniter)
• Blue (to ignition switch and capacitor to ground)
• Main relay (E4)
• White/Green (Relay and main fuse block)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Black (Ground)
• Black/White (Engine Fuse)
• Black/White (Cooling fan relay)
• Crank Angle Sensor (D7)
• Black/Light Green (Ground)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• White (to ECU)
• Yellow/Blue (to ECU)
• Throttle sensor (D7)
• Light Green/White (to ECU)
• Black/Light Green (Ground)
• Red (to ECU)
• Airflow meter (C7)
• Light Green/Red (to ECU)
• Red (to ECU)
• Black/Light Green (Shield/Ground) x 2?
• Red/Green (to ECU)
• Light Green (to fuel pump relay)
• Black (ground)
• Coolant temp sensor (B7)
• Blue/White (to ECU)
• Black/Light Green (Shield/Ground)
• Fuel injectors (B7)
• Yellow/Black (to ECU)
• Yellow (to ECU)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Idle speed control valve (A7)
• Blue/Orange (to ECU)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Purge solenoid valve (A7) I think this has been deleted?

Stage 3: Non-engine sensors and switches

• Fuel pump relay (C4)
• Blue/Red (to Fuel tank)
• Light Green (to AFM)
• White/Red (to ECU)
• Violet (ST SIGN FUSE?)
• Black (Ground)
• O2 sensor on exhaust (B7)
• Red/Blue (to ECU)
• Clutch Switch on pedal (E7)
• Brown/White (to ECU)
• Neutral switch on gearbox (E7)
• Brown/White (to ECU)
• Cooling fan via relay (E10)
• Yellow (to relay)
• Black (to Ground)
• Coolant thermostat (E9)
• Black/Green (to ECU and relay)
• Black (Ground)
• Horn and relay (C17)
• Green/Orange (to horn switch inside combination switch)
• White/Green (STOP FUSE)
• Green/Red (Horn)

Stage 3: Connection to steering column switch gear

Mainly lights and indicators, as the ignition switch will have already been wired in stage 1.

Stage 4: Connection to gauges and tell-tales

Once things have been wired from the controls and sensors it'll be fairly straightforward to wire them back to the dash. 

My circuit diagram

 This is going to be my reference for wiring, rather than a blog update. However it may be useful for some. 

I've split the wiring into parts, so I'll reference each part below.

Front lights

To be added...

Rear lights

Brake (Green)

Position/tail (Red/Black)

Reverse (Red/green)

Fog (Green/Yellow)

Left indicator (Green/Black)

Right indicator (Green/White)

Fuel pump (Blue/Red)

Black is earth going to two chassis points.

Gauges

1. Illumination positive (red).

2. Temperature gauge signal (blue/black).

3. Common ground to chassis (black).

4. Gauge positive (black/yellow).

5. Oil pressure signal (yellow/red).

6. Rev counter signal (yellow/blue). 

Tell tales

1. Side lights. (red)

2. Main beam. (Red/white)

3. Left indicator. (Green/black)

4. Common ground to chassis. (black)

5. Right indicator. (Green/white)

6. Fog light. (Green/yellow)

1. Battery positive. (Black/Yellow)

2. Brake fluid positive. (Black/Yellow)

3. Battery negative. (White/blue)

4. Brake fluid negative. (Blue/yellow)