Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi All,

I'm having real trouble getting my head around which wires should go to the micro switched on the left hand pod of my 68 elan +2. It doesn't help that most of the wires color coding has 'bled' onto the adjascent wires or has just become too faded over time to be readable.

I've included a pic with what I've identified as 2 'hot' feeds, even with ignition off, so I am hoping these 2 are the 'feeds' for the micro switches. According to the workshop manual 1 should be brown/white and then blue that goes to the sidelight microswitch (at the top) and one should be blue/brown and black that goes to the headlamp microswitch (at the bottom).

Am I right in assuming that the headlamp microswitch 'black' wire just runs to earth? I don't want to fuse any wires if I connect one side of it to earth and then use one of the hot feeds the other side.

And the sidelight feeds back to the relay?

As for the rest of the wires in the pic, after I get the correct wiring for the microswitches I should be able to use my multimeter and figure out which wire feeds which lamp. I've already sorted the indicators and I pretty sure I have the fogs/spots isolated (although I cannot find a switch for them anywhere and don't have any spare dangling wires behind the dash).

Just to add to my woes, here's a pic of the side light relay



I'm presuming the side light micro switch is 'fed' by one of these and the 'return' goes back to it, is this correct?

I'll worry about the mainheadlight microswitch after I've got the side lights working.

Any elan enthusiasts near Goresbridge in Co Kilkenny, fancy a cuppa (and a multimeter) one day??

Thought I'd add, none of the wire colours correspond to anything in the user manual.

Even more the top right contact on the realy should have 2 wires coming from it not one,

As a thought, surely the side lights should come on regardless of wether the main lights are up or down on or off, so why the micro switch in the first place?

i think the microswitch for the sidelights is for when you flash headlamps. Flashing headlamps switches on sidelights at the same time. After when the headlamps go down do the sidelights stay on ?

Hi Alan,

the side lights are not coming on at all.

fuses are all good. And the switch seems fine, just a thought, none of the panel lights are working either, looking at the wiring diagram the panel lights rely on a feed from the tail lights.


I think I've isolated the feed for the top micro switch and the return, but it seems the w1 and w2 contacts on the relay are reversed. I'm beginning to wonder if the side lights ever did work.

lol, I may as well throw out the workshop manual wiring diagrams, it seems pretty much every wire is brown/white, oh what a nightmare!

According to the manual on the sidelight relay c2 (is hot) goes to the microswitch and returns to w1, but the way it seems it's wired c2 seems correct (albeit with different colour wire) and the return feeds back to w2 not w1, I'm going to double check this in a moment (came in for a cuppa and a warm up).

ok back to the grind (and the cold)!

Chris

On further investigation, I just removed the dash (well enough to see behind it) and the sidelight switch has been disconnected, there's a couple of fused wires in there, so it looks like there had been a fault somewhere and whoever in it's past has rewired things, it's a real mess, I think I might have to bite the bullet and get a new loom.

My guess is they have been wired into the headlight switch, it's was a little to confusing to figure out on first inspection. also looks like the sidelight relay doesn't do much, my guess is it was circumvented at the same time.

No wonder I've been scratching my head for 4 days!!

hi Chris,
imho i think you're right and it would be better to fit a new loom at least for the dash part. It seems you have a real rats nest there. You will need to be careful that it is the correct loom. I see the heading is +2s but surely your car is a +2. I think the +2 loom is simpler than the +2s. The most complicated is the 1970 +2s loom with puddle lights and lots of fuses and relays

Have a look at http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/lotus-electrical-f38/late-federal-fail-safe-headlight-wiring-t30133.html ; although the thread discusses the Federal system the wiring diagram shows the standard headlight microswitches & the relay wiring is the same.

Your wiring looks like a bit of a mess with poor connections. Good that you have seen that the sidelights are fed directly off the rocker switch, nothing to do with the relays or vacuum switch.

Yep I think the rewire is the way to go, I've got to change the dash anyway, so may as well.

Sorry Alan, yeah I think your right it is the +2, I bought 2 of them (yeah I know I like punishment), this one is the older model (68) off the top of my head, the other is the +2s (71-72 I think, would need to check the log books to be sure).

At pharriso, yeah I read those threads, thanks.

On a bit of a side note, but hopefully still relevant in this thread, anybody help me identify where the other end of this earth strap goes,

Goes under the bolt securing the dash bracket to the chassis. You can see the bolt head in your picture

Ta Phil, sorry,no it's the other end I need to find, that end is connected, I guess I should have made it clearer!! I knew what I meant anyways

Chris, assuming one end of the strap is grounded to the dash bracket, I think that one was for the radio chassis.

Not much help on the microswitch setup as my car has the microswitches located at the dash mounted headlight pod pneumatic switch. The side light relay was located on the side of the heater box. The relay is used to keep the side lights on rather than as a power relay. Is your side light dash switch a spring loaded two position centre off affair?

Stu

Hi Stu,

idk. about going to the radio, seems a bit big for that, it kinda has shaped itself as if it somehow goes up and around the steering column, but I can't find anywhere it would connect to, obvious place was the steering column/ignition switch bracket but the bolts are far too big for the hole in the strap.

Yes the standard sidelight switch sprung from the middle, but I've since found out that it's been disconnected, and I think, from what I can tell (without completely removing the dash) that the sidelights have been wired into the main headlight switch somehow.

chris

Chris, I posted a diagram explaining the side light relay here that may help with getting yours fixed. The circuit is a bit quirky, so possible a PO 'fixed' it in some strange fashion. Topic is a bit confusing as I think there are several variants of this circuit, but assuming if your car uses a momentary switch for the side lights the 'latching' relay will be needed.

lotus-electrical-f38/side-lights-t17589.html

lotus-electrical-f38/help-with-lights-t30081.html

Not sure which model you have re possible need for a column ground. There is a short ground wire / strap required at the steering shaft universal at the steering rack, which is used to ground the horn button; not required if you have changed universal to an all steel replacement. Can't recall any other ground required for the column or for ignition switch (separate from column on my car; not sure if yours is different).

Why a ground strap would be used for the radio chassis seems to be associated with RF interference issues. Common practice now is to use flat copper strip where this is considered an issue (ham radio guys, etc.). Don't know much about the topic, just Googled around a bit. Anyway, that is what I recall the strap was for in my car, but I ditched it with the modern radio install.

Page M 84 of my WSM lists all the ground straps, and they say "Radio to frame (left hand facia / chassis / body mounting bolt)" and also list "Steering rack and pinion to chassis (U - bolt mounting)". Page M 91 also mentions the radio chassis ground strap under heading M 23 - Radio Suppression.

HTH