1969 S4 - replacing old behind dash wiring (doh!)
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:37 pm
Hi folks - I haven't posted in quite a while - been pre-occupied with getting to retirement, selling a house, moving etc.
I just retired and moved to South Texas a couple of months ago, and was looking forward to enjoying my Elan more and doing some upgrades over time - suspension, clutch master/slave and some interior work. I've had the opportunity to take a few very enjoyable drives over the past couple of weeks (the Elan is enjoying the 93 octane gas here, as opposed to the 91 that was available in the SF Bay Area where I moved from).
Unfortunately, after a drive earlier today as I pulled into the driveway some wiring shorted out under the driver side dash and starting smoking. When i turned off the ignition, the car kept running and I had to quickly separate the wires that were shorting/smoking to get the engine to stop and to get the shorted areas to stop smoking. I then disconnected the battery and took a look under the dash. It looks like the green wire in the photos was the main culprit. The insulation was getting brittle and it apparently wore through and shorted into at least one, potentially several other wires. In fact the insulation on the green wire started to burn off along the wire until I got the engine off. I've attached a few pics to show the result.
I know the wiring was redone about 20 years ago by someone hired by the PO when the PO did his restoration, and it has been patched and added to over the years (most recently about 18 months ago when I had a Bay Area shop do some general work on the car). The good news is that all the electrical items were working before the short (lights, gauges, etc.), so I'm hoping that if I pull the dash and replace the obviously impacted as well as any other suspect wiring/connections I'll be back on the road.
I've only done minor wiring work on cars and around the house previously, so I've got my learning cut out for me. I'm looking forward to learning more about the Elan as I work on it, but I know I'll definitely be reaching out to folks here with the hopes of learning from your experience and expertise. I hope you won't mind some pretty basic questions coming your way.
I have the wiring diagram from the Workshop manual, as well as some diagrams that I've downloaded from this site. I'll be using those as my template as I follow the wiring on my particular car.
(1) Wire gauge - is there a common gauge/type that I should be using? When I look at the Holden site, it seems like the standard gauge for most connections is 14 gauge. Would 14 gauge be the standard with certain exceptions? If so, what are the exceptions? Is there a reference table of the required gauges for different connections available? I've looked through the Workshop Manual and Buckland manual, and I see some good information on the color coding, but not the gauge requirements.
(2) Wire supplier - where do folks purchase their auto wire here in the US? After some initial searching online I see quite a few suppliers that offer solid color wiring, but not some of the color combinations. Are there some suppliers that folks can recommend? I haven't had a chance to go the our local auto parts stores yet (Autozone, O'Reillys, Pep Boys) - I plan on doing that over the weekend to see what's available locally.
(3) Access to behind the dash - I'm using this thread as a starting point to figure out how to remove the dash (lotus-chassis-f36/how-you-take-off-the-dash-board-t22885.html). I do have the two bolts that are hidden by the console, looks like I get to figure out how to take the console out as well to get access to those bolts - this should be fun, lol, I'm sure as I make my way through I'll find lots of other repair items to add to my to do list.
So my first steps are to confirm the type and source for the wiring, and to read through all the threads that I can find on removing the dash and repairing wiring. Once I've learned enough to be dangerous and put together an initial plan, I'll jump in headfirst.
Thanks in advance for any advice that you may be able to pass on. Looking forward to sharing more pics as I make my way through the repairs.
Rich
I just retired and moved to South Texas a couple of months ago, and was looking forward to enjoying my Elan more and doing some upgrades over time - suspension, clutch master/slave and some interior work. I've had the opportunity to take a few very enjoyable drives over the past couple of weeks (the Elan is enjoying the 93 octane gas here, as opposed to the 91 that was available in the SF Bay Area where I moved from).
Unfortunately, after a drive earlier today as I pulled into the driveway some wiring shorted out under the driver side dash and starting smoking. When i turned off the ignition, the car kept running and I had to quickly separate the wires that were shorting/smoking to get the engine to stop and to get the shorted areas to stop smoking. I then disconnected the battery and took a look under the dash. It looks like the green wire in the photos was the main culprit. The insulation was getting brittle and it apparently wore through and shorted into at least one, potentially several other wires. In fact the insulation on the green wire started to burn off along the wire until I got the engine off. I've attached a few pics to show the result.
I know the wiring was redone about 20 years ago by someone hired by the PO when the PO did his restoration, and it has been patched and added to over the years (most recently about 18 months ago when I had a Bay Area shop do some general work on the car). The good news is that all the electrical items were working before the short (lights, gauges, etc.), so I'm hoping that if I pull the dash and replace the obviously impacted as well as any other suspect wiring/connections I'll be back on the road.
I've only done minor wiring work on cars and around the house previously, so I've got my learning cut out for me. I'm looking forward to learning more about the Elan as I work on it, but I know I'll definitely be reaching out to folks here with the hopes of learning from your experience and expertise. I hope you won't mind some pretty basic questions coming your way.
I have the wiring diagram from the Workshop manual, as well as some diagrams that I've downloaded from this site. I'll be using those as my template as I follow the wiring on my particular car.
(1) Wire gauge - is there a common gauge/type that I should be using? When I look at the Holden site, it seems like the standard gauge for most connections is 14 gauge. Would 14 gauge be the standard with certain exceptions? If so, what are the exceptions? Is there a reference table of the required gauges for different connections available? I've looked through the Workshop Manual and Buckland manual, and I see some good information on the color coding, but not the gauge requirements.
(2) Wire supplier - where do folks purchase their auto wire here in the US? After some initial searching online I see quite a few suppliers that offer solid color wiring, but not some of the color combinations. Are there some suppliers that folks can recommend? I haven't had a chance to go the our local auto parts stores yet (Autozone, O'Reillys, Pep Boys) - I plan on doing that over the weekend to see what's available locally.
(3) Access to behind the dash - I'm using this thread as a starting point to figure out how to remove the dash (lotus-chassis-f36/how-you-take-off-the-dash-board-t22885.html). I do have the two bolts that are hidden by the console, looks like I get to figure out how to take the console out as well to get access to those bolts - this should be fun, lol, I'm sure as I make my way through I'll find lots of other repair items to add to my to do list.
So my first steps are to confirm the type and source for the wiring, and to read through all the threads that I can find on removing the dash and repairing wiring. Once I've learned enough to be dangerous and put together an initial plan, I'll jump in headfirst.
Thanks in advance for any advice that you may be able to pass on. Looking forward to sharing more pics as I make my way through the repairs.
Rich