billwill wrote:Wiring diagrams which try to follow the layout of the actual wiring loom are unnecessary (ideal for the bloke actually building a loom on pegs on a board) but difficult to read for anyone else.. All you really need to know are where the ends of the cable are and (usually) what colour(s) are the cable.
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Very true indeed! Many get caught up in the actual diagram that only ends in confusion. I have rewired many older cars and use two central points - a fused and unfused block - from where I take all circuits to the relevant switches and device and earth them appropriately so that each device pretty well has its own circuit such as one has in a house. OK, so I use more cable than necessary, but it is cheap and using modern thinwall cable, the loom is a mighty fraction of the size of the original. I have rewired my +2 incorporating a full EFI controller using thinwall and with the wires wrapped neatly away, one would be hard pushed to see the looms.
Sure it would be different if I were wiring up a run of several thousand cars and had to return a profit, and then yes, I would be jumping connections all over the place to save a few bucks on each car.
As for horns, outside of trucks, emergergency and specialist high end cars that used air horns, the standard Britsh car did not have a relay for the horn (what is the cost of a relay then? A shilling maybe. BMC had to make a million minis. Forget the relay and save £50k...) - 12V was fed to the horn/s on a purple wire, returned to the horn button that was earthed to the steering column when pushed. They were not fused as many a Mini owner will testufy when they removed their steering wheel for the then go fast badge of a wooden Mota Lita wheel when they let the centre wire fall into the steering column that resulted in horns blaring and panic (hands up how many were caught out with this...
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