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Anyone wire a Mini themselves without a harness?
https://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25063		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  miniature [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Anyone wire a Mini themselves without a harness?
Just wanted to see if there were any people out there who wired their Mini's electrics themselves. I'm thinking about doing this since I want to use a custom fuse box and I also have a couple of electric add-ons that I wanted to incorporate (electric fuel pump, fan, and water pump). I know this would be time consuming, but I was wondering if someone out there has tried this.

I'd be very interested in hearing about experiences with this. If this is a bad idea, let me know! I'm sitting on the fence with this at the moment.
Author:  Morris 1100 [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:01 pm ]
Post subject: 
You could always get a harness made to your requirements. The companies that make them will also make them to take your accessories. Check out Vintage Wire There are a few other companies around as well.
Author:  simon k [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:17 pm ]
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I think quite a few people have done it - but personally, I'd buy a new one, or a good second hand one. Lucas wiring is all colour coded, and once you learn the system it's great, the reproduction ones (see Morris 1100's post) use the original colourings
Author:  slinkey inc [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 4:42 pm ]
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I've done it. As I had to mix and match various Leyland and morris electric and my own custom circuit breaker box. The circuit breakers which are only marginally bigger than normal spade fuses are good, and auto reset so you don't have to keep buying fuses but I don't think I'd recommend them. The low power ones, 10 Amp ones seem prone to failing as the can overheat the easiest with constast high current without tripping the breaker.
Author:  smac [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:20 pm ]
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I did mine from scratch myself. The biggest advantages are you only have what you need, the unions are done in places that make sense (for removal), and things can be put where ever you want, not where where some guy in the UK 50 years ago thought was a good place. The down side is it'll take longer than you think, and it'll cost more than you think.
Author:  HPDesign [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 5:22 pm ]
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I have just purchased a full 21 circuirt loom, all pre wired from painless for a customers car if your thinking about it, google up painless wiring they do quality kit's makes it heaps easy, and with 21 circuits you have lots of room for accesories
Author:  Mick [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:30 pm ]
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Yup, I've done it as well for a mates hillclimb/rally car mini.

I laid out an old one,cut the old braid off the loom and cable tied all the wires so they wouldn't move. I then matched it wire for wire with a new one and then bound all the new wires up. I ran them in hi temp super flexi silicon wires (pretty exxy though) and soldered the ends on once it was back in the car. I did special fuse boxes and everything as well as kill switches, extra lights, relays. Even a relay for the air horn.

Biggest hassle is that all your wires will be the same colour, even if you got four different colours, the result is still confusing to everyone after you, and all tags eventually fall off. You could use sparky numbered tags though, these are plastic and slide over the end of the wire before you terminate it.

I've also made a snappy loom to get a car running off the starter button and that was all, no lights, only two fuses. Very simple affair. It only needed six wires in all.
Author:  1071 [ Sun Nov 19, 2006 10:04 pm ]
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Hot rodders use fancy looms where each wire is printed with its function. You work out what circuits you need, buy an approriate length of each kind of wire, attach approriate junction boxes, relays, fuses etc bind it all togetther and install.

Looks really hi tech - but not Mini.

Cheers, Ian
Author:  miniature [ Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:19 am ]
Post subject: 
Thank you all of you. You've inspired me to make my own harness. I like the idea of being able to place what I want where I want, but I agree that labeling will be a challenge What I'll probably do is use a labelmaker to create labels that I'll attach to the wiring. Ultimately I'll probably have to draw my own diagram as to what is going on for maintainability. Thanks!
Author:  badassmini [ Mon Nov 20, 2006 8:36 am ]
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does anyone have a mini wiring diagram other then the one in the service manual which is easyer to read which i don't know if anyone else can read them but i can't as im trying to figure out my wiring loom to which has no tags on it at all.
Author:  Mick [ Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:51 am ]
Post subject: 
miniature wrote:
Thank you all of you. You've inspired me to make my own harness. I like the idea of being able to place what I want where I want, but I agree that labeling will be a challenge What I'll probably do is use a labelmaker to create labels that I'll attach to the wiring. Ultimately I'll probably have to draw my own diagram as to what is going on for maintainability. Thanks!


The labels really won't work that well, they are heat printed and will simply change colour under the bonnet (if they don't fall off). Labelling is the single most problem for home looms, they are trouble later on.
Author:  Mike [ Mon Nov 20, 2006 11:10 am ]
Post subject: 
miniature wrote:
Thank you all of you. You've inspired me to make my own harness. I like the idea of being able to place what I want where I want, but I agree that labeling will be a challenge What I'll probably do is use a labelmaker to create labels that I'll attach to the wiring. Ultimately I'll probably have to draw my own diagram as to what is going on for maintainability. Thanks!


Tried it - planned it for weeks, thought I was all prepared (with a decent crimping tool and crimp connectors, two decent old wiring looms to scavenge, an exact list of what I wanted to do etc - tried it and am still at it (I wasn't finished after two weeks and had to go overseas so the car was put in storage and is waiting for me to finish it once I come back). Frankly its not worth it - just buy a new loom (even custom made for your needs) for $400.

Just a warning as said before it will be harder, more expensive and will take longer than what you think. I suggest youy plan exectly what you wanna do before you start. Idealy get a used wiring loom in a good condition (approx. $30 from ebay or when someone's wrecking a car) and consider the need for all your supplies like different gauge wiring, good quality double core crimp connectors, a very good crimping tool (so that the connectors stay there once ou crimped the buggers), an enlarged printout of the wiring diagram for easy reference and to mark changes without ruining your eyesight (the Leyland Mini "Black Book" manual has excelent wiring diag.s) electrical tape, soldering iron etc.

Idealy base the new loom on a used original mini loom (make sure it hasnt been butchered). Clean it up by removing the tape wrap, spraying it with carby cleaner (will clean the dirt w/o melting the insulation), then washing in warm soapy water and laying out to dry in the sun for a couple of days (make sure its very clean as it'll make identifying and working with the wires heaps easier and cleaner). You can then replace damaged wires with new ones, replace some wiring (especialy the headlight wiring) with heavier gauge wiring, and add any new circuits you want. Old crimping can be swapped for new terminals etc. Also you might wanna get a second fuse box to cover the new circuits.

Oh and write out in advance exactly what you wanna do and what you wanna add to the loom and catalog anything you do afterwards as its heaps easy to get confused and overwhelmed if you've never done it before.

Cheers
Mike
Author:  slinkey inc [ Mon Nov 20, 2006 6:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
Also if you haven't thought of this already, get all your stuff from an electronic shop, Dick Smith's or any other place like that, not autobahn. It's soooo much cheaper if you buy wiring and connectors in bulk amounts in containers from DCE.
Author:  Zizzle [ Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:17 am ]
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I was going to rewire mine.

Then the other day I got serious, laid out the old loom, and pulled all the tape off. There were some burnt connectors and some burnt wires in the rear of the car, but it wasn't really that bad.

I replaced the burnt parts with the same coloured wire (without the trace though). If I were doing it again, I would try to track down a second unwanted harness to sacrafice and keep all the colours the same as orginal.

Buy some heat shrink tubing for doing joins, and solder them properly.

I also put relays in for the head lights. Soaked all brass bits (like the fuse box) in acid solution to clean them up.

It did take longer than I anticipated. But it's the sort of job where you can sneak down to the garage after dinners and make a good dent in it.
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