Hi All,

So I've been restoring a Mini for the past 2 years - took this project up purely to learn about cars in General. When I first started I had absolutely no clue about anything to do with cars / resto's, let alone how an engine works lol.

So far the car has been rebuilt from scratch. Only things left on it from the original car is the subframes and bodywork. All rust has been cleaned out, every panel is now ripple / dint free, car sprayed.

I've run through a bunch of 7 core trailer wire front-to-back throughout the car to ensure I have MORE then enough wiring availiable... EXCEPT - I have no clue where to go from here...

I'm looking for some information on building a wiring loom / fuses / relays etc. etc. whatever info I may need to know in order to do it myself. Sure I could go out and buy something but where's the fun in that?

Any help would be greatly appreicated.

Hmm, probably a hard thing to answer not knowing what you know already.

If youve got the space, lay out a large peg board or similar and mark out the car. Then lay all your wiring on this so you know what lengths you'll need.
Get yourself a wiring diagram, source yourself a fuse box and go from there.

Write down all the accessories you'll need to power, work out your earth points.
Also look at what needs a higher rated cable than just the 7 core setup you currently have ie, wiring to your alternator, starter solenoid.

Try to find better connectors than the standard Jaycar quick crimp shite, make sure you solder and heatshrink every connection. Buy some good tools; strippers, crimpers, soldering iron etc etc.

Id get it all setup and organised first before you bother sending wires around your car.



personally id just buy a cheaper universal loom (thats what I did) and wire that up.

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So... I'm Seifer

I'd (and will) buy a loom from one of the places that make a mini specific loom - will be much easier for maintenance, originality and for resale value

the sting of a higher price is forgotten long before the pain of an inferior product

I rebuild my own looms BUT it is only worthwhile if you're really familiar with it all and have plenty of time.

Getting another second hand loom can be ok (cost wise) but often nasties lurk under the binding.

A new loom is cheap insurance and peace of mind.

cheers

Jacob

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'72 Clubman Van - 1022cc, 295 head, 731 cam - Daily Driver
'69 Morris 1100 S - Dinged by a bus, in shed under repair
'64 Morris 1100 - Early 1100, long term project

I have 'scratch' built a few looms before but I did so for very specific purposes. I would suggest you consider a new loom or if the $$$ won't stretch that far, buy a second hand one from one of the mini wreckers for which you'd pay around $100 for. It will cost more than that to make one (for the crimp lugs and connectors etc) and there are some connectors that you may not be able to buy.

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Ya I wired my car from scratch with wire off the roll. Everything from scratch, completely custom.

It's allowed me some freedom I would not otherwise have (eg repositioning solenoid, custom gauge positions etc) but in hind sight, I'd probably lean toward buying one as well.....far easy to modify an existing loom when needed than go from scratch.

Well the entire aim of doing the mini resto in the first place was to learn as much as possible about restoring a car, so I've chosen to do everything the 'hard' way much to my demise.

I just don't understand how the actual wiring of a car works, with fuses etc etc. Was just looking if anyone had any material / links to sites that may contain a 'how-to' wiring loom guide etc.

thanks for the tips thus far tho

No offence but unless you saw your crank being cast our your paint being developed there are things you will miss out on. Buy an Ez wiring universal kit, you will virtually be staying from scratch but alleast u can work out where everything goes and u know its up to the job.

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So... I'm Seifer

When I bought a new loom for the 850 I drew a 'schematic' of it before I installed it - has lengths and colours etc in case I needed to duplicate it one day for another build of a different car. - If you want a copy yell

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

In this instance, you might actually learn more from the 'schematic' drawing of the wiring rather than crimping lugs on the ends of wires.

Think of it as a road map for wires. Pick a wire and trace it through from start to finish, perhaps to make it clearer and easier to understand, start drawing your own from the schematic. By this I mean pick say the Brown Wire and draw it from start to finish with tee offs to all that it is connected to. Make little notes next to each tee off.

DTrain put up a link not long ago to a or some schematics.

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this is what I did.
I pulled all the loom out except the rear from where it connect on the passenger side in the dash. While I disconnected each wire I labeled it.
I cleaned Every wire and inspected them closely and put white electrical tape on every dodge bit.
I then hung it all on a Wall
Found the closest wire diagram I could find and made three copies of it.
First Copy I used my sons textures and traced all the lights/blinkers & dash lights in the same colour but where white trace was I used Yellow
Second was the Main ign wire White once again was Yellow, Brown but I also did all the earths plus horn and Fuel Pump
Last 1 I did all the Green and Black Trace wires.
This gave me a Great understanding what, where & how everything connected.
As I was trying to hide as much of the wires from the engine bay I went to the wreckers and pulled all the light & blinker wires I needed but the thicker gauge Then the Same for the rest. Funny enough I went to the wreckes 5 times and the max I got charged for the heap of wire I took was $10 as all I had each time was a ball of wire.
I cut each dodgy section out re soldered and double heat srunk them together.

The best pointer I can give you is the wire diagram and trace the different section on three sheets

Hope This Helps

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Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

I do it all the time. It is what I do for a Living. I have just re wired my own convertible as the wiring in that was a real mess. There is always room for improvement in wiring a Mini. One of the most important things which I call a MUST on Minis are wiring Headlight and Horn relays. A few other mods I do are, the wiring that normally goes across the firewall to the wiper motor and the rear Loom I put it through the firewall just behind the fuse box area and run it inside the car on the other side of the firewall so there are no wires near the Air cleaner area. The wiper motors exit through the original hole to the wiper motor plug. I fit a decent type 6 gang or more fuse box. Depends on how sophisticated you want to make the wiring system. The instrument Cluster on Round nosees I make the whole Binnacle on Harness plugs to make it very easy to remove without having to disconnect each wire individually. Other important wires to beef up in size are all the larger browns like the Alternator B+ wire and the ones going to the Ignition switch and Light switch. The Big Brown wire from Solenoid to Alternator can also be doubled up especially if a high output Alternator is fitted. Remember the original wire is only designed to carry what a generator or Little Alternator was putting out. You need the cable to be heavy enough to carry the current to the system and the Battery. This will help to get rid of Voltage drops. I have also incorporated a Hazard light switch in MINNIE too. Some of the above mentioned mods are not suited for Concourse cars.

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