Front and rear wiring loom

I decided that the wiring loom would be next. This is in four parts:

• The front
• The back
• The dash
• The engine

Today I tackled the first two. It was difficult to work out where things went and the GD build guide did not give all the details or photos. It is fine once you have worked it all out or know what you are doing!

NOTE ADDED LATER:  Clearly I didn't know what I was doing! At this stage make the modifications to the column switch wires, the washer earth, the horn wiring (as per the GD instructions) and feed the red wire for the fuel pump through the bulkhead. Do it at this stage to save you time and grazed knuckles.

First I decided to fit the front loom. The fuse box hole was cut out as marked by GD. The fuse box was fitted through the hole. In my wisdom I thought that the fixing holes could be marked by putting the fuse box in place from the engine bay side and marking the fixing holes, then drilling. Wrong!! They are not central and are not the same when the fuse box is mounted from the other side.


Holes drilled in wrong place!


Put the fuse box through the hole, then mark and drill from the passenger compartment. Fix with cap head bolts. Some filling and gel coating to do then.

The relay block was fixed in place with self tapping screws to the scuttle between the windscreen fixing point and the front of the passenger foot well. Note that this is fixed upside down. By removing a couple of relays fixing holes are revealed. I was a little concerned that the pilot holes would come through the wings! Of course they didn't.

Relay block fitted

A 44mm hole was drilled in the near side inner wheel arch where GD had marked. The front loom was fed through the hole and the grommet fitted in place. A little Vaseline in the grommet groove helped fit the grommet in the hole.

Hole cut, grommet fixed and loom fed through.

Next the rear loom was connected to the front loom. There are two electrical terminal blocks to push together. These are unique so can't be mixed up.

A pilot hole was drilled from the boot towards the passenger compartment then opened up to 25mm. I avoided drilling through the panel in the upper area of the passenger compartment. A piece of wire helped me locate the hole from the passenger compartment.

Pilot hole drilled from boot

Once the hole was drilled a slot was created about 10mm wide to help thread the loom from the passenger compartment to the boot. This slot can be seen in the next photo. Threading the numerous wires through took some time.

The rear loom behind the seat location

The rear loom once connected, was routed down the front firewall into the foot well. It then went along the line of the transmission tunnel. From there it went behind where the passenger seat will be and up the rear fire wall, before entering the cut slot/hole. 'P' clips will be needed to retain the loom - something to source.

Holes cut for dash loom

Another 44mm hole was cut. This time in the bulkhead. Below this a 25mm hole was cut both for the dash loom. GD had marked the holes.

Hole cut for steering column

Finally a 60mm hole was cut for the steering column. Again GD had marked the hole.

Next I need to mark up the numerous wires so I know where they go. I will use the wiring diagram in the build manual to do this.