Story so far series 1 resto

[Parisien]

Great work, where did you get the kit of wire and connectors etc from?

P

[lancianut666]

Hi it is a company called Vehicle Wiring Products at www.vehicleproducts.co.uk They do all sorts of brake, lighting, fastenings etc. Thing is ordered on line Sunday evening the stuff came this morning get on!! The crimper thing is great strip the wire push into the terminal put in the crimper and squeeze, checked the first couple but couldn't pull the wire out with a pair of pliers so a good tool.
Clarkey

[SanRemo78]

Replace it before you let the smoke out....

http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/smoke.htm

[Parisien]

Thanks, that will be useful


P

[lancianut666]

The OEM smells of burning Bakelite and plastic! love it!

[peteracs]

Hi

I have also found Vehicle Wiring very efficient and the products as advertised. For my Beta, I have replaced all the spade and bullet connectors. I am not a great fan of simple crimp connections, especially in the engine bay, so purchased the bare crimps without insulation and separate covers for them. I then stripped the wires, tinned with solder, inserted into the crimp, crimped and then soldered them. This way no ingress of water is going to eventually cause an issue with the crimp. Just my 2 penny worth....

Peter

[lancianut666]

Hi Peter
many moons ago I used to work as a telecoms engineer with BT or Post Office Telecommunications as it was then and to join copper cables we used a crimping device that employed grease filled crimps that went over the copper wires twisted together. As far as I can tell not a great success. so I guess if you remove any space for the water to get into you will reduce the chances of corrosion. probably when the car is on the road it might be a mod to do to all the exposed terminals.
Clarkey

[DavidLaver]

You ask about the wires inside the car. Having made such a good start on a loom why not keep going and be done with it? 

David

[lancianut666]

Hi David
makes sense I will finish off under the bonnet and have a poke about behind the dash. I have not got the key for the ignition and need to replace the series 1 ignition switch with a series 2 one I have, so that might be the time I renew that part of the loom. This new Thinwall stuff will be dead easy to make into a new loom as it is very small diameter cable compared to the old fabric covered stuff.
Clarkey

[lancianut666]

In for a penny sand all that... got the urge to sort out the underdash wiring and the ecosystem living down the back of the fuse box... see the pics. first I put numbers on all the new cables at the fusebox end and then tapped out (BT jargon) each wire using a multimeter and then numbered the action end of the new cables. The fuse box as I left it... nasty.

[lancianut666]

Went a bit berserk after a slow start and ended up with the dashboard completely out and the fuse box all nice and clean

[lancianut666]

Getting the dash out is easy enough a few bolts on each side ,one at the back and 3 screws in the glovebox. All the knobs on the dash came off OK but Lancia choose different methods and screw threads for fixing them on some have a grub screw others just screw off. Speedo is held in with 3 clamps and thumbscrews easy as. I will get the dash repainted while it is out it has a fair few chips and knocks. It is now easy to get to the back of the fuse box and pull out all the old cable. I will use the old loom as a pattern

[lancianut666]

Have given the old fusebox a clean up it now looks a lot less crusty and should cope with damp better now all the dead flies, moths leaves etc have been vacumed out. The rubber seal at the back of the fuseback might need renewing or a bit of mastic! Will have to order up some more cable and decide what to do about the loom that goes behind (I think ) the head ling. I might cut it of and fit a multiway connector joint under the dash for now while I get the engine going (or not!)

[DavidLaver]

Brilliant progress - and I'm sure you'll not regret the effort making a proper job behind the dash.

Any tips from cleaning the fuse box?

With the loom behind the headlining is there another route to run a new loom?  Perhaps down a sill or the side of the tunnel. It would be a bit optimistic to hope pulling the old loom would drag a fresh one through...

David

[lancianut666]

Fuse box is a solid construction so some fine wire brushes in the minidrill thing I have along with some fine emery paper caused no problems. Wear goggles and a mask as bits of the brushes will fly off. I think a loom fed down by the tunnel or sill is the way to go I will terminate the dash loom on a block so I can add the new rear loom later if required. Looking at the indicator switch thing I'm tempted to bin it and replace the rear light clusters with some modern ones and have proper indicators and brake lights. Watch this space.
Clarkey