Bits and bobs (and dash cam)

 Whilst running out in my first year 2 things started to bother me 

1 No were to place my phone so navigating is a chore

2  My other cars have a dash cam but not this one 

first problem was an easy fix ebay to the rescue 

attaches with a sucker and stays put 

Second not so easy 

Didnt want to attach to the windscreen as didn't want the wires draping all over .Needed to come up with some way of attaching it to the body near the roll bars.

First task was power already  routed a spare pair of cables to the back of the seat when i built the car for a just in case .

So tied these in to the aux power switch and fitted a socket behind the drivers seat sorted .

socket fitted 

The second was not so easy there was  nothing i could find on the internet that suited my purpose so came up with something in stainless steel but all my attempts ended in the bin .

To the recue came Dave my work colleague and best mate since we were 16 ( so a few years !!) 

whilst talking of my dilemma he calmly announces that he thinks he can rustle up something on his new 3d printer, 

With a hint of skepticism we moved forward ,Well the results are nothing short of amazing.

So impressed with this it is nothing short of fantastic  and works a treat!

  

 

Modifications 3

The hospital advise that I  am allowed to drive after 6 weeks so  assuming I can can in and more importantly out of the car I will able to drive on 1st May .

As i cant kneel for long periods and don't want to impede my healing I have enlisted the help of my son to finish putting the car together .

Yellow wire in the loom ready for dash refit 

Dash was straight forward as speedo and rev counter cables were left long enough on purpose 

Dash fitted with the rev counter in the right side 

Fitted the surround with the Alarm LED  happy with the outcome .

LED fitted and hoping its bright enough 

Next its the undertrays which are amazingly fiddly made worse because of all the switches ( Bluetooth ,rev lockout and second map switch ) as well as all the associated wiring.

Forced smile as the undertray just slips in ( not)  

Once everything in and found to be working car had to come out the garage to be washed for some strange reason Connor was ok with volunteering for this job !! 

No forced smile here then 

Speedo check

 Didn't  think to check the Speedo but a quick call to Andy advised me that i should ( Steve  did say as well but ignored that advice .

Jacked the car up ,easier said that done as no space 

ended up making a set of low rise ramps out of some decking wood .

make shift low rise ramps 

once car jacked up and on stands into first gear on  tick over  35MPH ! works but maybe a bit fast  .

Easy enough to set by holding the trip button and then powering up goes in to set up menu 

currently set at 8000  Andy from GD said its wants to be at 28000  and now runs at 9MPh at tick over which is close enough .

Pain to do but one more job ticked off .

speedo working

Indicator Stalks

 wanted to trail  fit the stalks and the housing before sticking the leather to it and realized that i had left the stalk cables too long and had loads of cable to lose but hey ho .

All fitted on the steering coulomb so happy ,fitted the leather with the join at the bottom and pushed the front on and left to dry ,leaving the leather long at the moment until i see what its looks like on 

waiting to dry 

When we offered it up it didnt fit as well as we wanted ,biggest issue was that the surround it cut out for a key and i dont have one .this tends to make the leather crumple in ,solved with a piece of plastic from a paint tray to fill it out now looks better 

final fit 

  

Reflectors

 Realised that i needed reflectors to pass the IVA and didnt want the expense of buying another 2 standoffs so copied another users blog and made a bracket to support the reflector off the indicator s ,a bit of a fiddle to make but hopefully worth it 

found a piece of stainless hanging around 

The slot was there on the metal i acquired but will be hidden by the reflector ,once i got the indicator to fit I spaced the refector with a 5mm drill spryed black and fitted .

look better than i thought might even leave them of after IVA 

 

Wiring and undertrays

 Had a bit of time so went for wiring the undertrays, pinched an idea from other blogs and wanted an aux socket but wanted it hidden, Also wanted to be able to charge the battery from this point. Didn't want to overload the wiring so took an extra feed from the battery with an in line fuse and broght it though with all the other wires .  

Its quite tight for room but can just get it all in ,the main feed from the batt come to the extra fuse board and then feeds the aux socket sends a fed to the drivers footwell lamp.

I have decided that phone charging is going to be an issue so opted to hide a usb outlet behind the pass seat .

usb twin port behind the pass seat 

now all the wiring is in should be able to fianlly fit the dash.

More Fault finding

After the excitement of the start it was time to get   on to the issues found .

I noticed that the fuel gauge reads full and I know there is only 4 gallons in there.

when I took the cables off the sender the gauge went to empty so appears to be a sender problem 

When i looked further the sender is reading wrong should be high resistance when empty and low when full but mine is the other way round

empty should be reading high 

full should be reading low 

One for Andy GD to sort 

Next 

Ignition warning light ---now lights up but still not charging so strip down and see what going on there 

Wipers -- ok changed over the park and now ok but very noisy in operation so might have to bend the tube some more 

Washer -- now working bad earth (my fault)  

Brake fluid light -- now working Lamp blown  

Reverse lock out --ok

Boot lights work with side lights 

and big one for me the start button illumination goes out when engine starts 

Fault finding

 After a disastrous day yesterday thought i would start at one problem at a time so, started with the Headlights, using GD dash wiring i traced everything out and found that were the stalks plug into the wires have been fitted wrong !!Know that not Andys fault as he sources the wiring out but it took me most of the day to sort it ( and a few very choice words)

similar blue wires in the wrong plugs 

Now it all makes a bit more sense and checks out with my meter .

so now time for next power up . 

- Side lights --ok 

-Dip lights -- ok 

Main beam --ok ( and indicator works ) 

Flash --ok

Gauge back lights --ok 

Fog light --ok ( only when head lights on and indicator works

- heater both speeds --ok ( i wired the switch backwards so always working on speed 2  duh) 

Reversing light -- ok 

indicators lhs plus repeaters   - ok 

Indicators rhs plus repeaters   - ok  

Hazards   - ok 

horn -- soft tone only -- ok ( loud disconnected as in the garage) update bloody hell that loud 

Ignition warning light --- NO 

Start button lights up -  ok 

fuel pump runs then stops   - ok 

Wipers -- ok (parking on wrong side ) 

Washer -- NO 

Brake fluid light -- NO 

Reverse lock out --ok

Brake lights --ok 

So a lot better just a few bits to look at before a start 

Powering up ( and down again)

 Time to power up 

so connected the dash up put all the fuses in and connected the battery no bang or smoke which is a good start .

first checks were

Heater --only works on one speed

Side lights -- all work 

Head lights - no dip beam  no full beam  but flash works 

Wipers -no on first speed then on second works but head lights come on !!! 

no point carrying on so enough for today out with wiring diagram.

Dash Wiring Stalks

 Final part of the wiring quite easy once i had marked cables and photocopied the supplyed drawing to make it bigger for old eyes !

Son in law came round so gave him the job 

All done thanks Adam 

Decided to alter the wiring slightly as not having intermittent wiper so moed the wiring so

 intermittent is now speed 1 and speed 1 is now speed 2 ,i also had to link speed 2 to speed 1 other wise when i went to speed 2 the wiper would stop .

link wire added 

Dash Wiring Stalks

 Final bit on the wiring was the stalks .

GD supply the stalks with a nice SS bar that screws in 

Started by cutting off the stalk ,then drilling and threading a hole in line with the stalk 

cut 

Tapped and ready to fit 

The Wiper Stalk was more difficult as it was hollow behind  for this i used epoxy first and the drilled and tapped as normal 

Other makes are available !!

Then cam on to the wiring using the tech files from the disc the wire numbers and colours  can be found ,I used the dash wiring diagram to confirm the wires and numbers 

The wiring was straightforward as there was a key for numbers and colours 

The wiper was slightly more complicated ( or i was being thick ) 

There was no wire mark for the wash or the horn ,going back to the drawing of the dash i could then work out the 2 missing cables for W and WH ,

I don't intend to have intermittent wipe on my car as hoping the wiper never get used so plan to make intermittent connection (J) speed 1(53)  and Speed1 -speed 2 (53B)  ,i am considering joining speed 1 and 2 together otherwise if i select speed 2 by mistake the wipers will stop .

need to think about that over a beer  

Dash wiring (IGN)

 Last couple of jobs before i can go for a power up is the Ignition switch and the steering stalks ,

The ignition switch is the Lucas type ,It threw me at first as i expected the switch to be

 OFF-AUX-IGN-Start  however it isn't mine is AUX -OFF-IGN- Start  

there is no wiring diagram in the box and nothing i could find in the web about wiring so after a bit of time arrived at 

Contact 1 also being at the top ,

I looked at the cables in the loom and they are 6mm so figured should use the same ,with the GDkit comes the spades and the housing for the plug so that was easy and soldered them for piece of mind however on the switch end that was another issue should have used yellow crimps due to the size of the cable but, as i was presented with double connections came up with another  idea 

first i split the cable into 2  then put the insulation back on  , I could then use 2 blue terminals on both of the connections 

insulation slides back on (note the heat shrink) 

crimped up 

Once crimped i the put heat shrink on the join , repeated this for the AUX and IGN 

heat shrink applied 

Completed 

Wiring ish

 I decided that after speaking to other owners  there is a small type of people that have no respect and open door of there cars !! how rude 

to combat this i have  installed a very simple alarm the idea being that once switched on (with a key switch)  as soon as the door is opened an alarm will go off . adding to this i also thought that i would install Bluetooth speakers for when i am stopped 

I purchased  a motorbike sounder as it is loud enough and draws little  current when activated 

 

sounder behind the dash 

i was planning to use the courtesy switches which then reminded me to look for the connection 

i found it in one of the multiplugs that connect the dash as there is no dash wire for this i took the wire out and joined it to mine.

courtesy wire joined the other two are light feed and spare 

 

This is work in progress so more to follow  wiring diagram 

i also intend to fuse the aux socket separately and run a new wire to it so i can use this as a battery charger if reqd  

 

More wiring (boot)

 The number plate light gets its feed from a connector next to the fuel tank and goes in the boot at the hinge, I thought i could combine the two and place a boot light in the circuit  .

Started by glassing some wood each side of the boot and then a bit a 10mm heating pipe to hide the wires .

one side done ( hard to glass upside down ) 

Then moved on to the other side ,used p clips to secure the wire up to the light and all done

 

Fuel pipes and Wiring

 After refitting the fuel pump after wiring it up was able to fit the pipes on to the tank fittings 

fuel pipes fitted 

The strainer does not have any arrows on it but on one of my camera happy visits to GD i have taken a picture of this and that's' the way Andy fitted it so works for me ,happy with the gland to fit the cable as allows me to "lose" the spare cable in the boot but should I need to take it all down there will be enough slack cable.

Reversing light 

Been putting off fitting the reversing light for some time as marked  it out while the body was on the stand and just wasnt happy that it looked right ,due to the shape of the car so difficult to get datum marks .

Once the boot was on and fitted using the handle gave me another reference so at least it would look right .

measured from each side on the boot handle and each side of the lights and eventually was happy so fitted finally .

Again using the stand offs supplied by Andy I have opted for the lights to have the screws up and down so using the stand off i could use the existing screws just had to extend then with 5mm barrel nuts .

finally happy  looks good 

flushed with success decided to finish the wiring in the boot . The loom naturally goes to the 2 sides of the car and everything is duplicated .My wiring loom had 2 earths each side instead of the 1 shown on the diagram .checked with a meter and they were both good ,so used the Bullet joinerfor 1 earth and brake/tail + indicator and a straight joiner for the other earth and reversing light or fog light .

once the wires were all conected set out to try and tidy it up a bit ,using a p clip to the indicator fixing made it look a lot better ( get covered with carpet anyway .

wiring with p clip and tie wraps

Dasboard part 8 (final ??)

 Dashboard all done now apart from wiring the speedo and Tacho .

Never  got any wiring with the gauges but downloaded them from the smiths website and then got even more confused as there are 5 wires on the speedo dash  harness and 7 on the plug 

5 wires on harness 

7 wires on the plug 

This resulted in a call to Andy to clarify 

The red/blue goes to the green /orange ,  black/yellow needs to be earthed

and ignore the brown/slate wire and the red wire   the others are straight forward .

Same problem with the Tacho 4 wires on the harness and 6 on the plug 

4 wires 

6 wires on the plug 

again from Andy red/blue wire goes to white/slate on loom 

ignore the brown /slate  and white/black wires..

again the other 3 are straight forward 

As a dissclaimer this was for my smiths instruments and  yours could be different .