Redo'ing The Loom

[johnhenry 20]

afternoon all

 

I just wanted to enquire if anyone had essentially rebuilt themselves whole new loom? standard management, just new cables and connectors?

 

looks fairly easy to do, other than matching up the wires to the ECU.

 

Anyone out there done it/got any advise?

my mate and I will be attempting this when I get back from Canada!

 

Cheers

John

[welshpug 1,657]

something I have thought about for my 205 with its MP3.1 ecu as the loom on that is showing its age.

 

I've done a loom for the S40 on my ZX and that would have more wires than a Jetronic 205 as it controls the ignition, as well as running two sets of injectors, but still pretty straightforward really

[Kane 34]

I've just built a new engine loom for my mi16 conversion and despite the few hiccups I had it wasn't the most difficult thing to do. Terminals can get costly as there are many that are Peugeot specific and minimum orders mount up.

 

If you've got an old loom there to replicate best thing I think you could do is strip all the covering etc off and pin the cable to a board of mdf or similar. Then all you have to do is use this as a guide with your new cable. I didn't have an old loom to guide off so was a little bit of a PITA but got there in the end.

 

Autosparks were the cheapest place for cable I could find, had a small nightmare with a lost delivery but they eventually sorted that out and replaced my order. Other places for wiring goods I used were vehicle wiring products and polevolt, both of which are good. Make sure you have everything itemized before you order because if you miss some parts it can get costly to re-order. For reference look at my thread on here named 'one thing leads to another'

Edited September 9, 2014 by Kane

[GLPoomobile 958]

I've also done it for my Mi16.

 

Actually putting a loom together is fairly easy. Crimping on the new terminals is simple enough once you've done a few and get the feel for it. A ~£20 crimp tool will do fine. Take some time to learn how to remove terminals from their housings if you plan on re-using any of the old plugs (IIRC it's a bit of a bastard trying to get the terminals out of the +12v plug that goes in to the shunt box). All my cabling was new except the CAS cable, which I reused.

 

To splice multiple cables together, a couple of good products are heat shrink butt joints (not butt plugs, please don't get these confused ) - you put the cables in to the butt joint, crimp them down and then heat it which causes a glue inside to seal the joint whilst the sheath (butt plugs and sheaths in one post, jeez!) shrinks around it - and similar to this there are solder butt joints that are more or less the same but have solder inside instead of glue.

 

Using a pin board to work on the loom seems like a really good idea. It was suggested to me at the time and I didn't do this. I wish I had.

 

Planning and prep are the key to this. Taking your time is essential. Plan the wiring you need, the terminals you need, the route you want the loom to follow (if not copying the original), the lengths of the wires and add a percentage as contingency so you can trim back as necessary, and make comprehensive notes.

 

When the wiring is done, I personally recommend testing it in the car BEFORE you wrap it, so mistakes can be dealt with more easily. And when testing, just lay the loom in place (keeping it away from moving parts obviously) rather than going to the trouble of routing it properly. Once you know it's working, then remove, wrap, make it it pretty and route it back through the engine bay for final fitment.

[MikeC 10]

Were the original cable numbers printed or stamped on?

[jackherer 543]

You can rub the numbers off so I'd say printed...

[johnhenry 20]

good to see a few people have done this! I have a complete loom that is in and runs the car now. so essentially its just a case of getting the loom out the car, setting it out in a large piece of MDF and really just connecting the dots!

 

is there a way of checking wire thickness easily as I don't know which wire thickness to use for different applications? is there a rule that will make life easier for me?

 

Also - any useful mods that would work well? I would look to put a manual fan override into the car when doing this, but anything else?

 

Cheers again!

John

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

This is a massive task and not to be undertaken lightly. You will also spend a lot of money to do it to a good standard.

Personally I would concentrate on what I call the exposed ends, stuff like the engine bay and lighting looms where they are exposed to damp and dirt. Concentrate on repairing those up a good standard but leave the rest alone is how I would tackle it personally.

[S@m 156]

I have often thought of making a loom from scratch and with it comes the benefits of being able to make it bespoke for your application, but as Tom says, you can do a good job of 'refurbing' an old loom rather than starting again.

 

I recently refurbed a bx16v loom for my own conversion, removing all the old coverings to locate any dodgy connections, damaged wires and connectors and replacing/rerouting as necessary.

 

I had no end of problems with the loom when it was in my 306, but once i'd refurbed it and fitted it to my 205, i never had an issue.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I should add, I have wired a couple of cars from scratch, so I'm speaking from experience. I would not entertain rewiring an entire 205 unless it was a race car with minimal equipment.

[Kane 34]

I'm by no means an experienced electrician, in fact the engine loom I've made up on my 205 is the first I've attempted but I wouldn't say it is extremely difficult to do.

 

It would no doubt be more cost effective to try and clean up the existing loom as opposed to building a new one from scratch but you do have a little more reassurance with a brand new product.

 

After making my engine loom and fitting it to the car it works a treat, following the minor issues of course, but what I'm finding now is that I'm having electrical issues elsewhere. Bad earths, corroded terminals in the lighting loom etc which is extremely annoying. I do plan on having a crack at the whole new vehicle wiring when I do a nut and bolt rebuild but that's a long way away.

 

I'm my opinion if you've got the time and are willing to fork out a little bit of extra cash then have a go. Using a pin board means you could make multiple looms with the possibility of resale also but again that's all dependant on your own time.

[calvinhorse 870]

Alexcross (spell check!?) did a build thread with a lot of info on re wiring

[johnhenry 20]

about 90% of the components going to the ignition and injection have been replaced with new or reconditioned items.

 

have set it up, basically. and I'm still worried about it, i think by replacing the loom ill not need to worry about anything.