What Cable To Use For My Loom?

[GLPoomobile 958]

I've got finally got around to working out how much of each colour cable I need to make my new loom, but have a few questions before I place the order.

 

1 - The original Pug loom is not thinwall cable, is it?

2 - So if it's not, and I'm ordering thinwall, I can order slightly thinner cable can't I?

3 - If I use cable that is slightly thicker than needed, and therefore has a higher ampage, will it matter?

4 - For the thicker cables (some of the +VE and earth cables), what sort of ampage should I be looking at?

5 - There's a green (well, turquoise) wire from pin 1 of the coil plug, which goes to the tacho. On both my looms it starts and finishes with 1.5mm cable but has thicker (5mm) cable spliced in between. I presume this is shielded to avoid interferance. Is this correct?

6 - Is the above necessary?

7 - Where can I get this shielded wire? (Might just recycle it)

 

 

With regards to sizes and ampages, this is what is available to me:

 

0.5mm - 11 Amp - outside diameter 1.6mm

1mm - 16.5Amp - outside diameter 2mm

2mm - 25 Amp - outside diameter 2.7mm

3mm - 33 Amp - outside diameter 3.3mm

4mm - 39 Amp - outside diameter 3.7mm

Shouldn't need anything bigger than this

 

What I'm not sure of, and so where I need some re-assurance is, if the original loom is not thinwall cable, and most of the wires have 2mm outside diameter, if I use thinwall cable then do I need to use the next size down, which would be outside diameter 1.6mm (0.5mm/11Amp)? Obviously the benefit of using the thinner cable is keeping weight and size down, and it will be cheaper overall. But I want to make sure I'm not going to risk burning anything out by using something too thin that can't handle the current.

[Sandy 191]

Use thinwall throughout and you won't need anything bigger than 2mm. Make a single wire supply for each major draw, fuel pump and (ecu/coil/injectors) combined.

[Ryan 99]

If you're using thinwall cables then yes, you can use thinner cable. The cables are rated by the size of the copper wire itself, so thinwall cable will be thinner overall than normal cable with the same current rating. There are no drawbacks to using larger cable, so if you're worried then you can always use a larger size than you perhaps really need to.

[Grim.Badger 15]

I used 1mm and 2mm thinwall wire when making my sensor loom and so far it has all worked perfectly; I used the 2mm for the starter solenoid wire.

Edited July 21, 2008 by Grim.Badger

[GLPoomobile 958]

Make a single wire supply for each major draw, fuel pump and (ecu/coil/injectors) combined.

 

Sorry to be a complete dumbass, but can you clarify that point Sandy?

 

For the injectors for instance, the OE loom has a thick wire from the ECU which then splits in to 4 thin wires connected in the latter third of it's length which goes to each injector. Are you suggesting I should run those 4 wires all the way back to the ECU and crimp them in to the terminal rather than using a thick wire that split's in to 4 near the end?

 

Also, what about this shielded coil wire business?

[Super Josh 4]

Also, what about this shielded coil wire business?

 

If the original Tacho wire is shielded, then you must use a shielded replacement. Otherwise you will end up with a lot of electrical noise that will interfere with other electricla components.

Note that the shielded wire will only be connected to earth at one end of the cable.

 

 

 

Josh

[Daz_C 8 1 Cars]

Also, what about this shielded coil wire business?

 

 

Not sure if this shielded wire is what your after on this web page - Trigger Wheels. Under the wiring section and bottom of the page.

And if thats no use theres a few links in this thread here - Crank Sensor Cable where can I get it from ?

[Sandy 191]

Sorry to be a complete dumbass, but can you clarify that point Sandy?

 

For the injectors for instance, the OE loom has a thick wire from the ECU which then splits in to 4 thin wires connected in the latter third of it's length which goes to each injector. Are you suggesting I should run those 4 wires all the way back to the ECU and crimp them in to the terminal rather than using a thick wire that split's in to 4 near the end?

 

Also, what about this shielded coil wire business?

Sorry, that wasn't very clear. What I was suggesting was a 1.5mm wire to supply all the injectors, splitting down into 0.5 or 0.75mm to each injector, another 1.5mm to the coil.