The wiring in my cobra is a birds nest!

[Jaydee]

I bought a complete doner car. Would it be easier to use the complete wiring loom from that car, and just cut out the stuff I don't need? Shorten or lenghten the wires to tidy it up. I got a new wiring loom with the cobra, but I would still have to use all the engine loom.
JD
P.S. Does anybody have a wiring diagram for a 92 Ford Fairlane?

[1uzer]

I just finished wiring my car, and it was pretty easy really. My suggestion would be to steer clear of using chassis wiring off old cars.

Buy a whole roll of 7 core 10amp cable, 2-3 fuse small fuseboxes (about 15 total fuses) and depending on where you have your battery about 5m of battery cable (255amp heavy gauge stuff). 2 2pin flasher cans
Relays for headlights, hibeams, horn, thermo fans and fuel pump.

Mount the battery in your boot and mount the fuseboxes somewhere accessable and out of harms way.

Run 7 core cable to the rear of the car from your column (just loose), to the farthest point it will be used, and run a 7 core cable to the front to the furthest point.
Wire the rear of the car and make your own wire, colour list
eg (this was my coding)

Rear
Colour Does From which fusebox
red brake solid +
white taillights acc
yellow left indicator
green right indicator
brown reverse light acc
black fuel pump relay acc
blue fuel gauge sender acc

Front
red hi beam relay solid +
white headlight relay acc
yellow left indicator
green right indicator
brown parker lights acc
black horn relay solid +
blue thermo relay acc

tap into the loom only where you need to,and you can also use the unused wires at the end of the loom as earths.

Do the same at the front, but the loom should finish in a relay box. From the relay box, run heavier gauge wire to headlights, horn and thermo's.
Wire earths as you go, So you can check your wiring if you need to.

Wire a solid positive over to your ignition switch. Wire seven core wire all joined together at ign switch end to acc position on switch and run it back into one of the fuse boxes.

Run a 7 core cable to the other fusebox from battery+

place flasher cans and wire one (for hazards) from solid + fusebox and the other from acc

Run seperate looms from column for gauge signal wires and wiper/washers

If you put a short length of wire between a fuse and your loose looms and you should be able to use your chassis electrics

Then you figure out what does what with your column switching.

When connecting the final column to front and rear looms don't forget to tap into wire for dash lights for things you want to know are on. Hibeams, left and right indicators, thermos, fuel pump. Leave them long and loose for connecting into your dash.

You should then get the family in the shed and give them a light show