Nightmare topic I know - my car had no motor as you know by now, and most of the wires were cut or just broke off, all are stained to the point of the colors all look black.

I am trying to figure out the following:

Coil Power (I did just grab the 1st switched power I found with my volt meter - for all i know its the temp sender)
Temperature Sender to Guage
Oil Pressure Sender to Guage

Tacho works, but the clock in the tacho cluster doesnt.

Can I touch wires to the + battery terminal and have someone inside the car tell me which needle jumped? I ask becuase I dont know if I am holding the wrong wire or if the sender is bad... or both...
There are about 7 wires in the passenger side of the engine bay that I have no earthly idea where they belong, most missing the end terminals.

Thanks In Advance.

 

Have you tried cleaning the wires with a bit of thinners or white spirit ? Also do you have a printout or file with the UK colour convention for car wiring ?

 

yes and yes. Got the service manual in black n white and the eBay special laminated version in color…

many of the wires are black or green.. or green with black.

 

I can't remember what they all are from memory but you can sort them out by elimination, one at a time. I'd first check with a test light or multimeter that each wire in turn is not live with the ignition key switched on. The one that is live will likely be the coil feed. Then touch the other dead ones to earth on the engine, one at a time, as someone watches the dash inside the car. The temperature gauge sender wire will send the gauge up to Hot so you can label this. The cold start senser wire will click the auxilliary starting solenoid in, the brake fluid level senser will put the brake warning light on, there may be the Low Tension wire that goes from the coil to the distributor that will show continuity from one end to the other. The oil light wire will put the warning lamp on when earthed.

The charging lamp wire will be in the area of the alternator or regulator and there are the washers on the front left inner wing and the wipers on the right hand side near the bonnet, sometimes called a hood for some reason or other.

I don't know where they all are that you're referring to, pictures would help, but there are the horn relay wires in the right hand front corner that go into the loom and also down to the horns and all the other things that I've forgotten. I'll check mine later if someone else hasn't stepped in first.

Ray

 

I appreciate you can't see all the colours but all earth wires are black.
All ignition on permanent live wires are solid green.
Any wire with green and another colour are switched live wires so on the AED there is a solid Green which is the Live feed going in then a Green/Black wire coming out which enters the wiring loom then comes out and goes to the Otter switch on top of the Thermostat housing to create the earth. This can be found with a simple continuity check.

I doubt if you clock in the Tacho will work, they all tend to stop form old age and need a good clean by stripping them down. If you convert to Neg earth then the clock will not work anyway as it is polarity sensitive. If you look at any old Jaguar the clock is normally set at ten to two.