Caping some plastic bezels back on around the steering wheel, fairly sure the ignition purple/black wire has a ready made partner in the purple/black of the ignition wire bundle but i have a single loose black wire hanging but going no place. i also have a few loose wires in the foot well at right which i think are related to the door open/close triggers but not certain. Any thoughts?


the purple from the ignition seems to have a ready partner in another purple/black plug beside it but I also have a loose black one ...?

These guys drop down from beside the fan near the foot pedals without clear ID. related to door open/close maybe

 

No idea on the foot pedal wires.

BUT

Check that stray Black wire carefully. It MAY NOT be a wire, it may be the Fibre Optic strand for the bezel.

 

All the fibre-optic was gone who i acquired it, but i'll double check to be sure.

 

Your first pic shows a Purple/Black wire with female connector and the wire with the male connector looks like a Black/Purple. I don't know that the color code would change mid-stream like that.

I think the black "wire" is really a wire. Here is a picture of a F.O.

Dave

 

So what exactly is the copper critter here pictured and does anything clip or plug onto it? it seems to determine the position of the steering column like a primitive sensor.


copper critter under steering column

 

That copper critter is the connection for the horn. Can’t remember if it’s the earth or the black/purple.(fairly sure a male bullet connector on a black wire pushed into it.
One black and purple wire is for the horn, the other is redundant on your car. It is for the headlight buzzer in the USA market.

If you have a Haines manual check out the US wiring diagram.

 

And... speaking from experience - it needs to be cleaned periodically and apply a dab of dielectric grease with a Q tip. I only see one in the pic above; my 1975 XJ6C has two of them. Both of them accessable by just taking the upper knee scuttle off. I stick a blue shop rag into the hole and rotate the steering wheel to clean all the way around the "armature" hub part. And be careful to also clean the copper (or brass) "brush". You can see in the above pic this one is due.

Symptoms - horn starts going off intermittently when driving (very annoying and embarrassing - it may illicit the one-finger salute from other drivers that think you are honking at them for their self-perceived excellent driving). And... the steering column starts making this weird "scratching/rubbing" sound that drives you crazy.

 

Forgot to mention - until you fix this, and the horn is driving everyone nuts, remove the horn fuse. Mine is located on the fire wall in the engine compartment just inboard the battery in an
in-line pop-apart twist turn fuse holder.

 

like this image from elsewhere on the forum?

 

Yup! Those be them. You'll love working with those itty bitty nuts and screws!

 

So one wires actually plugs INTO the tail of the copper thing. think there might be the remnant head of an old plug in my one maybe, or a silver mount plug its hard to tell

 

yep. That is a picture of under my column taken quite a few years ago.