I'm making steady progress disassembling a 76 XJC and am reaching the point of no return with the wiring removal
Does anyone have any insights into how best/what order to pull it for reuse? It's far more complicated than the older cars I'm used to working on.
I know the series II cars are plagued with electrical issues so was hoping to do some troubleshooting while it's out of the car and add new wire where needed. It's a big topic I know but couldn't find any threads on this....



reaching point of no return

 

Looks like Charlie Allthumbs got there before you !

It is essential to take photos of every stage of the removal, particularly when disconnecting relays and other bits and bobs that have several wires connected to them. Modern cars have these lovely connectors that only fix one way, but cars of the XJC era are much more primitive. This is so you don't have to faff about wondering what wire goes where. If any loom goes through a box section, make sure you pull the loom out leaving a pull-string behind.

Wiring colour codes follow the British standard, and the looms were originally made by Rists, a subsidiary of Lucas. Looking a the mess on your photo, you really do need to inspect each loom for wiring integrity.

 

I have some insight as to how difficult it can be....but you already know that

As you're aware, the main sections of harness are installed early on as the car is built...so it's almost as though the car was assembled around the wiring. Non-destructive removal means lots of disassembly.

Are you removing the wiring for use in a different car? If not, I'd reconsider removing the entire harness. My experience, FWIW, after being elbow deep into a few of these old Jags, is that the vast majority of wiring is in good shape, even pristine. Leave it in place and carefully examine it for selective, "as needed" repairs. Typically it's the bits in the engine bay and those exposed to the elements that need the most attention. The effort and time to actually *remove* all the wiring is better spent elsewhere. Just my opinion, naturally.

Oh, I do have one tidbit to offer....

On reinstalling of a harness pay close attention to how the wires land before anchoring the harness and reassembly of other parts. My conversion project required swapping an entire fuel injection harness (about 15 feet long!). The engine side of the harness has multiple branches which veer off in different directions. I installed the harness, anchored it, and reassembled the interior before realizing that I had incorrectly oriented the harness. Branches that should veer off to the left instead veered of to the right, and vice-versa. Big mistake. I was able to fudge things around a bit, fortunately, so as to avoid redoing the entire job.

Cheers
DD

 

My Electrical system looked exactly like that!

I am replacing/upgrading it all to modern day standards. I will figure out how things work as I go.

If you ever get that sorted you are way more patient than I!

I will be basing my new electrical system off of one of these

https://www.ebay.com/i/272861348588?chn=ps





Good Luck!

Rusty

 

Thanks for responses!

This is a car that sat outside in a wrecking yard I rescued and I'm planning on putting a 95 or 96 jag v12 in it after going through it using xjs components, ICSAmerica has lead the way on doing this, strengthening body etc. How much of the original loom I use is still to be determined but I'm big on labeling, bagging, photographing and making notes anyway. It's likely I will be frankensteining another loom from a v12 car in and updating some components like rustyxjc is doing but I like having a baseline of knowing the old loom is checked and tested first. The wiring is in surprisingly good shape so far, but I'm ready to replace areas - the radiator support area and front lights are all pretty chewed up for example.

My plan is to pull the heater box and then pull the loom through from that area, is that the most efficient way of doing this?

I'm aiming to carefully remove as much as possible intact and then unwrap and inspect for breaks etc so I know what I'm dealing with. I'm about to pull the delanair unit to test and refurb/rebuild since the car is built around it. A lot of the wiring is clustered around that area so was wondering the best ways to extract it all with damaging it. I have the front clip off and will be pulling the engine when I've completed major bodywork on the passenger side rear - I want the car on its wheels with engine in until i've sorted that out.

It's a southern California car so despite the dirt and crust it has good integrity for an xjc - just a bit of rust under the front wheel wells so far. I may put it on rotisserie anyway just to check everything, still to be determined.

Cheers

 

FWIW...

I converted a 1985 Series III XJ6 into an XJ12, using a 1988 V12.

The main ingredient, in terms of wiring, was the V12 fuel injection harness from the ECU in the boot to the engine bay. This is almost entirely a stand-alone harness; very little tie-in with the rest of the electrical architecture. The harness, which simply replaced the 6-cylinder harness, enters the engine bay just below and inboard of the battery. You're Series II car might not even have the hole.

The engine-bay looms are all detachable sub-harness type so it's easy to just take them out for inspection and repair.

You're project sounds more involved than mine, though. Mine was merely a engine swap. I did whatever was required to make it operational; no re-engineering/upgrading/modifying to speak of.

Cheers
DD