Restoration/upgrading an original wiring harness/fuses?

[rjd2]

Hey folks-so I am essentially building a roundie in a "nut and bolt" manner it would appear, and doing all the sensible upgrades I can(5spd, LSD, etc). I purchased a newly manufactured wiring harness, and it looks great, but as all the wires would need terminals, I looked at my original harness, and it looks pretty good. None of the insulation is crumbling, just some corrosion(which I went through and cleaned). So I'm strongly leaning towards installing the original, as I think it's gonna work fine, save time, and let me start on 2nd base. My questions:

 

1-fuse box. I never liked those bullet style fuse boxes. Is there a new fuse/relay assembly I could install?

 

2-it's not clear to me how to orient the harness when installing. should the bulk of it live in the engine bay, and I start orienting wires through the firewall towards the cabin? or should I start with it oriented under the dash, and move outwards(north and south) from there? would love to do this right the first time, as doing things right the 4-5th time i have thoroughly perfected.

 

3-any other stuff to have on my radar? thanks.

[Dave919]

Re: fusebox there was a recent thread about an aftermarket conversion to blade fuses. Should come up via searching.

[Lucky 7]

I did this same project a few years back with essentially the same goals you mention. I reused the factory harness, splicing/repairing any corroded or overheated sections. I unwrapped, cleaned, and repaired the whole thing, then rewrapped it with fabric harness tape.
 

Not sure if roundies are the same, but for square tails there’s two different harnesses…one for the cabin side and one for the engine bay. I started connecting the cabin harness under the dash, then out from there to the fuse box, doors, trunk, etc. The engine harness started with connections at the fuse box, then routed to the motor, headlights, etc. It was fairy straight forward. 
 

I shared your desire to upgrade from the bullet fuses, but I couldn’t find Any good replacement options in the FAQ. I decided to go rogue and try my own solution.  I landed on a bottom feed Bussman 15305-4 box that fits perfectly in square tail fuse hole. Roundies have smaller boxes, so I can’t say if it would fit well without modification. Anyway, I had to wire up an adapter harness, then it all got plugged in with new 10-pin sealed connectors. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lot of work, but I learned a ton and am now intimately familiar with the wiring in the car. The real benefit though is that now I have a completely sealed box with 20 circuits and modern blade fuses. Very worthy upgrade for my car. 

[rjd2]

love it! ironically, right before you posted that I had also "gone rogue" and bought the same fuse box lol. there's a very nice looking aftermarket fuse box that is bespoke to the E10, but....500 smackers. I am confident enough I can get to my goal for less than that.

[Lucky 7]

Totally. For the box, 10 pin connectors, and required hardware I was into this project for $200.  Definitely not plug and play like that $500 one probably is, but doable and way cheaper. 

[Son of Marty]

Nothing to do with these folks, but this was in the classified section about a week ago.

[Mike Self]

A thought and a question:

 

Thought:  I know those bullet (cartridge) fuses are the bane of an 02 owner's existence, but if you simply include 'em as part of your routine maintenance, they will give little trouble.  Keep the spring terminals clean, and inspect the fuses by removing 'em once or twice a year and looking at the ends.  Clean or replace as necessary.  They do actually wear out (the brass clips wear through the soft fuse metal).  A few of the fuses on both my '69 and '73 are actually original!

 

Question:  for Lucky 7:  where did you get (or how did you make) that nice fuse box listing sticker shown in one of your pictures? 

 

mike

[Lucky 7]

1 hour ago, Mike Self said:

Question:  for Lucky 7:  where did you get (or how did you make) that nice fuse box listing sticker shown in one of your pictures? 

 

mike

I’ve been making all my own stickers. I draw them up in Illustrator, then print them on either white or clear adhesive photo paper. Once the ink is dry, I cover it over with the clear paper to seal it off and weatherproof it. The printable clear paper has a tacky top layer that is meant to accept ink but isn’t appropriate for the elements, so my final step is to wipe it down with a wet cloth to remove that layer and expose the clear acetate.
 

I’ve made a bunch for the engine bay and they’ve held up great. I just made this lot for my dash switches last night:

 

Edited February 19 by Lucky 7

[rjd2]

left gauge assembly in the cluster. WHERE?!?!?! it's so cool!!!! also, the leather stitched dash cover.

 

you've done some really classy bespoke upgrades to your car. well done.

[Lucky 7]

Awww yeah, that’s what I’m going for. Bespoke as hell!!😂  It wasn’t actually my original intention, but I have so much fun learning new skills and challenging myself, it’s kind of just gone that way. I’m always planning something resembling stock, but eventually I’m like “OR, what if I totally customized that?”  Difficult side project ensues. Whole lot of free form creativity and self expression going on in my garage.  Anyway, thanks for saying. 
 

Those are SpeedHut gauges. I needed the GPS speedo for my M20, got the others so it all matches. That’s another Illustrator project for the custom faces. I love the look and modern backlighting is a huge improvement at night. 

 

 

[Rich]

3 hours ago, rjd2 said:

left gauge assembly in the cluster. WHERE?!?!?! it's so cool!!!! also, the leather stitched dash cover.

 

you've done some really classy bespoke upgrades to your car. well done.

SPEEDHUT makes that 4 gague cluster, it is the bomb, I have been wanbting that one for a wile now, but wiring it up might be over my pay grade

[Get2theBimmah]

I started my wiring in the driver's side of the cabin and ran out to each end of the car.  All the wiring needs to go out from there, so I felt it was the best place to begin.  It's a cluster-F of wiring, but my recommendation is routing the rear wiring first.  That smaller amount of wire groups will give you a confidence boost in the process of getting them in their correct locations while having less to deal with up front.  

 

Also, I used tiny zip ties to keep them bundled/place holders in their respective areas along the way.  Sifting through the chaos is the name of the game.

 

[rjd2]

On 2/19/2024 at 2:46 PM, Lucky 7 said:

Awww yeah, that’s what I’m going for. Bespoke as hell!!😂  It wasn’t actually my original intention, but I have so much fun learning new skills and challenging myself, it’s kind of just gone that way. I’m always planning something resembling stock, but eventually I’m like “OR, what if I totally customized that?”  Difficult side project ensues. Whole lot of free form creativity and self expression going on in my garage.  Anyway, thanks for saying. 
 

Those are SpeedHut gauges. I needed the GPS speedo for my M20, got the others so it all matches. That’s another Illustrator project for the custom faces. I love the look and modern backlighting is a huge improvement at night. 

 

 

I would LOVE to have this as my dash!

[rjd2]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:58 PM, Get2theBimmah said:

I started my wiring in the driver's side of the cabin and ran out to each end of the car.  All the wiring needs to go out from there, so I felt it was the best place to begin.  It's a cluster-F of wiring, but my recommendation is routing the rear wiring first.  That smaller amount of wire groups will give you a confidence boost in the process of getting them in their correct locations while having less to deal with up front.  

 

Also, I used tiny zip ties to keep them bundled/place holders in their respective areas along the way.  Sifting through the chaos is the name of the game.

 

thanks for this! i undid my initial attempt to start in the engine bay and work outwards this week, and put the rats nest in the cabin and attempted to work out from there. the back of the car is very straight forward, and to a lesser degree, the front light wiring. it's all the stuff that lives along the firewall(either inside or outside) that makes it tough. i'm using the firewall gaskets as a bit of a guide, trying to read the tea leaves as to what will go where, but it's not easy! if you are having success starting in the cabin, i'll follow your lead.