Some more bent metal

Another task started over the weekend was to create a bracket to mount both the ignition coil and radiator overflow tank on.

Original overflow and horn

The overflow tank was originally mounted on the off side wing near the horn.

The horn is now hidden between the near side headlamp and the radiator, the tank is now tucked in by the radiator on the other side of the engine bay on a new bracket.
Luckily there was a handy pair of lugs on the chassis rail to bolt onto.
The idea is to to put the coil in a waterproof tub with the lid mounted on the bracket. Just need to find a suitable sized one now.

A little bit of paint will finish it off

New bracket

Coil and Dizzy

Indicators and hazards

The fuse box from the old Nissan has been dissected into smaller more useful chunks for reuse. Luckily most bits were separated enough to run a saw between them. A bit of tidying with a flap disc in my angle grinder and it all looks pretty good.

I now have a couple of fuse blocks and an assortment of relay bases. One bonus part was a three pin diode, which has been used to build the hazard circuit.

The first circuit attempted was the indicators

Indicator relays and fuses

Temporary dashboard, showing Tex cables, hazard and flasher

A pair of relays are connected from the two red fuses and then on to the indicators via the yellow and green cables. The switching is handled by the Tex Magna which has been rejuvenated with a clean and a new coat of paint. Even the green light still works.

Tex Magna in used condition

Tex Magna inards

 The hazard switch is connected via the diode which keeps the offside and near side electrically separate. I will be ordering an LED type flasher unit as the old one doesn't fire due to the low current draw now it is on the switching side.

Amazingly it all worked according to plan.












The indicator switch has a clever mechanical cancelling mechanism. The roller is in contact with the steering wheel and acts on the lever arm as the wheel is turned back to the centre.

Very simple, the only issue is that the arm is not long enough for the diameter of the steering wheel.

Freshly painted

All out frontal attack

After the fairly simple job of the back, I started on the front.
Now the existing wiring was all run down the nearside wing, into a couple of waterproof boxes and then to the lights, fan etc.

This has been removed and replaced with some 12 core 'trailer' cable. Not exactly rivet counter compatible but simple and robust.

This now runs from the passenger seat box, across and along the right hand chassis rail, then up through a hole and across the top of the fan to behind the nearside headlight.

Currently connected with temporary choc blocks all the front stuff is connected here.

The driver side lights have had their wiring extended to keep the number of joints to a minimum.

The coil is to be located above the left hand chassis rail in a waterproof tub, which means another attempt at metalwork.

Hopefully this layout will eventually be fairly neat with minimal visible cabling.

Behind the light - messy but temporary

Headlight mounts

New lights OSF

New lights NSF

Starting at the back

After a long gap of being busy or rubbish weather, today I managed to get some time working on George.

I did a check of the rear lights, hoping that I wouldn't have to touch anything.

Ha, no such luck. So onwards and upwards.

The existing 'system' uses 7 core trailer cable front to rear and some skanky rubbish going from left to right.
Not to mention the usual mass of red crimps

OS Rear

NS Rear

Admittedly I have replaced the crimps with 2x 8way connector blocks. Heresy I know, but as I do want to replace some of the rear lights with new ones I decided that for now it will do,

Anyway the end result is:

The proof of the pudding

Tomorrow, hopefully I will get to do the front lights, and the tricky one that is the hazards...