gollop
Rover Fanatic
Posts: 108
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Post by gollop on Dec 13, 2018 23:38:27 GMT
My 1969 P5b salon decided that it would celebrate its 50th birthday with a small dash fire. After I’ve blown out the candles it looks like it was actually just hinting it wanted a new wiring loom. So I’m on the hunt for a loom to change out with the mess of cloth covered mess under my dash. Auto sparks have one but its a 9-12 week turn around to make one. www.autosparks.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/200x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/R/R/RR94C-1_1.jpgMaybe someone has a NOS or even one they've brought but don't need sat on a shelf? you know where I can get one? Other suggestions/advice greatly appreciated.
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Post by enigmas on Dec 14, 2018 1:46:24 GMT
My 1969 P5b salon decided that it would celebrate its 50th birthday with a small dash fire. After I’ve blown out the candles it looks like it was actually just hinting it wanted a new wiring loom. Very humorous...but I understand your pain...been there myself...but not with the Rover...thank God! After the fire. Both vehicles were rebuilt...and the Magnette 'loom' only needed replacing between the firewall and the back of the rear seat area. If you're electrically literate and have a degree of patience with a task you can simply splice into and rewire the loom from where it is undamaged...one wire at a time, but add some proper length to the wiring so that the dash binnacle can actually be moved back an appropriate distance for maintenance/repairs. NB. I had a big spool of 'pink' wire but you're better off using small spools of appropriately coloured wire to indicate function if you were going to pursue this option. I fully understand if you don't...but it's really not that difficult...and the electrons really won't know the difference!
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gollop
Rover Fanatic
Posts: 108
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Post by gollop on Dec 14, 2018 2:41:55 GMT
Ouch that makes mine look like childs play. I got a prewarning with a lot of Lucas smoke. But when I grabbed the extinguisher it was dead. Very luckly I had a hose right there so that was lucky.
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Post by djm16 on Dec 14, 2018 7:59:08 GMT
Did you find out where is the short circuit? A clue is which wire is the blackest and brittlest.
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Post by johnwp5bcoupe on Dec 14, 2018 8:27:08 GMT
In the late 60's I bought a MK3 that had been written off due to a dash fire, even the windows were smoked up! I changed the loom and dash I never found out the cause, I didn't keep it long as I couldn't get rid of the smell
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Post by Warwick on Dec 14, 2018 11:46:35 GMT
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Post by johnwp5bcoupe on Dec 14, 2018 13:03:57 GMT
You been on those Tinnies again Warwick
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Post by OlafR on Dec 14, 2018 18:18:14 GMT
Well I do have to add that only us Germanz can correctly (re-) produce the magic smoke (as we call it). Everything else is but a mere plagiarism.
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Post by richardlamsdale on Dec 14, 2018 19:34:15 GMT
Before I bought my car there had been a small engine fire, so the loom was cut at each end of the dashboard and new loom 'ends' added to the left and right of the engine bay. Unfortunately whoever did the work decided to use bullet connectors and Lucas type connectors, so there was a bunch of about 20 of these at each end of the dash, and some were loose. They had also used a loom from a different model without modifying it, so there were lots of 'spare' wires loose in the engine bay. The rest of the wiring was looking very tired and frayed as well. It all looked terrible, and a small project to tidy this up escalated into completely re-wiring the car with a NOS loom I found on eBay. If you do splice-in new wires, I recommend soldering the wires together and double heat-shrinking them - crimps and connectors just add a load of weak-points into the loom. I'd also recommend getting the right colour cables, as it will make electrical work in the future much easier. Autosparks can supply cotton-covered cable in the right colours by the metre, and Vehicle Wiring Products have a full range of PVC cable. If you need to re-terminate cables, I recommend buying bullet crimps and the correct crimp tool, and soldering each bullet after crimping (this is the way the factory looms were made). It will be more reliable and looks almost original (almost because the original looms used tinned bullets, but it seems the ones you can buy now are brass. When the Pebble Beach judges picked me up on this I argued my case (this last sentence is definitely fake news).
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Post by richardlamsdale on Dec 15, 2018 10:14:33 GMT
When I was younger I had several Beetles, and on one of them the combination of the battery being under the rear seat / metal seat springs / lost battery cover released a great deal of Olaf's 'Germanz magic smoke'. It was quite exciting.
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