So as I’d hoped, I was able to start getting into some of the satisfying wiring stuff – routing wires to their final locations, trimming and terminating them, and lacing up bundles. It wasn’t all fun and games, though – as seems to be inevitable at this point, I had instances where I needed materials, or discovered a misstep from earlier. Nothing awful, just minor annoyances.
The first question was a classic one: where to start. It seemed to make sense to work from the firewall out, picking off branches as I got to them and working on the branches. Accordingly, the first thing I came to were the wires for the battery bus and contactors. On Tuesday I was able to get the four battery bus circuits taken care of, along with the switched ground wire to the E-bus relay. That was when I hit a misstep – I need a +12V source for the other side of the relay coil. Looking at my schematics, my intent was just to jump a small wire from the hot relay input. It’s an easy enough fix – cut the terminal and crimp on a new one, with a 22AWG wire tucked in alongside the 10AWG supply – but I don’t have the right terminal to redo that relay connection. First item on the order list right there.
OK, well at least I can pull the switched wires for the contactors while I’m in the neighborhood, right? They’re close enough that they might as well just get bundled along with some of the battery bus stuff. Except…I don’t have the right ring terminals for this. The ones I have are too small for the contractor studs. Yet another item on the shopping list.
But those were easy to tuck out of the way so I could move on. Next step before starting any more lacing was to splice in the +5V and ground wires for the hall sensor – which will also get wired alongside the other battery stuff. Getting those window splices done was a little fun, since I was working really close to the firewall fitting. Once they were done, I went ahead and laced the battery bus/contactor/hall sensor branch, then started working my way down the line.
The next junction was for the manifold pressure sensor. I was hoping to go ahead and get the termination done here, but the connector for this sensor is odd. After some research I determined it was a Weather Pack connector, and while I could probably do OK crimping the pins with what I had on hand, I decided to go ahead and order a specific crimping tool. At least Amazon had that for delivery tomorrow, is it skipped right past the running shopping list.
To make a long story short, I ended up adding the +5v and ground branches for both the MAP sensor and the fuel flow (well, fuel flow only gets ground, it runs off +12V). Those are all the branches I need on the right side of the engine, so I was able to lace things all the way up to where two branches split off – one for the fuel flow sensor and top mount coil pack, and another for the main ammeter shunt.
Before I really go any further, I want to get the CHT and EGT sensors installed so I can properly handle the wiring routing for those. So I put a top to lacing for the night, but did decide to go ahead and secure what I had laced to the engine mount tubes. A couple adel clamp pairs took care of this, and as of now the harness is looking pretty nice for the first couple feet:
Tomorrow I figure I’ll see about getting the MAP termination done, and maybe get those CHT/EGT probes mounted. The only thing that might delay me here are the various crimp terminals I need to order – I doubt I’ll get those this week, so it might be next week before I can sit back and feel like the FWF wiring is largely done.
That reminds me, I also want to order some standoff pieces from Van’s for routing wires along the sides of the engine forward – like the alternator/starter cables. The shopping list grows again…