Wiring

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Wiring is a necessity but I would like to have eliminated it, for sure! I started with the instruments I wanted to use and the engine control system wiring harness. Yeah, I know when you look at all the instruments I have, you think that is too many, and you are right! But, I think they are cool! I did however, try and locate the gages on the instrument panel in an ergonomic manner. I figured that I would be busy looking far down course so the most important three are located across the top. With definition of the gauges to be used, the doohickeys that need to be switched on and off, like fuel pump, engine computer, etc., then I had all that I need to make the panel. And it has been made for quite some time. More about the panel later, though. The engine harness is from an 1989 Mustang and it had all sorts of features that are no longer needed by me in this car. So I removed a lot of them...hope it still works. Installations have been a joy aslo (note a bit of sarcasm here, do we?). All is revealed in the following seven photos.

Instrument Panel, Front
Why did I put so many gauges on the panel? Because I wanted to! Now, just what is it you are looking at. And why? The panel itself is cut from 1/8 inch thich aluminum and sanded with the belt sander to give it a textured look. Let's work from left to righ and explain the gauges and switches. At the far left are 2 toggle switches: one is instrument power and the other is instrument lights and if needed in the future for night drags, lights. Notice the off position is down: that's so that if need be I can just swipe a big paw downward and turn them off. Same for all toggles. The big black meter is, ahem, a 300mph speedometer...with memory. It is an Intellitronic, now Nordskog. I am hoping it will run from one half of the VSS signall for the computer (they said it would). Across the top are oil pressure, tach, and water temp. I put these this way in order of importance to me. Loss of oil is generally catastrophic so it is the first one to watch. The Tach will tell me when to shift...maybe, because I am using an automatic which can be shifted manually or automatically. Water is important but not as much as oil. The next row is fuel pressure and air/fuel ratio. The a/f meter is piggy backed from the left side hego, per instruction. The fuel pressure is important because a loss of pressure means a lean condition and that means trouble. Air/fuel is important but maybe for tuning purposes. The engine controller that I will be using has the capability to record both the commanded a/f and the actual a/f so I can get a general eyeball calibration. Boost and battery voltage are the last 2 gauges. Boost is less important in that if it goes away the car just runs pig rich and sputters. Volts are just for the general health of the system although I am running a 130 amp alternator so it shuld always be good. The little red light to the 4 o'clock position of the water temp is my engine controller MIL (maintenance indicated light) which I expect to be on forever. I have removed so many items from the engine harness that it will find fault in everything. The big red switch is the master disconnect for the driver. This receives its power from the rear of the car and then passes it to everything else that needs it. The only thing that does not go through this switch is the alternator output. The black button below is the starter button. Next are 4 toggles: engine computer, fan, fuel pump, and water pump. As seen in the next photo, these few items make for a very busy pile of wires!

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Instrument Panel, Rear
Ok, here is the back of the instrument panel. The first thing to notice is that everything is connected using Packard Weather Pack connectors. I am trying to eliminate as many salt reltated problems up front as I can. Also note that every wire has one or more funky tie wraps which has a place to write what it is. These are cool; the surface is textured for writing on. So I used a Magic Marker with permanent ink then tested it with Brake Clean to see if it was permanent. About as permanent as a snowball you know where! Solvent didn't affect it tho. The balck doohickeys at the very ends on the panel are hinges. I made it so that when one bolt is removed from the brace, it can tip forward to reveal all the glorius innerds to me. From the right end (old left end when facing it correctly), are the 2 toggle switches for power and light on the instruments. You can figure out the remainder of the gauges now. The black squarish looking thing is th fuse panel. yeah, I thought I had better add one. All instrument power and related items are come through this box including the fuel pump, fan electric water pump, but not the computer. It has its own fusible link. I used soldered connections and heat shrink on everything. I know some of you do not believe in soldered connections but you gotta go with what you experience is and mine is this. There is another little black box over to the left side down under the big switch. It is the signal conditioning for the HEGO (O2 sensor in non ford speak). Well, that just about covers it, nothing else unique here.

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Wiring, Complete
Beleive it or not, this is the sum total of the wiring. I made it modular so it can be removed in sections and I had the connectors. Even the engine and computer harnes are in sections. Of note, is the small aluminum panel just in front of the instrument panel. This is the connector feedthrough panel. All instrument connections can be made through this panel and it can be removed for maintenance or the addition of more feed throughs. It is gasketed to maintain bulkhead integrity in the case of fluids and fire. It can be seen installed in a subsequent photo. This may be the only shot where you can see the battery cable post connections. They are heavy duty and have hoods to protect them from accidental contact with other conductive materials (read tools). The very tip of my tiger tail can just be seen under the car cover....

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Instrument Wiring, Broken Out
Well, this is all there is to the instrument wiring, fan, water pump, and fuel pump wiring. The small coils are the various wires going to the different sections of the engine and other bits. The battery starter cable feed through is clearly seen here. On all the battery cable connections, I used a crimper to stake the connectors on then, ahem, soldered them on. Then I sealed the connector to insulation with some special heavy duty shrink tubing: red for hot, black for ground.

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Engine Harness, Broken Out
The totality of the engine harness! Nothing left out except the unneeded connectors and wires. BUt, let me tell you boys and girls of all ages, this was a four alarm bitch kitty to get to this point. The black sensor in the middel is of all ting a barometric pressure sensor whose data is somehow used in teh brain box. The firewall feed through grommet is the same factory unit that came in the original car. I am rather proud of myself in that I made a perfect hole for it in the fire wall. Everything to the north of that feed throug is inside of the driver's compartment. All else is in the engine compartment. I will tell you though that since I have put the dummy motor in a lot of wire has been shortened. All the connectors are the OEM stuff so they should hold up pretty well: they too are sorta weather pack in that they have seals inside them.

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Instrument Panel, Mounted In Car
Now you are seeing some of the stuff mounted in the car. It is my intention that this is the final assembly until it needs to come out for corrective action in my wiring. Nah, that wont happen, will it? Note very prominently, my lexan windscreen. Ahould be no doubt what it is. And it si held to the frame by small bolts with nylock nuts and lockwashers (belts and suspenders) about every three inches. The blue tape is temporarily holding the wires up, but soon wil be replaced with large "P" clamps over the cage bars and smaller "P" clamps holding the wire (Thanks, Skip). "P" clamps are Adel clamps to those who know them by that name. Just down to the lower right in the photo you can see the computer connector. The computer is mounted on an aluminum panel fastened to the passenger side roll cage rails. All the wires that run along the center bar go into the trunk. These include a wire for the TFI on the distributor, a start wire on the solenoid, a big hot wire running from the cold side of the rear valence cutof switch to the instrument panel, and the alternator wire which runs to the hot side of the master cutoff switch. This is a good photo to describe one of my remaining fab jobs and that is some little braces for the windscreen ends and the middle to prevent possible collapse under such extreme air pressure that 204 mph puts on it.

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Underhood Wiring Mess
Last Photo in this group. Just a quick shot showing the instrument feed through panel screwed in place, and the myriad wires going to and fro. The two large connectors P clamped to the facia are the engine fuel injector harness and the sensors harness for the computer. The throttle body bonnet is a 1 1/2 qt saucepan (shush, now, don't tell the wife!). I still have some fab work to do on that as well, and on the turbo outlet piping. Not much but some. You can see the air vents, but they are sealed with a separate plate under them. This is a direct path for burning fluids to alight on my body so I sealed them. And these are bolted in, not held in by the factory barrel nuts or sleeves. Nylock of course. The red and white catepiller looking stuff is silicone hose that runs from the turbo inlets to the MAF sensor plenum. Note the pretty Grabber Blue paint!.

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