Bob Mitchell told us to replace the wiring harness in his rather nice Jaguar Mk IX Sedan if it looked like a hopeless situation. I thought not , but the task has fallen to Steve to prove that I’m right. This is a fairly opulent motor car, and as I remarked to Bob,with its 3.8 litre engine & four wheel disc brakes it was twice the car that Bentley was building at the time based on comfort, drivability & performance. The rough carpenters have been at it some, but hey, we’re used to that and anyway Steve can deal.
This is a car with a clock in the dash and another clock in the seat back for the benefit of the rear passengers, neither of which was working so they’ve been dispatched to Nisonger Instrument for rebuilding. Professional automotive electricians will probably get a chuckle out of my Fluke 73. Go Ahead and laugh, I say, it’s still a more sophisticated piece of test equipment than this operator.
But shall we talk a little about the basics of british car wiring ?
BLACK is always the ground (letter “B”). BROWN battery is always hot (letter N) WHITE is Ignition & fuel pump (“W”) GREEN is switched thru the ignition & fused (letter “G”) powered by WHITE RED is the parking light circuit (“R”) which includes panel lights & foglights BLUE is headlights (Letter “U”, get it ?) PURPLE (“P”) is the horns
Now that you know that, tracing wires is simple and Steve has all the lighting and all the lighters (four of ’em) working now
Butch & John are winding up their ministrations to the Mark 2 Sedan. If you’re looking closely you’ll notice the high gloss on the polished R/H cam cover, the L/H cam cover is one we use as a paint mask.
The paint & aluminum buffing work are by East Coast Collision & Restoration, as is the metal work on the Austin Healey BN7 work table just behind John.
Wait till next week to see a transformation begin to come over that Healey. Here’s another perspective on these two cars courtesy of Steve: