Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Its a zook, not a huge amount of space. it's got a 20v 4age engine in it and I have quite a few power feeds for different engine managment components as well as two sets of spottys, 2 thermos, 2 water pumps....it adds up.

What is the neatest way to get good positive power to my relays without a spaghetti junctin off my + battery terminal?

I've seen some bus bar designs but don't like the nature of uncovered + current just sitting there and haven't found any covered bus bars.

I've thought about hitting up a wreckers to look for a suitable relay box but haven't really found anything....any ideas?

Chimpboy posted some details of a Commodore (? - VR?) fuse/relay box which looked pretty good - you could try searching for that.

Narva also make a selection of covered fuse blocks which take blade fuses - I've used 4 way & 8 way, and been happy with them.

The car sound boys have all sorts of flash looking high-current rated devices too - I tried using some in my Paj, but I'm not happy with the maxi-blade fuses. The Narva stuff is more compact, and the fuses are much easier (and cheaper) to find.

Have you wandered through the electrical section of a few of the larger auto-barn style places? You might get some ideas for solutions.

I did and then someone else posted a pic of their install.

It is a good way to go. As pinched from a commo there is room for 12 relays, six fuses, and five fusible links. But also if you raid a few cars at the same wrecker, the units are modular and you can replace a relay base with a three-fuse module. So you could have (say) 11 relays and 9 fuses if you wanted to for some reason.

The good thing is it looks fairly "stock" when you're done.

chimpboy wrote:I did and then someone else posted a pic of their install.

It is a good way to go. As pinched from a commo there is room for 12 relays, six fuses, and five fusible links. But also if you raid a few cars at the same wrecker, the units are modular and you can replace a relay base with a three-fuse module. So you could have (say) 11 relays and 9 fuses if you wanted to for some reason.

The good thing is it looks fairly "stock" when you're done.

yeh that was me that stole the thread

when I can get to my pc I'll dig it up as it's on my fav's. Very useful thread on relay/fuse boxes IMO. Still my box looks pimp

However I do want to redo the thermo part of it. But I think if I rip it all apart again the missus will kill me

One I am partway through:





... and with the relay/fuse lid on as well:



I have to tidy up those wires you can see; the job is not done yet. The small box attached to the relay block is the one that has five fusible links in it, it mounts on the same bracket.

These are found in VP/VR/VS Commodores. Ideally you need to take a battery drill to your pick-a-part type joint to get one, as the steel bracket that holds them in the engine bay is spot welded into place. The first time i got one I used a big screwdriver and a big spanner (as a hammer) to chisel it off but drilling would probably be easier. It is a handy bracket as all the plastic parts you can see unclip from it. So you mount the bracket then just click all your electrical bits into place on it, and unclick them while you wire it all up.

... and here is that other thread that was mentioned.

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/ftopic155290.php

Thats a great box if you have to start from scratch. Are you going to make the engine bay all showy or just make it go?

I think the best thing you can do to an old english car is re-wire it. My mates just bought themselves some old rangies (late 80's/early 90's and the difference in wiring to my 97 disco is enormous. Somewhere between there rangies and my disco being made someone must've said lets make the wiring better. I couldn't believe the quality of wiring on them (the rangies that is), was crap. One even had an electrical fire on their last outing.

stuee wrote:I think the best thing you can do to an old english car is re-wire it.

Yup, from one end to the other.

To be honest I wouldn't bother but with the EFI, alternator, electric fan, and heating/AC system all from other cars, plus the fact that i wanted to run relays for the headlights, horns, and starter motor (yes there was no relay for the starter motor) there were so many add-ons that it was almost easier to rewire from scratch than to patch it all together.

Having said that the job is dragging out a fair bit because of more important tasks interrupting all the time.

I dunno if I would call the engine bay showy. I am doing everything on the cheap, so for example the air intake is a "custom" chimp job with bits from a commodore, a nissan something, and a magna to make the LR discovery plenum and AFM look reasonably okay (without using a pod filter as I am not a fan of 'em):







Sorry if these pics are a bit of a hijack but sadly I have had nobody to show any of this to.

On the topic of old brit car wiring... honestly the wire itself is quite good, and there's a lot more copper there than in some other cars. But there are all sorts of things where you just scratch your head and wonder why they did it that way. For example, the brake lights have a "night dimming relay" inline. This politely dims the brake lights if the tail lights are on, so as to avoid blinding the driver behind. Seriously. When the relay fails the brake lights end up dim all the time.

chimpboy wrote:Sorry if these pics are a bit of a hijack but sadly I have had nobody to show any of this to.

Pfft. I don't think anybody cares. Topic has been covered before with pretty much all the solutions covered. You should start a build thread. I love reading about the old school cars being rebuilt. So you can show all your build pics to me if you like

Another cool build I would liked to have seen was muddydiggers (I think) jag with a gen3 dropped in.

Also agree on the wiring comment. I don't think the actual cable has any issues but the circuits that some of these cars have are quite odd. The older Lucas stuff can be pretty crap though.

On topic, the only multiple distribution battery terminal blocks that I have seen readily available (if this is more what dank is thinking of) are the following type (cheaper minus the voltage display though):

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... BCATID=469

Good info guys, might go have a hunt through the wreckers. I've got a lot of bits and pieces to run so a relay box might be the go.