Electrical cable

[Maurice]

I am re-wiring my 1934 Scott and would prefer to use the cable colours as specified in Technicalities. Does anyone know of a cable source that can supply cable with tracer colours e.g black and yellow, and preferably in small quantities? Halfords do cable but none with tracers, likewise all my local auto-electricians.

[efr215]

Go to your nearest car breaker and be nice to them. If you are really lucky and do the grovelling properly they might let you choose a loom or two for free, (they usually rip them out as part of the salvage process so you won’t even have to get dirty), if you don’t do the a*** licking well enough you may have to slip them a couple of bob… Well, it worked a treat for me when I re-wired my Moto Rumi. (They sound like a 125cc Scott — well, ’tis my excuse!)

The Frost, (http://www.frost.co.uk), restoration supplies people do non-adhesive loom tape, self bonding tape, etc.. A bit expensive but quick and reliable in my experience.

I hope I’m not teaching my grandma to suck eggs here but I would suggest running all the wiring onto the bike, (run grouped wires through small elastic bands for the time being to keep them tidy), and test for correct operation.

Do the final lacing/taping up off the bike. An old door is a handy base board, easy to bang nails into for keeping wire ends under control, but anything big enough and flat will do. The modern taste for sanded and varnished floors has its attractions but ‘er indoors might cramp that idea…

Avoid soldering joints like the plague, they will fail I promise you! Use crimp connectors and use a good quality crimping tool too, and I don’t mean one of those pressed steel things either! If you are ever so, ever so, nice to me and really stuck I can lend you a pair.

[dave bushell]

Hi Maurice
A company called “Vehicle Wiring Products” can supply everything you need to rewire your bike. They supply wire by the metre or by the reel. They have all the colours + tracer colours.
You can contact them on 0115 9305454 and they will send you a free detailed illustrated catalogue.

I have also purchased all the necessary coloured wiring from a company called “Merv Plastics” 201 Station Rd, Beeston, Notts. NG9 2AB
Tel. 01602 222783
They also supply a free catalogue.
Regards
Dave Bushell

[Maurice]

May I thank you both for your replies.

I think I shall be adopting both routes, that is getting some from the breakers yard and some from the sources suggested. I visited the breakers yard today and now have a fine selection of colours but not all I need. Perhaps if they had a Singer or Wolseley or Humber… the colours might have been right. As it was the Mondeo and Cavalier were partially sucessful.

Thanks for all the excellent advice by efr215 (funny name!) and in particular the offer of a crimping tool. I do in fact have a good one. Tools are not the problem using them is.

Thanks again

[efr215]

“EFR215” is the registration number of the pile of bits lurking in my front room, (no, I’m not married anymore!), wot it is yer see guv, I kinda made a mess of it when I signed up for this madhouse, didn’t fill the boxes in properly. Mind you if you think that’s odd they called me ‘Eggy’ at school…

As to the colours, well as long as you know where they go and what they do does it really matter about getting the colours exact ? After all if you do the sheathing properly we won’t see anything from the outside and you can always annotate your own wiring diagram! If you are really going to be that precious about colours try for a high spec. motor, more toys = more wires! My old ’81 Granny, (don’t even think about it!), what with electric this and computerised that is a positive rats nest under the dash with just about every darned colour you can think of. Not that it helps much you understand, Lucas are not the only company to invent darkness!

[Maurice]

You are probably right, I should not worry about the exact colours. However I like to think that the Scott will see its 100th birthday, when I am long gone, as will be my annotated notes. Whereas technicalities will live for ever and someone will be able to see exactly why my handiwork has gone wrong! Whatever ones view I can only praise the service from Vehicle Wiring Products, who delivered all I asked for overnight.

Can you help me on another item. The headlamp, switch and loom came as a pile of bits. It is fairly obvious how the switch and headlamp reflector with the bakelite/brass bit between them fit together. What is not so obvious is how to do up the two nuts holding the switch onto the back of the headlamp, as the nuts are tightly recessed into the switch. Should the two long studs in the back of the headlamp be capable of being turned or are they fixed permanently to the headlamp?

If you are familiar with the headlamp this will make sense if not I doubt I have explained it very well.

[Author]

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