After doing the tourist “thing” last weekend with wifey and not getting work done on bowtie6, this weekend was balls to the wall.  Fortunately, the planets were all in alignment and things worked out satisfactorily on the wiring front.

Since the wiring harness on bowtie6 is 100% custom (nothing “bought” here folks), this has taken quite a bit of time to design and build.  The premise has been to divide the car in three sections:

• Engine Compartment:  circuit breakers, fuses and relays controlling the ECM, engine sensors, electric fan controller, headlights, main switch.
• Cab Compartment:  fuses and relays controlling all instrumentation, heater fan motor, turn signals and switch, windshield wipers, headlight switch, parking lights switch, horn.
• Trunk Compartment:  fuses and relays controlling all tail lights, fuel pump relay, fuel tank sending unit.

Yes, this is an unorthodox way to wire a car but is bulletproof.  All hard voltage switching is done with relays saving wear and tear on delicate switches.  All switches basically break ground and this makes for a very easy to diagnose system.

Well, today everything in the Cab Compartment and Engine Compartment was powered up and it all worked “the first time”.  No smoke, no blown fuses.  That’s the way we do things.

The ECOTEC has been fully functional for several weeks now.  We have let it idle for enough time to bring coolant up to operating temp and beyond.   This has enabled the electronic fan controller to kick in and run the SPAL fan enough to bring temps down and turn the controller and fan off.  The fan runs for about 30 seconds and shuts off.  It is cycling properly and this is the mark of a truly well designed system.

With today’s work, the parking lights were turned on; ditto for the headlights.  The floor controlled switch caused high beams to fire up as required and turn signals worked also flawlessly.  Inside, the wipers worked both in low and high speeds and the new heater motor’s three speeds worked as expected.

This leaves the trunk compartment to be done.  There will be a small fuse box along with a few relays to control all the rear lights and fuel pump.  Plans call for a small enclosure for all this and hopefully with a little luck, all wiring will be completed soon.

Fall is just around the corner and I just can’t wait to get bowtie6 back on the road…