Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: califkid_66 on Wednesday,September 04, 2019, 07:39:41 AM
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I am shopping for wiring to replace the damaged wires
can someone tell me the wire gage of the purple wire going to the radiator fan
And the green and brown and white on the fuse box thanks
I want to get the right colours and gages
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Most of the wires are either 14G or 16G equivalents. That's not the way the British measure wire thickness but that is what it works out to over here. Are you ordering locally? Or, from a British specialty supplier?
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The British equivalents are:
14G = 28 strand
16G = 14 strand
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Im shopping today for electrical system found some stuff but trying to buy local before online
I want to change my purple wire i didn’t find any yet last place addisson then online
I found this batt cut off witch is pretty nice you can cut the power and the key is removable
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Im not exactly sure what size wire i have but to me the fuse box doesn’t make any sense you have
Multiple circuits drawing different amps on same fuse and the fuse recomended is way to high
It says if fuse is blown replace with 35 amps so if you have a short on let’s say brake lights the wire is gonna melt way before the fuse
I found this as a reference to what size fuse for wire gage i think it would make more sense to use
A fuse box that would allow for each circuits to be fused individually with the correct amount of protection
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Fuse specs are different between the US and UK. The US says a 10 amp fuse will take 10 amps forever. The UK says a 10 amp fuse will blow immediately at 10 amps. The difference mans that a UK 10 amp fuse is equivalent to a US 5 amp fuse. I've attached a document that explains this better than I can.
I think if you add any circuits, I would fuse them independently. As far replacing wires, there are very few places on a Europa that need to be bigger than 14 gauge so I would use that size wire for those places.
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Im sort of worried to put the same size wire to feed the radiator fan ok it wasn’t connected to the right side of the fuse box but still that wire worries me cause it always live
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It's not always live unless you rewired it. The otter switch disconnects the ground when the water gets cool enough so the green wire to the fan only carries current when the fan is on. But it doesn't matter. The fact that a wire may be hot all the time has no bearing on how big it should be. The amount of current (amps) that is drawn on that circuit is what determines the size of the wire. A radiator fan doesn't draw more than 10 amps. a 14 gauge wire is plenty big enough.
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My thought is to put an inline fuse (15amp?). Best done closest to the battery.
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i was talking about the purple wire going from the fuse box to the relay that wire is always live and that’s the one that melted it was connected to the brown wire witch is direct on the battery but looking at some pictures of fuse boxes i noticed some are connected differently i saw one that was connected on the bottom fuse witch goes through the ignition switch mine was direct on batt and the wire melted so im gonna make it go through the fuse block so that if it overheats the fuse is gonna melt not the wires
Thanks for all your help and advice i really appreciate it
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Actually today i was looking around stores in my area found kill switch and i did see inline fuses was very tempted i don’t know what im going to do yet but i think it would be better for each circuits to have their fuse adjusted to their needs so that if one circuit as a problem the fuse not wire will melt but for now i think my problem was that purple wire not going through a fuse
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Calif, nice battery cut off. Where were you thinking of mounting it?
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Both of the power supplies to the fan relay are already fused if hooked up to the fuse box correctly. No need for an extra fuse. The green wire is fused ignition feed and it powers the relay coil and is controlled on the ground side by the rad fan switch. The purple wire is fused battery and is connected to the rad fan via the relay.
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The purple wire is connected to the brown wire through the fuse. It should not have been connected directly to the brown wire.
If thew fuse box is old, clean all the connections and make sure they are not loose (wiggle to check). If they are loose it is possible to use punches to tighten them again. However, new fuse boxes are cheap and give great piece of mind for the money.
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For the cut off it’s gonna be as close to the battery as possible
And JB my wires were not connected in the right position so the purple was not fused and if they would have been the fuse would have prevented what happened
So im back reading the wiring diagram but im still gonna put fuses on the electric windows!!
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Ok. I didn't realize you had a relay and To compound my error, I was looking at the TC wiring diagram! I figured the PO had monkeyed with your wires. Well he did but I think he meant to use the purple wire correctly. JB has it right. A purple wire should be fused and hot all the time but the PO mounted the wire on the wrong side of the fuse!
I don't have a good frame of reference. I wouldn't think that some corrosion on the fuse block would cause enough draw to melt your wire. I certainly could be wrong, but I'm thinking there is a short somewhere. Maybe the relay?
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Im gonna put a modern relay and i saw some original style fuse box and they are very affordable so either clean up the old one or get a new one
I still have to find purple wiring
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http://www.britishwiring.com
https://www.autosparks.co.uk
If there is a British sports car repair place nearby, they may have an old harnesses around they can cut up. We had a box full of them.
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ok now i feel pretty stupid
Im there thinking where can i get quality wiring to replace the bad one and im running around all day
and then i realized i have a complete aftermarket wiring harness made of high quality material
just waiting to be used and the wires are extra long multiple colours so i can cut the gage and colours i need to fix the damaged ones
I just noticed i got purple 12 and 14
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Excellent!