still down to the wire

The only positive aspect of working on the new loom for the Morgan is the fact that I can do this in my office instead of freezing cold garage. As mentioned before there are a number of issues, I need to fix to make the new AutoSparks loom fit my 1984 Morgan 4/4. The first thing I addressed was the bad location of the fuse for the radiator fan. I am still annoyed that it is an inline fuse – but relocating this further away from the exhaust manifold was quite easy. It will be the only inline fuse and it is also a bladed one now. I know – the red 40amps fuse is overkill – it is the one I took from the power steering for now.

Next up were the four inline fuses for behind the dashboard. I didn’t like those and as the sidelamps would have been without one – the decision to to add a small, bladed version behind the dashboard was easy. After tracing and labeling all cables I removed the PVC, soldered extension cables to the existing ones and taped everything up again. I also prepared extensions for the new fuse holder I originally wanted to install on the bulkhead in the engine bay – just above if the location of the old one. Since I wanted to get exact required cable length, I took everything to the garage tonight.

Thinking that installing the reverse light switch into the Ford T9 was a simple warm-up task I took a 22mm wrench and….. killed the switch. Maybe the material was to cold (-2 C° when in the garage when I started…) maybe it was already broken – whatever. Fortunately, it didn’t break and still functions. I screwed in hand-tight, tested it with my wire tester and left it in the gearbox for now. After another quick trial fit of the loom, I put the power steering back as well as one demister funnel and hose (still waiting for the new one from Mogparts.net). While I was still playing around trying to figure out the best place for the fuse box and where I solder the cables – an email from Sweden came in. Stefan (a fellow Morgan owner with a nice 1987 Morgan 4/4) was so kind to send me a picture of his car and fuse box location. I was somewhat surprise to realize that it was under the dashboard.

I never wanted to go down this route and spend hours reading wiring diagrams and modifying a wiring loom. Obviously, I could have easily repaired the old loom by now. I could have even replaced the entire PVC wrap… but too late – I made up my mind – order another (16-way MTA) bladed fuse box and will also mount it behind the dashboard (just like in the 1987 Morgan) This way reduce the number of cables I need to solder together – as I will just reroute and shorting the existing one…. I sincerely hope that by the end of next week I am done with the everything-else-but-fun task.

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