The Restoration of AYW709

[mikeyr]

starting to think about wiring...when I get back from France after Xmas, I will start working on the engine and it is nearly ready to drop in already. Son-in-law thinks I should buy a Sprite harness and work from that since I am putting in a Sprite motor. I think I would better off just working from scratch but using the Sprite diagrams along with Singer diagrams. I am going to be putting on brake and turn signals even though in this state, I don't need to. The car only has to have whatever was original, so I don't have any legal reasons to put on brake and turn signals except I am not stupid and want them. No idea what I will put on the car yet for those, I want to try and stay period looking but I know there will be wiring back there and a Sprite would have that. I did consider getting a big LED stop (the actual word STOP, seen them on JEEPs) and arrows for turn signals and putting them inside a spare wheel on the back, that would be super obvious and not period but really visible and easily removed when parked at a show for example.

I am comfortable enough starting the wiring from scratch, it would not be my first time, but it is never fun.

I still don't know what the dash will look like or work with the wrong engine/gearbox in, I think I will get a GPS speedo and have it modified to look as original as possible, I want the dash to look as original as possible since it is such a good looking dash. So any suggestions on wiring ? dash ? I won't be doing this for a few months, I will be in France for December.

[jeans_old_man]

A big LED STOP? Are you serious? - and you were worried about whether your headlamps had Rotax or Lucas medalions!
Seriously though, the original Lucas ST38 (pork pie) tail lamps are available with stop bulbs and amber lenses for flashing turn signals. You just need to fit two instead of one. Similarly, the Lucas 1130 side lamps can be fitted with two bulbs, white and amber to provide turn signals for the front.

Here is the wiring diagram for my 4-seater. It uses the original colour wires where possible. I have fitted a horn relay and flasher relay under the scuttle, next to the steering bracket. The horn relay frees up one of the terminals in the 6-way junction box (originally attached to the dynamo) and prevents a 'live' wire hanging around the front of the car. The dimesions next to the cable runs are in millimeters.

This car retains the 3-brush dynamo but the cut-out has been modified and uses a semiconductor diode in place of the contacts. The headlights are LED bulbs. I used 1mm2 thinwall wire mostly except for the ammeter and dynamo wires which went up to 2mm2. I'm afraid that as an electrical engineer I couldn't bring myself to use 'woven' insulation.

[mikeyr]

Well the stop sign would be clipped on and easily removable, Californian's drive worse than Parisien Taxi drivers.
It was just a thought, I would not want to damage that gorgeous brand new body. But yeah the Lucas ST38's would likely be far better. I also had thought about 2 D-lamps.
For the front, I have a set of 1130's that are NOS, still in the box that I purchased 20 or so years ago in anticipation of finishing this car, I wonder if I can modify them for the dual bulb or have to start over. A quick google says absolutely yes I can ! I had not thought about the front, I was going to ignore turn signals on the front but this is a GREAT idea. I see both bulb converters and a LED board are available to fit the 1130's.

I have started looking around for wiring with all the different colors, I won't wire with Red & Black only a harness might be better, I can cut out what i don't need as it will have extra's but i am also thinking a few extra fused components than original, the 2 fuse system works but I prefer more items fused if possible. For my 4AD decades ago, I made my own harness and taped it up at the branches and then sent it out for braiding, now they make split braids that look decent.

I have been looking at wiring diagrams for the Singer, I had 2 of the originals and now with Brian's, 3 of them. But Brian's has all the goodies I was going to add anyway, THANK YOU

I don't know about you guys, but I can see the finish line.

[jeans_old_man]

I constructed my harness on a plywood baseboard like the professionals do and threaded the wires through expanding braid. Recently I have added a small fuse box under the scuttle. First of all to move the wipers to be switched by the ignition after I left them on and burned out the motor and second to provide a charging point for the Sat Nav - all hidden from view, of course.

[ColinB]

I fitted these to my Light Six. Non-standard as it should have been just a single rear light, but i have stop rear and indicators with LED bulbs so very little power draw.

[jeans_old_man]

Looking good, Colin. Those lamps look really period.

[mikeyr]

I like those lamps better than the pork pie, I am a year away from needing them but I do need to start thinking about wiring pretty soon when I get back on the car since i have to run the right wires to where they will be needed. Fitting the wings will be my nightmare as they did not fit well when I tried during the summer, but all else is coming along quite nicely in my head.

[mikeyr]

Ok, started working on the wiring diagram...I have some stuff from Lucas that has different wire colors than what Brian posted up above and I want some more fuses than the regular 2 on a Singer...then I realized I had a Lucas Electrical correspondence course, all 10 manuals...I am going to do this so perfectly well that Lucas will be proud of me on dark roads driving by candlelight

Reference that Lucas is often called Prince of Darkness over here in the States.

LucasCourse.jpg (93.45 KiB) Viewed 108043 times

I was going to use fabric covered wires to look original but why bother with the wrong engine to begin with. I have a brand new voltage regulator that was gifted to me by a ex-boyfriend of my daughter when he worked at Moss Motors, but not sure I will need it since I am going to have a alternator that will have built-in voltage regulator, I think I should make a new thread on the wiring, it might be a one post thread or a many though. Funny that the motor is not in, body is not done and I am already thinking of wiring, but it is what I did last 2 weeks on the Mini so in the mood to at least get a drawing worked out.

[jeans_old_man]

You will notice that the original harness (and my 'modern' version) splits into three parts at the six-way junction box. This means that the
main harness can be installed before the front wings (fenders?) are fitted.

[ColinB]

Just to note that the lights on my Light Six are Duolamps, which are pretty cheap to buy in the UK at least. They are a Ford Model A pattern.

[jeans_old_man]

I finally managed to upload the schematic of the previous harness - it was 1 pixal too high!

Feel free to add fuses/relays as you like but remember, left and right side lights must be separately fused and the purpose of a fuse is to protect the wire from short circuits which is difficult to achieve when the battery is under the floor and the light switch is at the bottom of the steering column.

When I was a student I fitted a fuse in the line to the battery but discovered what happens when you disconnect the battery from a constant current dynamo in the middle of the Yorkshire moors when the fuse blew and I was blinded by all the bulbs exploding!

[mikeyr]

Perfect, you have done almost all my work for me, thank you. I have a bad tendency to overbuild and overthink everything and when I actually get to work, I throw away all the stupid ideas. As a result, I have actually been rethinking all the fuses and was thinking maybe just a fusible link at the battery might be good enough for the main power sources and a inline fuse here and there. I agree about the difficult part with the SLC-2 at the steering column, I even considered not using one and having switches on the dash but I paid a lot for my SLC-2 and I am going to use it. I also want to keep the dash as original looking as I can, the dash is a work of art so no extra switches. I have a Hardwick aluminum hub at the steering wheel and I know some people have said that causes issues with the horn being metal against metal but I have parts of a bakelite hub that is broken in 3 and I will use that horn button. I will likely be using a alternator so don't need the regulator and the wiring it needs. Being a 9LM I also don't have a fuel tank sending unit so some extremely minor mods to your harness and I am good to go.

[nth]

If you're looking at alternator - I had Luke as Wos Performance build one for me (Dynator). Took a lot of trouble to take my 3 brush in and copy to produce one that is identical from the outside with vents hidden out of sight!

[trialanderror]

Hi
first message from the newest member
I"m restoring a 1933 4 seat 9 sports. The information here is invaluable. I am refurbishing and trial fitting the hood/canvas roof. some of the frame"s components are broken and I see references to drawings of them on the forum, try as I might I cannot find them. I would like to make accurate replacements. I'll get round to loading my own restoration thread soon.
Thanks
Graham

[Peter McKercher]

I don't ever recall any drawings posted for the Sports hood frame, but this thread has a good image of one which could help. http://forum.singercars.com/viewtopic.php?p=8766#p8766