Rewiring an RA28

[frag_dog]

I went and bought a Haynes with what they say is a wiring diagram for a 1977 celica. It doesn't seem that relevant to my car for some reason. I'm working off the indicator/horn/hazard/lights stalk loom an most of the Haynes schmatic is for shit. Heres what I've been able to sort out from the 22 pin connector.


I'm not sure if there is a standard prespective to look at connectors. That view is looing 'into' it from the front. I've done up a matrix of what outputs I was able to get with a multilmeter.

Number Colour Function

1 Blue Wiper +12v
2 Blue Black Wiper Slow
3 Blue Brown Wiper Fast
4 Green Red ???
5 Yellow Headlight +12v
6 Red Headlights On
7 White Parker Lights On
8 Red White High Beams On
9 Red Black High Beams Off
10 Red Yellow High Beams On
11 White Black High Beams +12V
12 Blue Red ???
13 Blue Windscreen Squirters
14 Black Windscreen Squirters
15 ----- ---------
16 Green White Hazards
17 Green Yellow Hazards
18 Green Black Hazards
19 Green ???
20 Green Blue ???
21 Green Red ???
22 Green Orange ???

I'm a reard with HTML and shit so I couldn't get the formatting correct.

I've sorted out most of it. All thats left is the indicators. I can't figure out whats suppose to go to what. Any suggestions? I've looked in the wiring diagram but I can't figure out what its getting at.

The car is just for general driving, maybe a track day at some stage.

I don't have any reall experiance with wiring. I have a decent understanding of how electricity works and that, but I've never done anything this big before.

[LeeRoy]

Ok well then your in the same boat as me. I've had no real experience other than wiring up a few stereos but nothing on this scale. Even still although there have been some serious headaches, everything is going along fairly well and if your not sure just ask someone.

Heres some wiring digrams for a 28 Here. That post is from the wiring diagram thread found Here. Im not sure whats what but theres probably something in there that can help you.

This will help you too.
- Get a good multimeter. Try and get one with a continuity beeper.
- Go and buy crimpers and wire strippers from jaycar. All the ones you will need will be around $100 for all of them.
- Get a good soldering iron and solder too. Get a wire holder stand - makes soldering easier.
- Supercheap sell the same new plugs as used in ra28's. they range from $3-$6 ea but you can buy them in bulk (ie an assorted box) from somewhere else (im not sure where).
- But about 10 rolls of electrical tape and tape everything together in groups.

A few more links for you as well.
- Headlight upgrade Here
- Battery in boot conversion - http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1221
- Alternator upgrade (have a quick search, it uses an 85a falcon alt)

Cheers
- Leigh

[thechuckster]

all of the above - but use heat-shrink (obtain in long lengths from jaycar) on any joins and only tape stuff up if you never intend to open it up again (personally, i use plasticoil wrap and disavow electrical tape except for wrapping some soldered joints).

also, get a cheap heat gun.

[XR Pilot]

You can get heatshrink from Jaycar now with glue inside the heatshrink. When combined with the loom-tube stuff, you can make waterproof and neat looms from the stuff. You can even make T-junctions and 3 way splits in the loom tube if your creative with the heatshrink, the glue holds it all together

[o_man_ra23]

The electrical tape is used to bundle the wires and keep all dirt out. Plasticoil or split tube wont do that on its own, they are there to bundle and provide physical protection against abrasion. Check your factory loom, its all wrapped with electrical tape, and there is no dirt in there (except where it got hacked into to fit that fully sik stereo and immobilizer uleh!!). The dirt degrades the insulation (acids and alkalines naturally found in the dirt), and would hence allow a VERY hard to find fault.

Heat shrink over joins is the go though, but wrap the loom with leccy tape to keep the dirt etc out.

[frag_dog]

A book I bought recomends electrical tape and headshirnk to make it all tight.

I've been tossing up doing the EA Alternator upgrade. Problem is, I don't have a spare Alt Bracket (or a grinder for that matter, but I guess its time to get one). To get at the Alternator I need to remove the Turbo and all that shit.

I can see my car being a pile of parts on the ground for a year at this rate.....

[XR Pilot]

Good point Owen. A combination of split tube/leccy tape and glue-lined heatshrink should make for a tidy loom.

frag_dog - Surely finding a spare alt bracket can't be too hard in the classifieds?

[celicapain]

I went and bought a Haynes with what they say is a wiring diagram for a 1977 celica. :

Yeah i got a haynes manual for my 23 and found it pretty useless on electrical stuff. good for eveything else but dodge for electrics.
I think that they pulled down amercian cars to make those diagrams, and their is a fair bit of difference between the aussie and the yank cars, especially regarding emissions poo(and wire colours )
Good luck with the loom, they take ages to do. When i was doing my conversion i just spliced it into the existing loom,

[o_man_ra23]

What rating alternator does the 3T-GTE have?? Surely it should be 60amp or better, and unless you have mega spotties or an uber ghey autosalon stezza, then 60 should work well. People usually put the 85A in because the original 18R/2T items are 35A, and if your going to the trouble of upgrading, why not go for the best??

Oh, and my RA23 has been a pile of parts on the ground for 2 years now... the pile is getting bigger, but nothing is being done on the shell (doing the RA28, thats really slowed things down)

[frag_dog]

Well the thing is, the whole thought with doing this re-wiring is 'do it once, do it right'. I've already got 20% of the engine bay apart and I would prefer to not have a 30yr old Alt with an external regulator.

Problem for me is the RA28 is my only car. I'm having to rely on my girlfriends car ('05 Mazda 3). Which is nice to drive, but I'm always f*cking up the shifts because I can't hear the engine!

So I guess I'm off to the wreckers to get some falcon parts to put in my car this weekend....I feel like a cheap hooker...

[thechuckster]

frag: get another alternator arm from an 18R powered thing (corona, hilux, celica, etc) - plus get a second one to graft onto the end of that so you get a decent amount of adjustably.

[LeeRoy]

You do realise that this whole rewire thing takes someone who is fairly competent with wiring around 50 hours. So a whole mon-fri 9-5 with a bit of overtime on the weekend.

I started my wiring about 1yr ago but havent been fully into it and ive also been doing other things on the car, studying, fixing my other car, keeping the gf happy. I also spent a couple of hours a week pulling the old loom out, labelling everything, writing down the pinouts of most plugs, and sourcing bits for the rewire. All up i spent about 3 months before even touching my new loom.

[willwal98]

i fitted an n14 pulsar alternator to my 18r-g, 100amp unit, just needed to lengthen the adjusting arm since the mount was on the other side of the alt.

[o_man_ra23]

Are you doing this as you install the engine?? If so, then modding the 3T is easy as pie while the motor is out. Also, the 3T-GTE ISNT 30 years old, and so the alternator should be newer. Still if your putting in an EA alternator, then put in new bearings, and if you can get one for a reasonable price, put in a new regulator before you install it all. You will thank me later.

[LeeRoy]

I think the price of a second hand one plus the refurb owen is describing would push its total cost into the viscinity of a brand new item.