Combing Spaghetti

[bizzard]

Yes, I agree continental fuse holder have to go though i quite like how they get smaller as they get hot, so they get hotter and get smaller.

 

Outside of this point most of it is in slotted ducting so that's OK, I will check all the other ends. There'a couple of panels in similar states - nav instruments, engine control. All the lights seem to work so I'll probably leave as is. It has to be said once the stuff in the picture is combed and bundled it will be a lot easier to deal with the cable runs are quite logical and most of the power stuff I'm renewing anyway. Just found 2 ammeters and a voltmeter in the bins so that helps (some of them will work!

 

Yes, the green and yellow is stranded, tinned,good quality, 4mm so worth keeping, I'll probably just put a bit of red or black heat shrink on the ends. I've never really got a handle on labelling because I can't afford one of the posh jobbies but if I think it's necessary clear heat shrink and white labels are pretty good.

 

Small gauge stuff is mostly "I need something now" and will be chucked - a good deal of looks like stripped household extension cable anyway.

 

Good idea about the bilge pump breaker warning light. I've already replaced a lot of the bilge pump control wiring as one of them kept going off randomly in the night and as I was replacing the float switch I did the relay and stuff as well.

 

I was going to go for blade fuses simple reliable cheap but those breakers look interesting, good price and would look a lot neater just to have a row of breakers - can you manually switch them (off)? I guess not which is a plus for blade fuses.

Its only the cheap plastic backed continental fuses that start to melt with iffy contacts, the dearer ceramic ones don't.

[Chris Pink]

Its only the cheap plastic backed continental fuses that start to melt with iffy contacts, the dearer ceramic ones don't.

 

interesting. A quick review reveals one of those.

[Machpoint005]

A lot of modern cars I've looked at ... have grey wires in the looms and only use colour when you get to something. And that colour can be different at different ends. <<<

 

Presumably that's because until the ends are connected to something, the wires don't actually have any specific job? With modern electronics they would have run out of colours, but it's fair to assume (for example) that a horn wire won't be anywhere near the back of the vehicle, so the same colour coding can be used for something else (eg fuel gauge sender).

 

Just a thought...

[RLWP]

Harnesses are fully made up, terminated, sleeved, clipped and taped long before they connect to anything. Quite a fascinating industry, harness making

 

Richard

[smileypete]

I was going to go for blade fuses simple reliable cheap but those breakers look interesting, good price and would look a lot neater just to have a row of breakers - can you manually switch them (off)? I guess not which is a plus for blade fuses.

To get round the need for isolation the breakers could be daisy chained to a much higher value fuse, worth having some spare fuse ways anyway for future expansion.

 

I'd probably use mostly fuses and then a few breakers for things like interior 12V sockets, engine instruments (in case of using a multimeter to measure volts with the amps connections... ). Having said that a neat row of breakers do look quite nice and yotty.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited March 22, 2013 by smileypete

[Maffi]

The whole system is working it just needs tidying up. Of course as you tidy it some cables might not fit the route you plan.

 

My whole boat is done in black cable except the batt posses and the engine loom which has thirteen different colour codes in it.

 

Aeroplanes tend to be all one colour. There are about 100 cables in a C130 engine and they are all white.

Edited March 22, 2013 by Maffi