Work, work, work

06-03-2009

Well this morning was just more cleaning up small stuff.

After organizing the buttload of various electrical connectors I bought I crawled under the car and started cleaning up the wiring.

I finished taping up the harness that runs along the undercarriage. I added the new wire for the fuel pump and soldered BL bullet connectors to it and the pump and ran two additional wires into the trunk.
I blue electrical taped the entire harness form the rear all the way up into the engine compartment. I also crimped a large eyelet connector to a 10-gauge wire and ran it up into the engine compartment. It will be connected to the starter positive post and power the relay-activated aux fuse panel.

I’ll be ordering relay kits from http://www.bits4brits.net/ that will be powering the headlights and horn plus their relay fuse panel which will replace the original fuse panel and starter relay plus an additional relay for the heater blower motor.

I’ll also be adding relays for the following: Fog lights, driving lights, seat heaters (2) stereo and amplifier.

I’ve also decided that I’m going to install LED fog lights under the rear bumper to use as backup lights and I’ll be installing red, super-bright 12-v LED’s in the original backup light lenses to act as additional brake lights. I’ll also put in a 3rd high brake light if I can find one that looks good. A daytime running light setup is also in the works since I want this car to be as visible as possible when doing highway battle with distracted soccer moms in SUV’s.

I got the transmission cross member with all new bushings installed. Took about an hour and was a bit of a pain but not as bad as I had feared. The key, as I was correctly told on the MG forum, was to put in every bolt only loosely and then tighten them all up when everything is in place.

I also did the cross member modification to allow a socket to fit up behind the square rubber transmission mount blocks. That simply involves drilling two holes in the bottom of the cross member at an angle that allows a socket on an extension to get up inside.

Also added the new battery boxes I got from Moss and wired the port side one for the battery. They aren't as sturdy as I would have imagined them to be ut I think they'll work nicely. I'll use the starboard side box for tool ans spares storage.