That Soul Glow!!!

No I am not talking about an 80s movie reference to hair products. I am talking about the car's soul and some light glow. Stay with me this will make sense.

One of my biggest worries on this build is the wiring harness. I unwrapped the entire harness, inspected wires, cleaned, treated, softened and re-wrapped the entire monstrosity while it was out of the car. Why, Because I had to. Most of the wiring had been out in the sun and elements, often submerged for lengthy periods of time in water and it was stiff and potentially brittle. The last thing I wanted, and always the first thing on my mind, was the potential for connecting a battery, hearing a pop, smelling smoke and then seeing the entire project burn before my eyes. Yes, I was paranoid. Yes, I could not stop thinking of this scenario everytime I messed with the wiring.

Earlier this year I pulled the harness into the car. Then I connected the engine bay console and finally the gauges. I left some dash plugs disconnected leading to the TS switch, wiper switch, light switch and main key switch. This was done on purpose so I could test functions before I burned the car down.

The other night I was feeling especially brave and got out a battery. I clipped some leads to the main 12V supply line and then put an ammeter between the ground lead... And touched it to the car. Waiting for a pop, spark, some sign of detrimental processes while the worst thoughts ran through my brain. I heard. Nothing. Nada. Nunca. And then a big sigh of relief when the meter showed about 100mA of background current. How could this be? Did I get it right?

The next step was to plug in the main ignition switch. The same. No drama.

The next step was to turn the key. I hear two loud clicks... One front under the dash and one rear by the engine console. I instinctively and immediately turn off the key while my brain processed the sounds and my nose processed the surrounding air waiting for that tell-tale smell that all the magic smoke had been let out. I waited. Nothing. Uneventful.

So I turned the key on again and was reassured that my brain had processed the sounds as the light relay under the dash and the FP relay in the engine bay. And then I saw it... A glow in the dimly lit, late night garage. The alternator light was on.



The ammeter was now showing about 300mA of current. About what I would expect from a dimly lit indicator lamp.

I also noticed that the oil level sender was pegged. It is not currently grounded so that is a good sign. More connection success.

This was a huge milestone of events. Since I Had successfully powered up the car and it didn't burn down I decided to connect more circuits. One by one I plugged in the light switch, TS switch, hazard switch and wiper switch with no change in background current.

Then I went to the engine bay and connected the power lead to my external fuse/relay system for the EFI, fuel pump and ignition. The fuse box powered up but none of the peripherals came on. HMM. A-Ha! there were no fuses installed in the fuse block. So, one by one I plugged a fuse into the 12V circuits.

ECU. Check
WBO2 - Check. LED blinking
INjector Bank 1 - Check.
INjector Bank 2- Check.
Ignition. Check. and then I saw a glow in the engine bay. The indicator LEDs for my ignition boxes were now on. More dimly lit glow behind the air-cleaner.



And so, I have now passed my wiring test. I will try to connect to the ECU tonight to load a test start file, verify sensors are reading and a few other book keeping items.

This means I am getting step-by-step closer to firing the engine.