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 ElectricsLast  on September 01 2008All the information I have on rewiring a car for competition use will appear below. I must stress that these schematics are for a competition car. For competition use, you don't need things like indicators, head lamps etc. The Fiesta is not running with a front bumper, so there wont be any front indicators on the car. Therefore the hazard lamps will only operate on the rear indicators. I'm running all wires back to the fuse/control box which is located on the passenger floor in the car. 
All lights will also have their own feed wire from the fuse/control box. This will allow me to make an electronic circuit which will allow me to flash the lights on and off, either at random, or in sequence, for show purposes.Charging system I've used a 50Amp Powermaster 'Denso' Race single wire alternator (Part No.8162), supplied by Brise Auto-Electrical Systems Ltd of Dartford, Kent (Tel +44 (0)1322 277622, Fax +44 (0)1322 277623). During the concept stage of the engine transplant, I'd spent a long time trying to source an alternator small enough to fit in the gap at the front of engine. The Powermaster alternator has a 93mm diameter body, and weighs only 2.6Kg, and is probably the smallest alternator you can buy. Each Powermaster alternator is rebuilt specifically for racing application, featuring high quality bearings, which allow them to run at very high RPM without disintegrating. The alternator is rated at 50 Amperes, which should be more than enough for the fuel injection system. It has a single wire output, which connects to the main battery cable, and it has just two other connections. One is a switched battery positive supply, which enables the charging circuit within the alternator, and the other is a warning light connection. So if the alternator is not working correctly, I have two amber LED's on the dashboard to warn me. 
A dural bracket is used to locate the alternator on the front of the engine. The bracket incorporates an adjusting mechanism, which is ingenious. I'm using the Fiesta RS1800 front engine mounting, because it doubles up as an alternator mounting bracket. But the standard Fiesta alternator is too large to go in the gap between the front of the engine and the front cross member, so I'm hanging the alternator alongside the sump, under the cross member. This is why I needed a small alternator. Normally, the Zetec from the Mondeo has the alternator on the rear of the engine, but I cant fit one there, because of clearance problems at the back of the engine. The dural bracket, also supplied by Brise, requires no modifications to fit. You will need a drive pulley, aslo from Brise, to allow you to turn the alternator with a Poly-V drive belt. I've found a drive belt from Halfords, called an HB887e, which is the perfect length to run round the alternator, crank and water pump pulleys.Picture of the Powermaster alternator  Alternator dimensions (click on picture for larger version)  Alternator electrical connections (click on picture for larger version) 
Dashboard instrumentation  I'm using a Stack ST-200 rev counter. The needle is driven by a tiny stepper motor, controlled by a microprocessor. It reacts instantaneously to changes in engine RPM, and it also features a tell tale button which moves the needle to the highest RPM recorded since the last reset. The LED's are ultra bright 10mm units from RSWWW.COM. They are amber to warn if the alternator has stopped charging, red to indicate low oil pressure, and blue to show when to change gear. I've installed a set of 7 segment digital gauges for battery voltage, oil pressure, and water temperature. These were supplied by www.summitracing.com in the United States. Excellent value, they come with transducers, but the only problem is that they're difficult to read in bright light. The LED's could do with being brighter. Lighting The Fiesta has smoked rear clusters, with stop and tail lights wired to the ignition. No reverse lights or indicators are wired in. These are not required. I have stop and tail lights for track day use only, so other drivers can see what I'm doing ahead. The headlamps are rather unconventional too. I've replaced both the headlamp units with colour pictures of lights. That's right, they may look like headlamps, but they're actually digital photographs of lights, which are laminated using an office laminating machine, and they're held in place with the standard headlamp surrounds. This saves a lot of weight. The standard Hella headlamps are heavy, and I don't need headlamps, so the pictures do the trick and I shave a kilo of weight off the car at the same time. Its amazing seeing the looks on some peoples faces, when they work out that the lamp's aren't real. If you wish to do the same, then print the large picture of the headlamp on a colour laser printer, and then laminate the picture. Cut it out with some scissors, and stick it in place of the original lamp unit. Simple. 
Vehicle wiring Schematics I've created these simple drawings using Microsoft PowerPoint 2000.
Power connections Signal connections Black box circuitry Re-wiring the car The pictures below show the wiring looms that are in place for the lights. I've used Polyamide sleeving to protect the wires. Its a soft, flexible braiding that you feed the wires through, and is flameproof. Its used in the defence industry, and is most often seen in tanks, helicopters, ships etc. I've protected all the lighting looms using the braiding, and I've drilled and pop-riveted cable tie mounts to the chassis, and tie-wrapped the cables in place. I'm mounting a bulkhead connector on the front bulkhead, and the wiring loom inside the engine bay will have a connector on the end which will screw in to the bulkhead connector. This will allow me to easily remove the engine wiring loom for modifications, and I can carry a spare loom incase of damage to the wiring. 
March 2001, the engine bay wiring loom, work in progress. 
April 2001, the engine bay wiring loom, now completed and fitted to the car. And the switch box. 
Parts sourced from VWP (Vehicle Wiring Products)
Electrical parts sourced from Webcon
Electrical parts sourced from RSWWW.COM
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