Building an R1 Powered Seven: Wiring checks out

Building an R1 Powered Seven

A few years ago I got it in my head to build a kit car. After months of searching I came across the Locost concept. In short, quite a few amateur hobbiests around the world have built their own Lotus 7 inspired cars from scratch, following plans available on a variety of Internet sites and published in a book by Ron Champion.

I started gathering parts and finally began building the chassis in July '05. In August '10 the car was titled, licensed and is now street legal. The following blog captures the progress of the build and driving experiences after completion.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Wiring checks out

A good nights sleep always helps.

This morning I tore apart the harness that I spent hours neatly wrapping to figure out why the headlights and tail lights weren't working. I noticed that there were two yellow/black wires coming out of the ECU, one went to the meter assembly, the other to the headlight relay...maybe I mixed them up when splicing wires....

Turns out that wasn't the case, the motorcycle daylight running lights are linked to engine speed. i.e. when the engine is off the headlight is off. I ran a direct ground to the headlight relay (instead of the yellow/black wire from the ECU) and the lights worked.

The tail lights were an easy fix, closer inspection of the lights showed a terminal layout, I had the wires mixed up.

With that, everything works! Once I add oil, coolant and fuel the engine should run...