Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi, I've posted here briefly before with some questions regarding fog lamps etc. However, in the mean time I have ended up doing a full front end rebuild and now need some advice as I'm at the rebuild stage.

Basically, the first question is in regards to horns and lights. I'm fitting a set of windtone horns and I'm looking at doing this through a relay. I was also advised it might be worth putting the headlights through a relay too? So I'm wondering if anybody could advise me in relation to this, with any recommendations etc?

Secondly, I'm making a few moderfications. Mainly a hazard light switch, cigarette lighter and screen wash motor (in line, not the modern bottle type), but I'd also like to add more in furure such as guages and possibly a radio. The hazard kit obviously comes with instructions, and guages will need feeds/signals from whatever they're monitoring, but I'm wondering if there is any merit in installing (for lack of a better term) a junction box? I'm thinking this could have fused supplies etc in, from which I could then feed accessories, obviously with signaling etc being fed from somewhere else as mentioned earlier. My thought is that this would make future additions easier and neater and remove the need of splicing into cables, of which I'm not a fan.

Just for further info, my dyno broke down and I'd been running on a borrowed one until I serviced mine. Unfortunately it is beyond repair and so I will probably be going for an alternator, as my car is a daily and I guess it will improve reliabilty slightly. Unless anyone has any experience of these dynamater hybrid things?

Apologies for so many questions but thought it best to post it all in one go than clogging up the message board with lots of related posts.

Thanks, I appreciate your help...

Headlights don't need a relay. The 'dynameter' and similar are stupidly expensive for no advantage. Just convert to negative earth and fit an alternator if you really must. But there is nothing wrong with using a dynamo - perfectly satisfactory. Why do you want different horns? I never use the horn and stupidly loud horns are an embarrassment and just aggravate others. The standard horn is perfectly satisfactory for a short 'toot'to move eg an animal out of the way.......

Luckily there are not many wires in a minor to begin with.
Definitely worth putting in headlamp relays, especially as it sounds like it's all apart already, and it's a small cost. Any generic wiring diagram will be suitable to go from.

I have a second small Lucas fuse box that I have wired into the positive battery cable, after a battery isolator switch. Which I run an electric fan and any other accessories il add to keep the original tidy and easy to trace.

Those dynamometers have dropped alot in price recently, about the cost of a new alternator anyway over here. I don't have one but I know a couple of guys using them. Waiting was very easy and it's identical fitment. It depends on what you value as to cost and looks

Even modern cars don't have relays for headlights - just unnecessary complication and more to go wrong....

Ok, other than not putting the lights on a relay, any other guidance?

The windtones will be going in, they came free from a friends donor Daimler Conquest. I've gone through a couple of horns and have found them all so far to be too quiet or pathetic. Advice on relays and wiring them in etc greatly appreciated.

Also ideas and advice on incorporating a main junction box for all accessories greatly appreciated!

Pab_moggy,

Anything which reduces voltage drop across the wiring harness is a step in the right direction. Wasted watts within the standard wiring harness means less illumination from your headlamps. I would say go for it. An added complication but if the lighting system illuminates more like a modern car, which likely uses relays, a good improvement. Certainly any extra lights would need a heavier supply wiring from the switch, so installing one heavy supply to the relays is far better than relying on the wiring loom for a heavy current supply.

There are, of course, lots of exaggerated claims for voltage drops,within standard looms, on the net (seen a voltage drop of 2.5 quoted by one advertiser), but the more lumens per watt expended, must be good for driving and safety.

oliver90owner wrote:Pab_moggy,

Anything which reduces voltage drop across the wiring harness is a step in the right direction. Wasted watts within the standard wiring harness means less illumination from your headlamps. I would say go for it. An added complication but if the lighting system illuminates more like a modern car, which likely uses relays, a good improvement. Certainly any extra lights would need a heavier supply wiring from the switch, so installing one heavy supply to the relays is far better than relying on the wiring loom for a heavy current supply.

There are, of course, lots of exaggerated claims for voltage drops,within standard looms, on the net (seen a voltage drop of 2.5 quoted by one advertiser), but the more lumens per watt expended, must be good for driving and safety.

Ah Oliver, that makes good sense then. My moggy is running halogen conversions already, on the car when I bought it. With regards to wiring etc, would you suggest relays as high up the loom as possible and then wire down to the headlights, or relays up front near the lights. Not plannino any spots or anything just yet... Also same question regarding the horns...

Halogen headlights use LESS current than standard sealed beams. Absolutely no need for 'relays'...... There is no need to complicate the Minor wiring - it works well as is.

Worked well when new, 50 years later may be a different story, but thats another story. The best thing you can do for your wiring and headlamp output is to make sure the wiring in in good condition, the connections are tight, and the earths are good. Take the headlamp switch out and use some cleaner on the contacts, old crusty oxidised ones will have increased resistance resulting in poor headlights and increased heat, which worse case scenario can melt the switch (you do carry a fire extinguisher dont you)

Here is some decent information about headlamp wiring, generally you want as short of lengths of wire as you can manage. Relays are useful because you can run smaller diameter wire in the dash to the switch, and then a thicker diameter wire for a shorter length in the enginebay
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... elays.html

I have halogens with no relays, and they are ok, although i dont drive much at night anyway, i will use them when i wire in a spot/fog light to help keep the wiring tidy

The link supplied by tortron is a good one. Position of relays is a matter of choice and may depend on battery or alternator access, among others. While the law limits the wattage of headlamps, I believe to about 80W, 100/80W halogens are available and considerably improve illumination. I have a couple of Hella auxiliary driving lamps knocking around, with 120W halogen bulbs. Increased power generally means a shorter service life, as does vibration (note how othe nearside bulbs fail more often, than off side, in the UK

On another line of thought, there are now LEDs apparently suitable for headlamps. I have a couple, but have yet to need to go to the aggravation of changing them in, as a comparison.

The one thing about my regular car is that the lights rely on little more than battery voltage below about 1000 engine rpm. The lighting sucks at tick over, compared with alternator voltage of close to 14.4V!

Oh, and do go for an alternator. Far better than a dynamo, for several good reasons. The only reason, in your situation, for retaining the dynamo would be for originality. Not the best decision (if you chose to retain a dynamo) as this is your day to day transport, IMO. Better battery life, more available power, long, trouble free operation, better lighting in winter driving, particularly. Usually single item (no separate control box), generally easily, and cheaply, repaired should they go wrong. Far better, all round.

RAB

All good info so far, thanks guys. So if we're lookking at the alternator then my question is are the ones supplied in the conversion kits from the main suppliers beefy enough to run all the standard gear, plus radios, spots etc, or is it worth/possible to buy a much meatier alternative? There's no info on any of the supplier websites as to what the output of their alternators are...