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The thread was started in another forum and it's a good idea. Lets see pictures of your race car wiring panels.
This is my second panel and it's still a rats nest. The first panel was attached to the side of the cage and wasn't much better. I've been picking up new components and plan on doing a complete rewire this winter. I need to make something simple and more organized. I don't even have anything labeled.
I bought one of these that will make using relays much simpler and cleaner.
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87 IROC-Z
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Thats a nice looking panel, microsoft??? LoL ! Whats something like that go for if you don`t mind me asking? If it`s reasonable it`s definitely worth a look at. I`m not a fan of those micro relays, changed too many of those, at least on high amp circuts like a/c compressors and starter relays. I have a picture of the panel I did last winter, pretty much everything except the on off switches and the progressive controller for the 1 st stage are on it. it`s aweful but it works and I can fix or change things at the track without an engineers layout table!
P.S> this sits in the passenger footwell and looks a tad bit more clutered installed but you can work with it at the track, and those guys out there that have had a problem at the track with something electrical know what I mean!
DOS 3.1. It really needs an upgrade. If you think that looks bad, you should see behind the dash for the switches and gauges. Everything works exactly like it's supposed to but it ain't pretty.
I've just spent the last few hours drafting up a schematic on paper for wiring so I'll know what kind of terminal strips I'm going to need to join many of the wires. So far I only have the ignition box and delay box drawn up and that took a couple of hours. Now I need to draw all the switches that control everything, gauges, lights, data recorder, sensors etc. Installing all the components on a panel won't look anything like the schematic but at least the wiring won't be so complicated. I'm glad I don't have to add NOS circuits. I'm also planning on putting labels on all the wire ends under some clear shrink tube and remove all those red, blue and yellow plastic covers on the terminal ends.
I'm planning on mounting everything on the roll cage at the back of the passenger door opening. That way I have easy access to anything with the door open. Right now with the panel mounted under the dash, it's very difficult to reach.
The micro relays are for low amp draw items, lights, ignition etc. Until I finish the schematic, I won't know how many I'll need but I doubt I'll use all 10 circuits. I'll still need a couple of externally mounted relays. I know I need to use one to switch a ground circuit for the transbrake button to the delay box to a voltage circuit for the 2-step in the ignition.
I went to an electrical supply store twice this week to pick up stuff and still will need more as the project progresses.
I found a perfect aluminum project box for an overhead switch panel. There's enough room for 3 more switches if I need them or maybe a voltage gauge. The backside of the box is attached to the halo bar by two 1-5/8" exhaust clamps (no pics yet). The input power, ground (for the pilot lights) and output wires still need to be installed but probably won't be done until I determine exactly where the circuit panel will go to know the length. The starter button hasn't been installed yet and I screwed up drilling the light holes and drilled one above the start button. I have no idea what to use the hole for yet. Perhaps a dome light but with all the other lights on, I probably won't need it. All the lights are LED and all the switches will activate relays so there's low load on all. The wiring is only 18 gauge. The lights and switches are on 1" centers.
I put a guard over the master switch. With the switch off, it kills power to everything. That allows me to turn on the master switch then crank over the engine before turning on ignition power. The guard prevents hitting it accidentally and easier to locate if it's dark, car filled with smoke etc.
All the switches are upside down. Off is up. I did it like that because of where the power terminal is on the back of the switch. Putting them upside down puts the switch terminal towards the middle and away from the edge of the box. The labels were done with a label maker and clear label tape.
Last edited by Stephen 87 IROC; 10-27-2009 at 10:58 PM.
One of two; this one has the fan, water pump(also trans cooler fan), fuel pump and n2o arming(red flip cover near Fluke EGT). The panel is mounted to the pipe via the two hose clamps, loosen them and you can flip it right around to access the wiring. I did this panel seperate as it will come out when the blower motor goes in(not needed). The toggle mounted by itself off the shifter is the "bang button" for purging the n2o.
Don't seem to have a pic of my main panel on my PB account. It's overhead in the left front corner of the cage, single toggle switch for the lights, push button for starting, and upside down mounted cover toggle of ignition on(with it upside down, I can kill the car simply throwing my hand up). There is also a 2-way switch mounted in bottom of it that switches my left steering button back and forth between the line-lock and the t-brake. Right steering wheel button is on the co2 shifter.
I'm anal retentive about wiring, I'll have to get some more pics and post them up.
__________________ Jp Shawgo
1986 camaro - 10.5 outlaw/Outlaw 632
1989 lead sled still awating its transformation
- If you can't afford to do it right the first time, can you afford to do it again?
I have more toggle switches mounted on the panel beside the shifter. I have a momentary off switch to kill the power to the vehicle reaction timer. Every now and then it screws up and to reset it you need to kill the power. I didn't want a normal off/on switch and found a perfect switch for a highway truck. It's designed to flash the clearance lights by disrupting the power and works perfect for what I needed.
On the panel is also the bump button for the delay box. I could have mounted it anywhere including on the steering wheel but right under the delay box works. If I want the throttle pedal to fall to the floor before I roll into the beams, I hit the button first. The pedal can also fall to the floor as soon as I push the transbrake button but there's too many things happening quickly to get ready in time so I use the bump button. There's also 2 other seldom used switches mounted there. A switch to turn on or off the 2-step so I can quickly do a full transbrake stall without having to go into the ignition programmer to change the limit and a switch to turn on and off the rpm switch for the air shifter which I still haven't used. I still like slamming that shifter forward with my hand when the shift light comes on
All those switches are minor control switches and are not engine or car related like the switches mounted in the overhead panel above. All the switches could be mounted in the overhead panel but I didn't want unrelated switches in the same panel.
I think I may pick up a new voltage gauge and mount it in blank space of the overhead panel.
Switch panel is done except for the starter button which is still in the dash of the car. I figured out what I'm going to do with the extra hole I drilled above the start button. I was thinking of drilling a hole in the side for the harness and after doing a test fit, the harness can easily come out that hole instead. It will be right at the roof diagonal.
Bench test to make sure everything works. The blue and red lights are super bright. Green and amber not so much. Maybe when the battery is charging, they'll be brighter but I doubt it. The gauge light is also on.
Test fit to see how it will look mounted to the halo bar.
Last edited by Stephen 87 IROC; 10-29-2009 at 12:30 AM.
And custom made. There are some really nice switch panels available. Most people see the Moroso or Painless switch panels but one of the nicest ones is from ARC. The ARC panel has programmable switches which control it's own relay board. As nice as all these aftermarket panels are, they'll never do exactly what you want specifically done to your own car plus they are also very expensive compared to how much I've spent throwing this together. I could have went with rocker switches instead of the toggles but it's a lot more work involved and the toggles work just fine.
Picked up a bunch more components today. I'll tackle some of the wiring panel stuff this weekend. Until the relay board arrives, there's only so much I can do.
I spent most of last night going over the schematics I drew up last week to make a new wiring diagram to show a basic layout to determine how many terminal strips I need. Instead of running the wiring from the overhead switch panel directly to the relay board, it will go to a terminal strip which will then have a wiring panel harness going to where it's needed. Should look really sharp when I'm done. After plotting out all the circuits, the 10 circuit relay board will have one 20 amp relay left over for future expansion.
I didn't want to use the typical terminal strip like this although I already have a bunch of them. It requires lots of terminal ends on all the wiring. If I do use one of these, it will be for a common ground point on the wiring panel with loops joining all the terminals.
Instead I'm going with this style. Slide the bare wire into the hole on the side and tighten a screw on the top. I can buy them as 12 connector and easily cut them down to the size I want. I've already made an 8 and 4 for two different circuits. Makes grouping the wires easier.
Should have a bunch more pictures by the end of the weekend but would still like to see other wiring panels.
I got a lot done this weekend, pictures later tonight. The overhead switch panel is completed and wired in to a terminal strip on the panel. Turned out better than I expected. I made the wiring panel out of a piece of Lexan and mounted it at the rear of the passenger door opening. That way when the door is open, it's easier to access stuff compared to mounting it at the front of the opening or under the dash. With a door X bar roll cage, access to the front is very limited. The Lexan allows you to see the wiring and components from both sides and there's no chance of anything shorting out to the mount.
As I've already mentioned, I'm using the white plastic terminal strips shown above. This idea has turned out way better than I expected. I can run the wires roughly to where I want and screw them into the proper position on the strip. Once a bundle of wires is routed, I can easily cut them down to make a nice neat bundle without big excess loops at the terminal strips. If you use the eye ring connectors, you'll be using twice as many as you change the wire lengths. I also soldered the ends of the wires before installing them in the terminal strips for a better contact with the retaining screw/clamp. Other than the schematics, none of the wiring has been labeled yet.
I now have 5 pages of schematics for all the different wiring as I've plotted and changed positions and layouts and it's still not complete. Wiring for gauges and sensors hasn't been drawn up on the schematics yet mainly because they don't deal a lot with the wiring panel itself. I started off by making a template of the wiring panel out of poster board to see where components would fit the best. After mounting the Lexan, I've worked out different positions than what I was expecting before attaching them to the Lexan.
The biggest mess is still the ignition box. Holley used weatherpack plugs to connect the ignition to the rest of the car. The plugs are useful for quick disconnect when I'm welding on the car but they're not as simple and clean as an MSD ignition box which has screw connectors right on the box to attach the wiring to.
I'm not expected the relay board to arrive for almost 2 weeks and I need one more stand alone fuse holder which I can pick up tomorrow. I still need to do the wiring for the rest of the car so those components won't slow me down.
Completed switch panel box front, rear and mounted. You can see the harness exiting the switch box and running along the roof diagonal tube. All those switches across the dash will go as will the voltage gauge. I'll probably cut a new piece of aluminum for a new dash or decal over the holes. The grey wiring harness has four 18 gauge wires in it. I couldn't get a harness with eight 18 gauge wires, only 7 wire was available so I decided to use two harnesses. 18 gauge is more than enough for low amp circuits. The entire car doesn't need to be wired with 14 gauge wire. That adds a lot of extra weight.
Here's what the wiring panel looks like so far. The switch panel wiring joins at the top right and will eventually go to the relay board. Two fuse panels are mounted beside it. Under the fuse panels are two 5 volt power supplies to power datalog sensors (MAP, TPS, fuel and oil pressure). The big open area in the middle is where the relay board will go. The two stand alone fuses feed the transbrake and throttle stop.
Looking very good! Cleanly loomed and yet still easily traceable.
I run toggles, as I hate most rocker switches w/ 5 layer gloves. It's either everything on or everything off - lol.
__________________ Jp Shawgo
1986 camaro - 10.5 outlaw/Outlaw 632
1989 lead sled still awating its transformation
- If you can't afford to do it right the first time, can you afford to do it again?
No new pictures. I've redone all the power wiring to the engine compartment, fans, water pump, lights etc. No more multiple butt spliced chunks of wire. I've ripped out all the wiring from under the dash and will probably buy or fabricate a new aluminum dash.
I've been busy all week labeling wires that are already installed. Use a label maker to make the label. Wrap it around the wire then use clear shrink tube over the label. That way I can look at the panel and know exactly what wire is for which circuit.
Should have more pics by the end of the weekend. Relay board finally cleared customs yesterday. It should arrive sometime next week.
I can't believe how much wiring and fabrication I did over the weekend and it's still not complete. The majority of the wiring under the hood is complete except for the data logging wiring. Most of the wiring to the control panel beside the shifter still needs to be completed. You can see a bundle of wires coming down the door tube. Those are all from under the dash and from the engine compartment and go to the wiring panel which looks like a real mess right now. Once a few more wires are run, I can tidy them all up into a nice harness.
Having to do a complete rewire required a new dash to clean it up. I picked up some .032" aluminum and made a complete new dash. I still need to fabricate a couple more supports for it. There's currently only one on either side. All the gauges and engine sensor wires are done. The tach is all wired up. I installed a second transbrake button on the steering wheel. The one on the left is the one I would normally use. The one on the right is called a bypass button. It allows me to activate the transbrake for backing up or just to bypass the delay in case I screw up on the tree and decide to launch off the bottom bulb. Both buttons use a common ground and send a ground signal to the delay box. I used a 3 wire coiled cable for one input (ground) and 2 outputs (left and right buttons). I wanted some easy way to attach the cable to the dash instead of hard wiring it. I decided to pick up a 1/4" stereo jack and plug and the idea worked out perfectly. I can pull the plug from the dash and completely remove the steering wheel from the car to get it out of the way.
In the dash I have;
Oil pressure warning light connected to a 25 psi sensor
Oil pressure gauge (mechanical)
Oil temperature gauge to a sensor in the pan
Coolant temp sensor (mechanical)
The voltage gauge is now in the overhead switch panel. I've removed the EGT and tranny temp gauges. The EGT I never watched and the tranny doesn't get hot enough unless I'm hotlapping in 30+ C heat which isn't too often. The deep pan I plan on putting on the tranny this winter will help that out.
Of course I had to put the Z28 IROC-Z emblem back on the dash
1986 camaro - 10.5 outlaw/Outlaw 632
1989 lead sled still awating its transformation
- If you can't afford to do it right the first time, can you afford to do it again?
Most of the wiring panel is now complete. I need to install another piece of Lexan at the front of the cage to mount the coil and start relay then run the rest of the wiring for the control panel beside the shifter. Wiring for the data log sensors hasn't been done yet either.
Now that's looking like it should! - It's amazing how time consuming wiring can be, especially when you really put an effort into doing it right.
__________________ Jp Shawgo
1986 camaro - 10.5 outlaw/Outlaw 632
1989 lead sled still awating its transformation
- If you can't afford to do it right the first time, can you afford to do it again?
The old wiring was very simplistic. Run them to where they need to go. Splice in with butt connectors if needed. The new wiring is a lot more complicated but it's also a lot more organized. I've probably over-engineered a few of the circuits but at least now I know where everything goes and why. You can see labels on a few of the wires to tell me what they are for. All the relays are marked. The stand alone fuse holders are marked on their tops.
If someone says they'll do a complete race car wiring to look similar to that picture and wants to charge you $1000, it's probably a good deal. I haven't kept track of the hours I've spent hunched over the door bars, running wires, but my lower back is really starting to hurt.
I figure I got about another week before finishing up everything and can test all the circuits just to make sure everything was wired up correctly. Making all the schematics a few weeks ago sure made the wiring a lot easier and even then, I was changing circuits as I started to wire it up.
Things like, I originally planned on having a separate power source for the tach from the fuse panel. Instead of running another wire, the tach now takes it's power off the gauge circuit under the dash. What looked good on paper didn't work out the same once I started wiring. I originally (see picture way above) had a terminal strip mounted beside the 5 volt power supplies but changed the design to eliminate it and run the wires direct. The starter relay has also been removed from this wiring panel and will go on a different one. I needed the room where I had it mounted.
The wiring is DONE!! I still have one more datalog sensor to install but haven't decided what else to log yet. I still need to mount the O2 sensor but other than that, all the wiring is now finished.
If you look back to the beginning of the thread, you can see what I originally had. It was ugly but it worked.
This is what I now have. Pictures are a little dark. I'll need to take better ones in daylight but until the car is on 4 wheels again, that won't be for a while.
The few shortcuts I did do, you'll never see. Only a couple of the large gauge wires were spliced instead of running a new long heavy gauge wire, stuff like that. Off and on, this took me close to a month to do and I don't even want to think about the cost. All the wire, connectors, clamps, plastic ties, relay board, switch panel, Lexan, sensors etc probably set me back at least $500, if not more, not counting the stuff I reused. Add in the dozens of hours labor and it's not hard to see why a shop would charge $1000+ to wire a race car.
I did very little for the last week then this weekend, finished it all up. I finished up tonight by removing one of the header tubes and welding on a bung for the O2 sensor. In the top picture, you can see a circle drawn on top of the one header tube. That's where the O2 sensor now sits. With slip on collectors, I didn't want to install the O2 sensor in the collector. The collector isn't a 100% sealed fit and any air leak will cause a false reading.
I still want to change the wiring for the taillights. I currently use the brake light element for taillights during nighttime racing. I want to change it to the regular taillights for less current draw but need to change the light sockets back to the triple wiring style which I don't have right now. I could wire up the third brake light in the spoiler for a rear light but that would mean some sort of plug that would allow me to easily remove the deck lid. Many race cars just use a single tail light so the third brake light would work fine as a light.
I plan on firing the car up within the next week just to check out all the wiring and to see how well the data logger works. I've already powered everything up and it all seems to work fine so far. I've drained the cooling system but it doesn't take much to fill it back up with water not that the alcohol engine really needs any.
I want to pick up some Danger High Voltage decals and stick them on the Lexan that holds the coil, start relay and noise filter capacitor. That coil puts out a full 2 amps of high voltage.
