Next step was to get the wiring loom into some kind of order before firing the engine and before interior trimming. When the car was stripped I had marked all terminals with labels and made notes in a notebook, of course the painter had done his best to obscure the labels with paint.

I found the correct wiring diagram in the Haynes Manual, and took an A3 copy to pin to the garage wall for reference. Upon investigation around the ignition switch area and the engine bay harness I found that the wiring had been cut and split many times for radio, alarm, and electric fan, the wiring was not worth saving, so a trip was made to Robsport.

I must have caught Mr Hebditch senior in a good mood as I came away with a complete loom for a fiver, which would prove to be a lifesaver when trouble shooting, I also bought a second-hand ignition switch unit with loom. 

 The original battery was thrown away (environmentally) and a new item put in so testing could begin.

The engine bay and gearbox loom from the second-hand harness where routed and connected, also the looms to the horns, lights and fog lights from the second-hand harness where swapped for the originals which where in a bad state.

Tentatively the switch was turned to first position with the result that nothing came on, no ignition warning, nothing, zilch. All connections to starter, battery, earth’s, fuses, etc where then checked, still nothing. A couple of hours of frustrating checking where then carried out and the problem was found where my loom under the dash met the new second-hand switch loom, connections at the loom plug seemed to be reversed here, and did not match the wiring of the new plug, upon checking the old switch loom this was also reversed, I can only presume the loom on the car had been faulty when built, and the switch loom had been modified in the factory, it may have been easier to change this than the main loom. The plug pins where removed using a special tool borrowed from work and replaced correctly.

 Some fuses had blown in this exercise, however when these where replaced it was found that all the instrument lights had now stopped working, these had worked when the car was stripped. The fault here was traced to the flexible printed circuit on the back of the instrument panel, a couple of copper tracks had blown, presumably because of the reversed ignition switch loom. A second hand circuit was obtained and swapped with the blown one, this is a tricky, fiddly job, involving removing all the bulbs and some small screws providing connections to gauges, but it was successful as the lights now worked.

Everything bar the indicators worked, this was traced to the indicator stalk, closer investigation revealed that one of the contacts had broken, this was not repairable so a second-hand unit was obtained, again from Robsport, at the same time I parted with more money for cruise lights.

Upon fitting the stalk unit the indicators worked, but left did right and right did left, and the wiper settings where also wrong, first click was fast, second click was slow, and flicking down for intermittent wipe did nothing. Again I did some checking and the original loom again had the plug connector wiring reversed. It must have been a bad day at Canley when my car was built. Checking the connections on the old stalk unit confirmed they had been altered to suit the faulty loom.

Using parts from the second-hand loom I replaced the wiring to the rear lights, numberplate lamp, boot light, and handbrake, well worth a fiver that loom.

Next the Kenlowe Fan was wired up to the fusebox and ignition, I also fitted an over ride switch allowing the fan to be started manually and addded a small LED indicator light, which would come on when the fan was working. If anyone needs a wiring diagram for this I have attached one below.
 I had expected trouble with the lift up headlights, I had been told this was a real problem area, but everything worked OK.

Now it was time to start the engine, in with some fuel, and turn it over, once fuel got through to the carbs the engine started, if a little lumpy, the timing is slightly out, so this is set up roughly. Carbs and timing will be set correctly once I have ensured there are no leaks. Running the engine up to temperature I find the usual things, a couple of water hose leaks, cured by replacing hose clips, it is false economy to use old hose clips, the Kenlowe Fan thermostat fits inside the top hose and this weeped water slightly, so this was removed, and hose sealer applied and the leak cured.

There was a bad oil leak at the oil filter housing to engine, this is traced to a faulty O-ring in the spin on adapter, and was replaced at no cost to myself. I also fitted an oil pressure gauge, which has a slight oil leak where the connection is fitted to the oil pump cover, upon trying to cure this by tightening the connection the aluminium oil transfer housing splits in half, luckily the engine was not running whilst I did this, otherwise I would have had an oil bath. This was soon replaced, again at no cost, and reconnected.

Once all leaks and problems where cured the engine was run up to temperature, timing and carb balance set by a friend with the correct professional equipment. The Kenlowe fan temperature was set, and the engine allowed to cool down before re-torqueing cylinder head bolts.

Trimming & Final Assy DHC

                     TR7 Kenlowe Electric Fan Wiring Diagram

Notes:

Fan is a Kenlowe, mounted on front of radiator, the TR7 kit includes fan and thermal control unit, the sensor is placed in the top radiator hose. I mounted the Thermal Control Unit on the light panel next to right hand side of radiator.

The relay is a standard 32 Amp Spotlight Relay, The switch is a standard on/off switch, light is a simple dash mounted light, Fuse is a standard inline fuse, all available from motorstores such as Halfords/Wilco, etc quite cheaply. I mounted the switch and light on the heater panel.

The positive from battery can be picked up from the large connector block on battery positive lead, a large connector is required.

The switched live wire is picked up from the white wire from rear of ignition switch, when the ignition is switched off, the fan is also switched off.

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