I spent most of the summer away from Salt Lake doing various fun things but I have been doing some work on the Cobra this Fall. Primarily, I’ve been getting back on the electrical system. The first part of my return to working on the Cobra was trying to figure out where I left off, particularly since the electrical work is not as intuitive for me as is the rest of the project.
As can be seen, I’ve added most of the primary switches to the panel as well as the turn signal and bright indicator lights. I purchased LEDs from Del City to replace the incandescents from F5. The wood blocks are so that I can turn the dash on its face to work on the rear wiring. The center cluster of five switches are: bottom row—key, horn, lights; upper row—start button, fuel pump. To the right, the eight switches are (two are missing) starting at the left hand of the bottom row and then counter-clockwise: wiper switch, fan override, DS vent fan, PS vent fan, the PS and DS CobraHeat seat heater switches, a rain light switch and hazard switch. I may have the rain light simply work as an independent hazard light or as third brake light (I haven’t yet decided). Below the oil temperature gauge is the bright light switch and under the left-hand-most block is the hole for the turn indicator switch. The rear of the panel is shown in the photo below.
The wiring is a bit of a mess to sort out. The Classic Instrument gauges have multiple feeds (e.g., gauge lighting, power) or outputs (the signals). Some of the wires I don’t need so I’ve created bundles to keep them out of the way.
There is one power line for the gauges coming off of the main fuse box but it is split in the wiring harness (check out the wiring diagram in the supplemental information): it’s one 10 amp line and I’ve daisy-chained the feeds. I’ve also made each connection removable via connectors so that if needed I can take out gauge, or even the entire instrument panel, if needed without cutting wires.
Grounding is also another issue. It’s often forgottng that the grounding path needs to be as ‘wide’ as is the supply path– the electrons need a complete circuit. Also, there is a ‘rule’ that the vehile can’t have too many grounds. I’ve tried to make a grounding circuit around the chassis with multiple grounding points.
I purchased an Al battery box from Breeze and mounted it between the front ‘X’ member and the 4″ tube cross member. Many builder mount the battery in the trunk but partially for weight distribution and partly for convenience I decided to put it in the front of the engine bay.
