In a message dated 97-11-20 10:09:09 EST, tjordan@pa.ausom.net.au writes:
> The wiring colours obviously follow a logical pattern. Could you expand on
> what you have told us already? Does the stripe colour indicate anything
in
> particular?
Trevor:
Yes, there is a logical pattern to the colors used in Triumphs, and most
other, if not all, British cars as well.
At the highest level, the colors are very straight forward, and easy to
remember:
1) Brown wires - Hot all the time, and unfused.
2) Purple wires - Hot all the time, and fused.
3) White wires - Hot only when the ignition key is on, and unfused.
4) Green wires - Hot only when the ignition key is on, and fused.
The white and purple wires are fed from the brown wires - the purple wire is
fed through a fuse, and the white wire is fed through the ignition switch.
The green wire is fed from the white wire, through a fuse. (it would help to
sketch this out, using a schematic as a guide)
Below this level, the coding is not quite so straight forward. Generally
speaking, though, as one of the above wires pass through a switch, the wire
on the other side has the same color body, with an additional color stripe.
For example, the green wire feeds the brake switch. The wire coming out of
the other side of the brake switch is green with a brown stripe. The wire
from the reverse switch to the back-up lamps is green with a purple stripe.
There are enough exceptions to this rule, though, to make it almost unusable
as a rule. The brown wire to the headlight switch, for example comes out blue
for the headlights, and red/green for the dash and marker lights. The
red/green wire goes through a fuse and comes out red. The red wire goes to
the marker lightsand the dash light dimmer. From the dimmer, the wire to the
dash lights is red/white.
The beauty of the code, though, is in its application to all of the little
cars we love so well. Once you have mastered the wiring in your Spitfire, you
are fully qualified to work on your buddy's MG, as the color codes are the
same.
For a complete listing of the various colors, go to:
http://www.team.net/sol/tech/LucasColours.html
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://www.sky.net/~boballen/mg/Masters/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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