How to: Wire a motor.

[willimo]

So, this is a simple wiring job that I did on a motor that I'm not going to use. It's not perfect, but it'll do for the how-to.



These are the tools and supplies you will need. Knife, tweezers, drill and whatnot. The motor and distributor, and wires. The thin blue wire will be the ignition wire, the thick black wire (sold as coolant hose) will be used to make the boots for the sparkplugs and the distributor.




The sparkplugs are easy to find on this motor (called out in the photo with sharpie). You could either drill these out, or use them to hold the boot. They are short on this block, so I am going to slice them off and drill them out. On my 787B, I just slipped the coolant hose "boot" over the nub "sparkplug."



Drilling.



I put the distributor in place and then marked a length of wire so it would run from the distributor to the furthest hole. Over estimate this distance, and trim later. Wire is cheap, and it's a pain in the butt to redo it many times.



The coolant hose has copper wire inside the insulation. It will have to come out. To get it out, carefully cut through just the insulation. Then, carefully again, use the knife blade to draw the copper wiring out and discard the copper.



Cut short lengthes of the insulation of the coolant hose, and then slide them over the wire. My drilling into the block wasn't big enough for the boot, but it was for the wire. That's why it sticks out a little further. Usually, I make the hole big enough. Oops.



Put a little CA (superglue) on the end, slide them into place. Look, a wire and sparkplug boot!



Repeat for the distributor. There is an extra bit of boot in the center (for 5 boots total in this case, arranged like the 5 dots on a domino) for the coil, that will be added when the engine is installed, and wired to the distributor.

I hope this helps. This was only 4 wires, but the principles hold the same. On my 787B, there were really big boots, so what I did was slip an even larger peice of wire (actually, vinyl tubing) over the coolant hose, just like I put the coolant hose over the wire. It's really quite simple. A lot of times, you can slip the "boots" over little molded on nubs, and that makes the work a little easier. For cars like a Civic, where there's a cover over the sparkplugs, all you have to do is the distributor. Then you can just cut a hole at one end of the valve cover, under the sparkplug wire cover, and slip them in. No bother over boots on that end. There are also pre-wired distrubutors available, but these are usually for V8s. You could, I imagine, cut off 4 wires and use it on a 4 banger, but it wouldn't look right on a 6cyl.

And as with any how-to, tip or trick: Feel free to experiment with any of these steps and do it your own way.

[Kasso]

nice! thanks for sharing the info.

[rx7king]

thanks for the tip! now all i have to do is find a kit that includes engine detail lol

[PRIVATEER]

Great Willimo.......thats how I do it.

[StephenDeli]

Great how-to. Are those wires from detail master?

[kt100]

cheers willimo

[Bas Carwash]

Nice How to. Thanks.

[willimo]

Yes, the wires are from Detail Master, but there are countless other sources (Sakatsu, Modeller's....). Some people can even find wires of the correct gauge at electronics stores, I cannot. Something else I forgot to mention - I often paint the wires (ie paint the blue wires black or something), this really extends your wire dollar, but it helps to never touch the wires again. Ever.

I hope this helps all the folks that asked about wiring in my 787B thread.

[tonioseven]

Added to the How-To depository

[Vric]

nice how to Willimo

this is what I do to

[ROCKIESJR]

why i cant see the pic? I'm always looking for new way to do thing..

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by ROCKIESJR

why i cant see the pic?

Because the thread is ten years old. The location that the images were hosted is no longer available.

(Anyone else remember when AF offered image hosting?)

[willimo]

I remember! Unfortunately, ten years ago is four computers, three states, and a couple of beers ago, so these pictures are lost to the universe. Sorry, guy!

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by willimo

and a couple of beers ago...

You too?!

Yeah, I've had a couple since then also.

[SunDevil1981]

Unfortunately the pictures do not work anymore...can't see them :-(