DeTomaso Mailing List: July 2001, Message #174

O.k. wipe that nasty thought off of your mind ;^)

I finally got the wiring started on #2428. Quite frankly, I think it
was a mistake to trash the old wiring on the car and luckily, I had
the presence of mind to save it in a safe place. I took the wiring
out about a year or so ago and left it out of doors (in the rains no
less) but that didn't seem to be a drawback as I checked the
connectors on the cable and they seem to be ok. 

I did lop off the front part of the cable that
controls/powers/monitors the lights, radiator, wiper motor,
headlamps, and other things like that. So, I'll have to attach new
wiring to replace that cut section but that's exactly what I did.

Interestingly, there was a post bandied on the listserv regarding the
horn switch. That's what I rewired on #2428. Luckily the switch was
intact. So, I temporarily reunited the steering column to the car and
reinstalled the wiring harness in it's old spot. I also kept the
metal cable holders and put some heat shrink tubing to protect the
harness from getting cut. After that, I traced out the one circuit
that would start the wiring process on the car: the horn.

I did buy the aftermarket Fiamm horn kit from Autozone and built a
bracket to mount all three components on the car. I cut the air
tubing to length and wire tied it to the motor. I also bolted the hi
and lo horns to the bracket and test fitted it to reside where the
old motors were. Perfect fit. Next, I found the wiring that involved
the horn circuit and installed the Fiamm supplied relay into the
cabling. I also traced out the fuse box/strip and used a DVM to check
to ensure continuity on the circuit.  Additionally, I added the cut
white wire that hooks up to the horn. I soldered a proper run of
white replacement wire (running the new wire from the cut cable to
the horn end and checking for appropriate fit). 

After all was said and done, I pulled out a power supply and hooked
everything up. No workee on first try. Apparently, I missed the
ground circuit to the harness so I temporarily hooked up a test cable
to act as ground between the ground point on the cable and the
negative side of the power supply. After I was statisfied all was
o.k., I pushed the horn "stalk". YIKES!!!!! The blaring of the
pneumatic horns kept on going. WHAT WAS WRONG????? I quickly pulled
off the power supply to the fuse box to try and alleviate any mad
feelings the neighbors might have on a loud Italian runaway horn!

Some rudimentary troubleshooting ensued and I found it was the Fiamm
supplied relay that was the culprit, essentially a "locking" relay
once energized. In fact, it fell apart (gee, wasn't this a discussion
on the listserv about poor wiring emanating from Modena?) So, I
replace the horn with some of my stock of auto relays (Made in China
no less under the sobriquet "BLAZER") Well, lets hope the ChiCom made
unit holds up better than its Italian counterpart. And so, it did!
After several "beeps" (or should I say "toots" from the bi-toned
Fiamm trumpets), I pronouced the first circuit on #2428 to be
operational. There are about 30 or so other circuits to wire up but
just one circuit started the journey. 

I'm proud to day #2428 is one horny cat!

Cal #2428