BS AU7 wire colour question

[Sprag]

Good Evening,

I trained as a domestic electrician, but the last 43 years were spent faultfinding inside panels, playing with building management systems, maintaining generators, and high voltage switchgear, and testing lightning conductors, so my wiring experience is varied, to say the least, and somewhere along the way, I was trained as a Corgi man, and spent several years as an engineering instructor!

in my retirement, I have got involved in creating a complete wiring system for a kit car, and I intend to design it to have wire colours to BS AU7a (1983).

Pretty well got it all sorted out, except......I am quite aware that all fuses that are supplied with permanently "live" 12volts are fed by brown wire direct from batt, but I cannot figure out what colour should be supplying the fuses that are only live when the ignition switch is on, can anybody tell me, please?

Oh..and my name is John, by the way,

Thanks in advance

John

 

[Sprag]

Over 24 hours, and 48 views, and nobody has a clue?

John

 

[Darkwood]

The Auto section is seldom used and not many members have any experience as such .... its a totally different realm to the installation electricians we have on here.

 

[telectrix]

why not have a look at the wiring colours on your car. might give a clue

 

[matt1386]

Hi John,

Please see link below for full wiring colours for BS AU7

Hope it helps

Bs-Au7 Full Wiring Code/colours - Electrical - The Mini Forum

cheers

Matt

 

[snowhead]

Green ?

http://www.groups.tr-register.co.uk...rary/BS-AU7a Wiring Loom Standard Colours.pdf

 

[Sprag]

Thanks to all, that prompted a few comments!

i have a copy of the BS, but I appear to have confused myself with this one, and I can't use my own car as a crib, because it's a Suzuki.

Thanks

john

 

[PEG]

Hi dude,as far as i can remember,switched feeds from the ignition were brown with a trace. Depending on the number of auxillary positions on the key,they can be a number of "switched" feeds. Is not the BS standards colours available on a PDF? In my experience,you will probably be able to stick to most of the spec,but will end up "adapting" circumstances to suit what you have fitted.Good luck.

 

[davesparks]

There should be no need to adapt to anything, there's a cable colour for everything. It's when people go using the wrong coloured cables and/or don't label them properly that problems occur.
As a keeper of landrovers I know all about bodgers with their bits of speaker wire and scotchlock bodgeups.

 

[Sprag]

My thanks to all, and in particular, Snowhead, who replied with "Green".

I had considered that colour, but had convinced myself that it was only used downstream of a fuse which was feeding an accessory, but now I've looked again, it's a case of not seeing the wood for the trees, and so Green it will be.

The car was wired when it was built in 2002, using the loom from the donor car, and yes Davesparks, I know what you mean about Scotchlok connectors, it has it's fair share of those!

The donor was a 1989 Citroen 2CV, so the original loom is now 25 years old, and there are one or two extra pieces of wire that appear to be the varnished cloth covered stuff, that was used pre-war, that have been pressed into service, plus I don't know how many hidden joints there are lurking beneath the bits of shrink wrapping

Mechanically, it's superb, but the electrics let it down, so the plan is to make up as much as I can during next winter, and then fit it all together next spring.

John

 

[PEG]

There should be no need to adapt to anything, there's a cable colour for everything. It's when people go using the wrong coloured cables and/or don't label them properly that problems occur.
As a keeper of landrovers I know all about bodgers with their bits of speaker wire and scotchlock bodgeups.

If there was no need for anyone to "adapt",i,for one,would not have earned a living over all these years. That's from a man who fitted a Mercedes 306D in a series IIA at the age of 17. It was Ex MOD and no,the wiring matched nowt:sweatdrop:

 

[Sprag]

I have allocated a colour to every wire now, but I can't agree with the statement that there is a colour for everything within the British Standard.

There doesn't appear to be one for a tachometer fed from a contact breaker - I am intending to use black/blue for this function, which is the colour for one of the wires normally used to supply a tachometer from a generator, so a little adapting, or substitution, will be required.

The 2CV also has a wire from the hazard switch to the flasher unit - I am told that this is peculiar to Citroen, because of their own switch design, and, as a result, there isn't an allocation for that connection.

i suppose that one could say that there is a colour within the British Standard for every wire - except when there isn't !

John

 

[Neil Harrod]

Hi John.
I have only joined tonight so if you haven't got sorted here goes un-fused ignition feeds are white I have been an auto electrician for 30 years and remember the British colours well, If you need any others just ask..........Neil:clap:

 

[Neil Harrod]

should of also said green is the ignition fused side. cheers

 

[Sprag]

Thanks Neil, completed the drawing now.
i have access to the BS at my local library, but for some reason, I had managed to sort everything out except that one - it seemed that the more I looked, the less I managed to see, a bad case of "the wood for the tree's", I think!
thanks once again
John

 

[UNG]

I have allocated a colour to every wire now, but I can't agree with the statement that there is a colour for everything within the British Standard.

There doesn't appear to be one for a tachometer fed from a contact breaker - I am intending to use black/blue for this function, which is the colour for one of the wires normally used to supply a tachometer from a generator, so a little adapting, or substitution, will be required.

The 2CV also has a wire from the hazard switch to the flasher unit - I am told that this is peculiar to Citroen, because of their own switch design, and, as a result, there isn't an allocation for that connection.

i suppose that one could say that there is a colour within the British Standard for every wire - except when there isn't !

John

I wouldn't have thought a French Citroen would be wired to British Standard AU7 or am I missing something

 

[Sprag]

Ah!
this is because it's a very British Citroen - he is named "Ethelred", and is a "limper", that is, he only has three wheels.
if you google for Pembletons, you should end up on their forum - if you look on the chassis register you will see both four wheel and three wheel versions - mine is number 39.
all will then be sparkly clear!

 

[Robotstar5]

I bought the Haynes car electrical manual many years ago and that had a full list of the British wiring colours.

A good supplier is Vehicle Wiring Products and I found their non-adhesive loom tape much better than using normal insulating tape for looms as it allows the loom to be flexed easier.

 

[Guest111]

I bought the Haynes car electrical manual many years ago and that had a full list of the British wiring colours.

A good supplier is Vehicle Wiring Products and I found their non-adhesive loom tape much better than using normal insulating tape for looms as it allows the loom to be flexed easier.

I had an ex who made wiring harnesses at volex,the tape they use is only about 10 mm wide,shame really because when she found out I was a spark she offered to get me my tape for free,trouble was it's no good being so narrow.mind you life's full of dissapointments,my ex wife was a very slim blonde and earned her living as a stripper, unfortunately the stripping involved cooked chickens in a factory,still on the up side there was no waste when we had one at home.lol

 

[Neil Harrod]

I wouldn't have thought a French Citroen would be wired to British Standard AU7 or am I missing something

Hi John.
I off line for a couple of days

If you need to be correct the Tacho wire should be white with black trace.
cheers Neil