Wire thickness/size?

Hi, I’ve put a brand new loom in and sorted all the dashboard wiring. I’ve renewed all the starter, battery cables and earth straps too. It just leaves the odd few wires from coil to carbs etc in the engine bay to do. Can anyone tell me what size wire I should order for doing this? Many Thanks

 

1 mm2 is good for about 8 amps and is fine for the chokes and solenoids.

 

As above, 1mm2 or 1.5mm2 will do.

 

Thanks a lot andyv and snotty, will get some ordered!

 

0.5mm, it is meant to burn out in case of a short (usually the choke) before the main loom does.

 

Ha! You're right. Never noticed that before.

 

Ooh that’s interesting. I just made a new daisy chain copying the old wire and it was 1 mm2, so maybe it wasn’t original. I can see the logic. The chokes only draw about 1.8 amps

 

As your putting cable into the engine bay. I suggest using tri rated cable.

 

I'd prefer a fuse, as you might not predict where the cable might burn surely?

 

This

Instal some in-line fuses for peace of mind.

Installing low-rated cable that will melt is a pretty poor way of going, it's not actually protecting the circuit, it's sacrificing it !

 

Careful, ze Germans designed and built it and thus it does not bear scrutiny by ze Tommy's.

 

This is a bit odd. They've not installed fuses on the main wire back to the coil as it's deemed safer that way rather than to have an instant blow out which would cut the engine in traffic. If you then add fuses to the wires which run to the carbs you risk cutting the engine out anyway, though maybe not so immediately.

How do aircraft engineers get round this? I guess they duplicate all the circuits.

 

It's all pretty exposed down the back. I was just surprised VW used thinner gauge cable down the back for the choke and solenoid - 0.5mm2 on the wiring diagram, never noticed it before. 1mm2 better if you're rewiring.

Seemed to be traditional not to fuse the ignition circuit on older vehicles. It's the unfused main feed to the front on a Bay that worries me more ...

 

Yes I checked out the wiring diagrams too. It shows 0.5 mm2, but the likes of Vehicle Wiring Products only do o.5 mm cable in thin wall and show this as good for 11 amps, which would be defeating the object of thinner wire. Where do you get regular non thin wall in 0.5mm2?

 

I used to get 0.5mm2 from Maplins, Durite still do standard cable, 0.65mm2 is the smallest they do, 5A capacity.
https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/66/category/11

 

Just do it in 1mm2