Page 1 of 1

It has (re)started

Posted: 25 Apr 2016 21:58
by scribe
Don't post on here as much as I intend to. It's a great forum and needs to be supported. Thanks to all who have offered advice in the past and in the future I hope to be one of those offering it rather than just asking questions.

Anyway, so now I've officially declared the winter hiatus over, I've returned to stripping my DHC down into it's component parts. I only have a few hours every weekend so progress is slow. This weekend saw the wiring loom come out. My word there's a lot of wires in that thing for such an old car :shock:

Does anyone know if Triumph officially offered any sort of alarm and immobiliser as an optional extra?

Mine is one of the later TR7s registered in 1982, and has a Laserline (I think that's what it's called) alarm and immobiliser that I thought was aftermarket, but to be honest now the loom is out, it seems pretty integral to the wiring. It's either factory or a very professional install. Any ideas?

I'm pretty certain the loom is shot. When I was (gently as I could) rolling it up for storage I could hear it crunch and crack. I suppose these things do get a brittle after 34 years.

I hope someone out there makes new looms - don't fancy having to make one myself. It's been a long time since I did something like that (not for cars, but the principle is the same) and I didn't enjoy it that much :)

Re: It has (re)started

Posted: 25 Apr 2016 22:18
by supercass
An alarm may have been offered as an extra by a dealer but I can not recall it appearing on the official optional extra list. Not in the U.K. anyway. As for an immobilizer I doubt that for practical purposes such a thing was available at that time for a reasonable cost. supercass

Re: It has (re)started

Posted: 25 Apr 2016 22:24
by scribe
supercass wrote:As for an immobilizer I doubt that for practical purposes such a thing was available at that time for a reasonable cost. supercass


Thanks for replying.

That was my first thought too. It does seem like the loom was made with it in place, but perhaps it really was just a very professional install.

Anyway it's a moot point; like I said, the loom seems shot now. I'll worry about that bridge when I get that far :)

Re: It has (re)started

Posted: 26 Apr 2016 02:13
by FI Spyder
Wiring harnesses aren't cheap. Don't know about UK sources (different harness for RH drive cars but you can get a sense of prices here:
http://www.britishwiring.com/category-s/155.htm

I would tend to want to make up my own on a piece of plywood using the old one as a template, solder the ends rather than just pressure clip. It would be time consuming but you would learn a lot about the wiring of the car. But that's just me. Gives you an option of using modern sealed plugs if originality doesn't trump reliability.

Re: It has (re)started

Posted: 26 Apr 2016 20:25
by scribe
FI Spyder wrote:Wiring harnesses aren't cheap. Don't know about UK sources (different harness for RH drive cars but you can get a sense of prices here:
http://www.britishwiring.com/category-s/155.htm

I would tend to want to make up my own on a piece of plywood using the old one as a template, solder the ends rather than just pressure clip. It would be time consuming but you would learn a lot about the wiring of the car. But that's just me. Gives you an option of using modern sealed plugs if originality doesn't trump reliability.


Converting $ to £, that's pretty much what I expected one to cost. Like I said, I could make one, but I never enjoyed doing that sort of thing. If I can't afford it when the time comes (I'll have probably just coughed up for a new paint job), then I may have to revisit the task to see if my opinion has changed :)