Land Rover Monthly

Fitting a wiring loom

This Defender’s chassis loom came adri and wrapped around the propeller sha . Trevor Cuthbert demonstrat­es the foolproof way to t a new one . . .

- CONTRIBUTO­R TREVOR CUTHBERT

The best way to fit a chassis loom

IT goes with the territory of working on or rebuilding Land Rovers that I get called out from time to time to recover stricken Defenders. On the evening when I was called to this particular vehicle, the owners told me on the telephone that they were on their way to collect their touring caravan when suddenly, a “horrible squeaking noise” developed from below, and they subsequent­ly discovered the rear lights were no longer working.

On crawling underneath the stranded Defender with a flashlight, the problem was immediatel­y apparent. There was a total mess of wiring wrapped around the front propeller shaft. The Land Rover was duly winched onto the low loader and taken to my workshop for further investigat­ion and repair.

What initiated the ripping of the chassis loom from along the top of the chassis rail and around the front propeller shaft multiple times isn’t known, but all it will have taken is one single wire or even some loose insulation to set off the reaction. The result was catastroph­ic for the wiring loom, where more than half of its length had been ripped away.

The remaining part of the loom on the rear section of the chassis rail was also now loose, having been stretched from whatever securing ties had been there. The owners of the Land Rover had also complained that the lights on the caravan, which they frequently towed, were intermitte­nt and unreliable. This is not surprising, as the connection­s of the trailer electrics to the chassis loom were very poorly executed and were unprotecte­d. Wiring connection­s should always be properly made, and all wiring well secured against vibration and to prevent it being caught by objects beneath the vehicle. The main wiring loom from the front to the back of the chassis is always safest when routed inside the chassis section, as Land Rover intended. Here’s how it’s done correctly.

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