Category Archives: Electrics

Series Land Rover Wiring Colours

Posted on by

I need to tidy up some of the wiring in the engine bay as there has been a lot of bodges in the past. There are all sorts of wires that have incorrect colour codes in there that go nowhere and I’ll be pulling everything out and starting again.

The headlights have relays and I am now moving them into a waterproof box along with a relay for the electric fan. 

For reference here is an extensive list of the cable colour codes for Series Land Rovers:

BLACK CABLE
Black/ Purple          – Temperature switch to warning light
Black/ Green           – Relay to radiator fan motor, windscreen wiper switch to single speed wiper motor.
Black/ Light Green  – Brake switch
Black/ Light Green  – Brake differential pressure valve to warning light
Black/Orange          – Radiator fan motor to thermal switch
Black/Red                – From 3 prong flasher unit to flasher light
Black/White             – Flasher unit light to ground


BLUE CABLE
Blue                       – Headlamp switch to dimmer switch
Blue White            – Headlight high beams, Dimmer switch to long-range driving light switch
Blue/ White            – High beam dimmer switch to high beam indicator lamp
Blue/ Light Green – Windscreen wiper switch to motor
Blue/ Red              – Headlight low beams
Blue/ Yellow          – Long range driving lamp switch to lamp

BROWN CABLE
Brown/Yellow           – GEN ‘D’ to volt. Regulator ‘D’. Ignition warning light
Brown/ Blue             – power feed to headlamp switch and voltage regulator to ignition switch
Brown/ White           – Ammeter to main alternator terminal, or voltage regulator
Brown/ Yellow          – Alternator to ‘no charge’ warning light
Brown/ Purple          – Alternator Regulator feed
Brown/ Green          – Fuse to horn (No relay), Generator ‘F’ to voltage regulator ‘F’
Brown/ Light Green – Windscreen wiper motor to switch
Brown/ Black           – Horn to horn button (no relay)

GREEN CABLE
Green/ Black    – Fuel gauge to fuel tank unit (Light green/black for vehicles with voltage stabilizer)
Green/ Orange – fuel low level warning light to sensor on fuel tank
Green/ Slate     – Heater motor to fast position on 2 speed heater switch
Green/ Blue      – Water temperature gauge to temperature sender unit (Light green/black for vehicles with voltage stabilizer)
Green/ Blue      – low fuel warning light to fuel sender unit.
Green/ Brown   – Switch to reverse lamp
Green/ Red       – Direction indicator switch to left-hand flasher lamps
Green/ Purple   – Stop lamp switch to stop lamps
Green/ White    – Direction indicator switch to right hand flasher lamps
Green/ Yellow   – Heater switch to slow speed on heater motor or for single speed motor
Green/ Yellow   – oil pressure light to oil pressure switch
Green/ Gray      – Heater switch to high speed on heater motor

LIGHT GREEN CABLE
Light Green              – choke cable mechanical switch to carburetter heater element (Solex optional fitment)
Light Green/ Black   – Windscreen washer switch to washer motor
Light Green/ Blue     – Flasher switch to left-hand flasher warning light
Light Green/ Yellow  – Flasher switch to right-hand flasher warning light
Light Green/ Brown  – Flasher switch to flasher unit ‘L’
Light Green/ Purple  – Flasher unit ‘F’ to flasher warning light
Light Green/ Orange – Rear window washer switch to motor
Light Green/ Red      – Fuel mixture light to fuel mixture thermostat switch (vech. with carb heater)

ORANGE CABLE
Orange/ Black          – Wiper switch to to motor parking
Orange/ Blue            – Wiper switch to low speed on motor
Orange/ Green         – Wiper switch to high speed on motor
Orange/ Yellow         – Rear wiper switch to rear wiper motor
Orange/ Light Green – switch to rear window motor parking

PURPLE CABLE
Purple/ Brown – Horn fuse to horn relay when horn is fused separately
Purple/ Red    – Switches to map light, under bonnet light, glove box light and boot lamp when fed direct from battery fuse

RED CABLE
Red/ Yellow  – Fog light switch to fog light or front fog light fuse to fog lights
Red/ Blue     – Front fog light fuse to fog light switch
Red/ Brown  – Rear fog guard switch to lamps
Red Orange – Power to rear fog guard lamp fuse
Red/ White   – Fuse to instrument lamp switch, Instrument panel lamps

WHITE CABLE
White               – Power to coil, fuse to cold running light (vech. w/o carb heater)
White               – Power to electric fuel pump
White/ Black   – Ignition coil to distributor
White/ Black   – Distributor side of coil to tach impulse sensor
White/ Black   – Mechanical choke cable mounted switch to cold running thermostat switch (1960’s vehicle without carb heater)
White/ Yellow  – Mechanical switch on choke cable to thermostat switch( in 1970’s, white black earlier)
White/ Brown  – Oil pressure switch to warning light or gauge
White/ Blue     – Cold running light to mechanical switch on choke cable (vehicle without carb heater) (light blue in 1970’s)
White/ Pink     – Ignition switch to radio fuse
White/ Red      – Ignition switch or starter switch to starter solenoid

YELLOW CABLE
Yellow             – Dynamo ‘D’ to voltage regulator ‘D’, Voltage regulator ‘D’ to gen. light on instrument panel
Yellow/ Green – Dynamo ‘F’ to control box ‘F’ Alternator field ‘F’ to control box ‘F


Clear Hooters Ltd Horn from a Series 2

Posted on by


Found this lovely old horn attached to a S3 front panel I’ve just bought to repair – it was covered in muck and rust and I didn’t hold much hope it was still working, however I’ve tested it on a battery and it honks like a good ‘un. It’s a Clear Hooters Ltd Low Tone horn that were fitted to S2s as far as I’m aware in the late 50s / early 60s. Have cleaned up the back cover which was very rusty and given it a coat of paint,I’ve left the other side as I quite like the patina!

Clear Hooters Low ToneClear Hooters Low ToneClear Hooters Low Tone20141009_213140_120141009_213157_1Clear Hooters Low ToneClear Hooters Low Tone

New thermostat & voltage stabiliser

Posted on by


My temperature gauge has been a bit erratic for a while and I’ve suspected the thermostat has been stuck open as the temp gauge takes ages to warm up, never gets past the N mark and then drops very low on long steady runs, if the thermostat is working correctly the needle should get up to temp and stay there. I removed the thermostat housing to find the old stat was stuck partially open so replaced it with a new genuine 88 degree thermostat (ERR2803). A stuck stat is not just an over cooling problem but it was not opening fully either so the engine could potentially get too hot.

With the new thermostat the engine seemed much happier and the heater was very warm. However after a couple of miles the temperature gauge needle was in the red. I have an infra red thermometer that you can point at an object and it tells you the temperature (highly recommend these, very helpful for all sorts of things) so I tested the thermostat housing and it was showing 88 degrees, which is more or less the normal operating temp for a 200TDI so obviously the guage was reading incorrectly. I have a series temp sender in the 200TDI with the adaptor for the TDI engine so that should be matched to the Series guage ok. While opening up the clocks in the dash I found the voltage stabilser was loose in the back, it should be bolted to the back of the speedo as the casing itself needs earthing for it to work correctly. The stabiliser should give a steady 10v to the temp and fuel gauges, as the voltage from the alternator can vary, therefore you’d have varying guage readings depending on the voltage so the stabiliser’s job is to give a steady 10v. As my stabilser was giving the full alternator voltage (13.7v in my case) to the temperature and fuel gauge they were therefore over reading. Once the stabilser was earthed again the temp gauge was reading normal at the correct operating temperature as it should. The bad news is I had less fuel than I thought I had!

Below are pics of the standard series 3 voltage stabliser that should be bolted to the back of the speedo, there are a set of two female connectors and a set of two male. The positive from the fuse box goes to one male spade and one female spade (supplying 10v) goes to the temperature gauge and from there onto the temperature guage. As mentioned before the case needs to earthed for it to work correctly.

Series 3 Voltage StabilserSeries 3 Voltage Stabiliser

While I was at it I decided to upgrade the stabiliser to a solid state modern version that is a bit more reliable and accurate, bought this one on eBay for a tenner – it is a direct replacement & a five minute job to swap over:

new solid state voltage stabilser