The Simps
14-05-08, 10:14 PM
Depending on what nova model you start with will depend on how easy this will be. Vauxhalls normal setup is to have 2 main looms. One for all the lights, interior, radiator, fans etc and one for the engine. These 2 looms are then connected by a few plugs. Some nova models are like this and some aren't like the SRi & SPi where these 2 looms are integral. If you have an integral loom it is worth spending the time cutting it all out. It will leave you with half dozen permanent & ignition lives and earths but this is not a bad thing as they can be used for guages etc later on.
Once you've removed your loom, whether integral or not, you should only be left with but a few wires:-
black,
red,
large red/blue,
green.
You will also need a blue wire which is the coolant temp sensor. This will be in with lights and runs along the front panel. Bring it in back thru the car and up to the dash. You are now ready to get soldering!
XE/LET Loom
Your Engine loom will have 3 little plugs near the ECU - 2 black and a green if its come from a mk3 astra, cavalier or calibra. If its from a mk2 astra I'll deal with this later. Hopefully, whereever you have got the loom from will have also given you the connectors they go into and a length of wire so you can make a plug and play loom. If not, rather than cutting up the engine loom I suggest you go to a scrappy and find any mk3 astra/cav/calibra and cut the plugs out the car loom. By wiring in on this basis whenever you change the engine whether its to an XE or LET it will be a simple plug n play.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/3Plugs.jpg
All you need to connect up is:-
Large Red/blue - Large Red/blue (for the fuel pump)
Blue - Blue (coolant sender wire. On your loom it will run across the front member with the lights and to the back of the dash. Pull this back thru into the car and connect up to the plug. The engine loom has its own connection to the sender within its loom)
Brown/blue - Brown/blue (this is for the engine warning light. Depending on what dash display you use you take this wire from the back of the dash and connect up to the plug)
Green - Green (rev counter. Take from back of dash.)
Black - Black (the ignition live connect up on the XE/LET loom you will find is a single wire around the gearbox area of the loom. It should be in its own little single plug but these tend to get cut so you may find you have just a single black wire somewhere between the end of the loom and the end of the fuel rail. You can either feed an ignition live from the nova loom into the bay and connect it up there, tap into a feed near the ECU (you will need to suitably seal off the wire in the bay and tape up in the loom) or run the wire back down the loom (you'll need to solder and extend it) into the car so you keep all your connections in the footwell.
The engine loom has its own wire that goes to the battery terminal for permanet live so thats sorted.
Diagnostic Plug
If you can it is better to connect this up as you WILL be needing it to fault find at some point in your LET lifetime. If you havn't got one already, get one from someone else or a scrap vehicle. It has 5 wires - red, brown, brown/blue, brown/white & brown/yellow. It looks like this:-
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/P2180071.jpg
You can use one of your spare red & brown wires that you have behind the dash to connect up to it, or run a new wire straight to the battery and one to a good earth or just tap into existing wires. The other 3 wires connect up to there corresponding colours in the green small plug (the brown/blue for ECU light will obviously have to have 2 wires joined into it so you can still run the dash light).
And you are all wired up! Wasn't that suprisingly easy? There are more wires within the 3 plugs but they aren't needed on a nova. The diagram below shows there purpose and also a pin layout reference.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/letwiringdiagram3plugskd4.jpg
Wiring up Starter, Alternator etc
This is very easy as you just use the wires that are already there in the mini loom on the nova. YOU DO NOT NEED THE BIG ROUND PLUG FROM THE DONOR CAR!!
If Converting From a mk2 Astra GTE 16v
The mk2 astra didn't use the 3 plugs as above instead its main connections are in one plug in the engine bay:-
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Mechanical/ConnectorXE-Starter.jpg
You've got 2 choices here.
1. Run your wires thru and connect them up in the plug. Connections are the same as above if you get the other half of the plug if not and you cut off the engine loom plug the large [color="Blue"]blue is for the fuel pump and ignition live is black/Yellow.
2. Get the male part of the GTE plug (car loom part), male part of the 3 loom plug and the female part from an old engine loom. You can then leave your main connections on the nova loom by the footwell to the 3 little plugs then make up a mini loom to go into those 3 plugs and run thru to the engine bay. Sounds like a lot of hardwork but will mean if you have to got another XE or LET chances are it will have the 3 plug system (mk2 astra's are getting rarer) so will be easier to fit rather than pulling all the dash apart again. Do things right the 1st time!
Any Other Issues
If you are planning on using an ignition live in the engine bay rather than behind the dash to connect up to the single round ignition plug, on the 1.0ltr loom the black wire that goes to the coil isnt useable. It has a resistor inline and stops the wire giving 12v so you need to use a different one. You can use the black/purple from the wiper motor plug.
Simps.
:thumb:
Once you've removed your loom, whether integral or not, you should only be left with but a few wires:-
black,
red,
large red/blue,
green.
You will also need a blue wire which is the coolant temp sensor. This will be in with lights and runs along the front panel. Bring it in back thru the car and up to the dash. You are now ready to get soldering!
XE/LET Loom
Your Engine loom will have 3 little plugs near the ECU - 2 black and a green if its come from a mk3 astra, cavalier or calibra. If its from a mk2 astra I'll deal with this later. Hopefully, whereever you have got the loom from will have also given you the connectors they go into and a length of wire so you can make a plug and play loom. If not, rather than cutting up the engine loom I suggest you go to a scrappy and find any mk3 astra/cav/calibra and cut the plugs out the car loom. By wiring in on this basis whenever you change the engine whether its to an XE or LET it will be a simple plug n play.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/3Plugs.jpg
All you need to connect up is:-
Large Red/blue - Large Red/blue (for the fuel pump)
Blue - Blue (coolant sender wire. On your loom it will run across the front member with the lights and to the back of the dash. Pull this back thru into the car and connect up to the plug. The engine loom has its own connection to the sender within its loom)
Brown/blue - Brown/blue (this is for the engine warning light. Depending on what dash display you use you take this wire from the back of the dash and connect up to the plug)
Green - Green (rev counter. Take from back of dash.)
Black - Black (the ignition live connect up on the XE/LET loom you will find is a single wire around the gearbox area of the loom. It should be in its own little single plug but these tend to get cut so you may find you have just a single black wire somewhere between the end of the loom and the end of the fuel rail. You can either feed an ignition live from the nova loom into the bay and connect it up there, tap into a feed near the ECU (you will need to suitably seal off the wire in the bay and tape up in the loom) or run the wire back down the loom (you'll need to solder and extend it) into the car so you keep all your connections in the footwell.
The engine loom has its own wire that goes to the battery terminal for permanet live so thats sorted.
Diagnostic Plug
If you can it is better to connect this up as you WILL be needing it to fault find at some point in your LET lifetime. If you havn't got one already, get one from someone else or a scrap vehicle. It has 5 wires - red, brown, brown/blue, brown/white & brown/yellow. It looks like this:-
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/P2180071.jpg
You can use one of your spare red & brown wires that you have behind the dash to connect up to it, or run a new wire straight to the battery and one to a good earth or just tap into existing wires. The other 3 wires connect up to there corresponding colours in the green small plug (the brown/blue for ECU light will obviously have to have 2 wires joined into it so you can still run the dash light).
And you are all wired up! Wasn't that suprisingly easy? There are more wires within the 3 plugs but they aren't needed on a nova. The diagram below shows there purpose and also a pin layout reference.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/letwiringdiagram3plugskd4.jpg
Wiring up Starter, Alternator etc
This is very easy as you just use the wires that are already there in the mini loom on the nova. YOU DO NOT NEED THE BIG ROUND PLUG FROM THE DONOR CAR!!
If Converting From a mk2 Astra GTE 16v
The mk2 astra didn't use the 3 plugs as above instead its main connections are in one plug in the engine bay:-
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Mechanical/ConnectorXE-Starter.jpg
You've got 2 choices here.
1. Run your wires thru and connect them up in the plug. Connections are the same as above if you get the other half of the plug if not and you cut off the engine loom plug the large [color="Blue"]blue is for the fuel pump and ignition live is black/Yellow.
2. Get the male part of the GTE plug (car loom part), male part of the 3 loom plug and the female part from an old engine loom. You can then leave your main connections on the nova loom by the footwell to the 3 little plugs then make up a mini loom to go into those 3 plugs and run thru to the engine bay. Sounds like a lot of hardwork but will mean if you have to got another XE or LET chances are it will have the 3 plug system (mk2 astra's are getting rarer) so will be easier to fit rather than pulling all the dash apart again. Do things right the 1st time!
Any Other Issues
If you are planning on using an ignition live in the engine bay rather than behind the dash to connect up to the single round ignition plug, on the 1.0ltr loom the black wire that goes to the coil isnt useable. It has a resistor inline and stops the wire giving 12v so you need to use a different one. You can use the black/purple from the wiper motor plug.
Simps.
:thumb: