Basic wire color guidelines 2

[retrotech]

Is there such a thing as a "basic automotive wiring color standard"?

I have designed and built an electrical system for a large piece of turf-maintenance equipment that is now in production. Now I need to go back and make changes, and I would like to make it as easy as possible for a service tech to work on later.

 

[GregLocock]

I'd guess if there was then the SAE might publish something on it, or there may even be a MIL standard for it.

Most of the stuff I work on seems to use Black, red, Black with a red stripe and red with a black stripe.




Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[thruthefence]

You might want to use Lucas' wire codes, found here:

http://www.team.net/sol/tech/LucasColours.html

then again, maybe not.

 

[retrotech]

Thanks....The Brits seem to be the only one with a published standard, so maybe I'll just use it.

Or maybe I'll write my own standard....(oh yeah...the electronic world needs MY help)

 

[IceStationZebra]

You didn't mention which country/continent, so I will assume US. I have worked in off-road engineering for >14yrs and have not come across any wiring color standards, SAE or ISO. Two of the companies I worked for did have their own internal standard, but it always gets compromised when you have to add a new widget or feature. So it works OK for your standard circuits (engine start, charging, lights, seat switch, etc.) but not for the other circuits.

I have worked on countless brands of machines and reviewed manuals from many others. CaseIH and Hyster/Yale use a type of ladder layout that works good for understanding the particular circuit and keeps all the circuit components on one page, but doesn't show where the component is in the vehicle. (grounds run along the bottom of the page, supplies on the top) Most use a compressed line drawing that spills over multiple pages that is hard to follow - till I get out my markers :-(. What I value most is an ACCURATE READABLE wiring diagram.(and many miss one and/or the other!) The second most helpful thing is circuit numbers on the wires. With both color and numbers there should be no confusion.

One story - I spend one whole day trying figure out why a track loader would not move. It was obviously something wrong with the safety interlock and I suspected a relay. There were 3 different versions of the wiring circuit depending on VIN#, and none of them matched so I had to trace the wires with my DMM. And to make matters worse they hid the damn relay under a bolt on kick panel but didn't show it in the manual! Not happy. Should have been a 20 minute job that my technician could have figured out.

ISZ

 

[retrotech]

With "service-ability" in mind, those are the problems I hoped to prevent on this machine. Just thought if there was a commonly referred-to plan for wire colors (from someone like Deere, Cat, or AGCO) I would try to stick with their plan.

Sorry I didn't mention it, but this a US company I work for.

Thanks for the help!

 

[GregLocock]

There is an SAE standard for engine wiring for CIM

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.