Electrical

Wiring Diagram Tutorial

> I'm having some difficulties reading and understanding the wiring diagrams in
> the service manual, especially some of the letters and numbers used
> and what they refer to, like the Central Electrical System Diagram...
> I figured the A~W boxes with the phantom lines around them are the
> connectors at the bottom of the fuse panel, but what do the numbers in
> the boxes, etc. refer to?

These are the position numbers within the connector, top to bottom, at least as near as I can figure. I also check the color code before I stab into the back of the connector, just to be sure.

> Also, what do the outside grid lines with numbers vertically and
> letters horizontally refer to?

There's a plan and view drawing of the car that identifies the location of the connectors, etc in three dimensions. The devices in the schematic have coordinates on them that locate them in the plan/view grids you mention. The idea is that you can identify a particular wire connector in the schematic, then go to the plan/view to see exactly where it is on the car. This was a big help recently when I was chasing A/C electrical gremlins, but it took me a few minutes to figure it out.

> Am I to assume the Central Electrical System is the same thing as the
> Fuse / Relay panel?......etc........

One and the same!

> FWIW, I made a bunch of copies of the manual schematics, so that I can
> use a highlighter to trace problem curcuits, etc., and not trash my originals.

Great idea! I took the step of scanning in the schematics, and blowing them up into 'D'-size panels. For the A/C system, I carefully highlighted the critical stuff and my "improvements" in Autocad. Highlighter is easier, and would be my first choice after all the work in Acad. But, I have a large format scanner that needs to pay for itself, so...

Of course, I'm hoping that all that work will be for naught, and that the car will last forever without any real electrical problems.

*dr bob