Rear Lights; Wiring Start

There was a choice of rear lights to install, and I wanted to be as authentic as possible to this Land Rover. Photos of the rear of the Land Rover as it was when it arrived didn't give many clues, as it had different lights everywhere. In the end, the flashers for the overseas "America Dollar Area" were chosen, as this was an export model (and they look nice), and as for the red stop lights, at first it was going to be those that match the flashers, as they are listed in the parts catalogue as also being on the export vehicles, but then I realised that they do not have reflectors built in, in which case there would have been holes in the rear surface of the tub for the seperate reflectors. The more-or-less standard stop lights DO have the reflectors - and so I went with those, as this is what the Land Rover would have to have had.

Had to drill some new holes in the capping for the rear lights in any case, as it proved the best way.

At right, the aftermarket plastic license plate illuminator. The plastic cover is held on to the light body by a drive screw only, and the bracket inside is itself quite soft: very easy to strip the drive screw hole by tightening the screw too firmly. The original light is presently being restored, and will take back it's original spot at some point.

Finally a Land Rover again!

What was there before. I believe the left stop light was the only original light left.

Have also made a start on the wiring. First step: Understand what Autosparks had sent, as, like most aftermarket parts, there are no instructions/illustrations to help. You end up with a number of smaller wiring subsets, and no idea what goes where.

At first, I went to the excellent diagram here, very kindly provided by the Series 2 Club. This is helpful for the colours and how the parts connect, but is still visually very different from what you see when first unwrapping the Autosparks loom. However, using the illustration from the parts catalogue soon showed how Autosparks had laid things out, and from there, combined with the above diagram, it's relatively easy.

Noted that some extra connectors will be needed, but will catalogue those once everything else is in place.

Below: looks chaotic, but just laying the looms out loosely, and then labelling all the ends, soon provided order out of the confusion (so far!).

The diagram from the parts catalogue. Depending on your vehicle, it won't look exactly like this (for example, ths illustration does not include flashers and has only one wiper motor, plus LHD has some differences), but the essential layout of the individual loom sections is like this.