Electrical Panel - Need advise!

[WannaBeFast]

I started making this electrical panel to mount all my components. I need some advise how to arrange all the buses.

The fuse box location is final. Everything else can move around including the relay box.

I don't know how much room I need between the buses - in the same time I don't want to take up all the space with them.

If you have any pictures please post them up.

Also can the solenoid be mounted sideways or is that a no-go?

Thanks in advance!

[digitalsolo]

I don't see any reason a solenoid can't be mounted in any direction you want.

[WannaBeFast]

I didn't know if it uses gravity or not.

[Jordan Innovations]

Lol the solenoid can be mounted any way you want, uses magnetism to move an armature.

Panel looks good, but is that supposed to be a ground distribution block?  If so, not necessary unless your car is actually a fiberglass boat or something.

How much room you need is determined by how big the connectors are (those look like spades?) and how big the wire is, meaning how tightly it wants to turn.

[WannaBeFast]

Ok great advise!

And yes there are two ground distributor blocks - one heavier gauge than the other. If I don't need them then it's even better.


I still like tO see some pics so I can get some new idears!

[digitalsolo]

Get on YellowBullet.   There is a huge thread with racecar wiring.    Great for ideas.   

[ALLslowNOshow]

Get on YellowBullet.   There is a huge thread with racecar wiring.    Great for ideas.   

Link to this thread?

[Supe]

You may not need a ground bus, but they sure can make a difference with sensitive electronics, e.g. the MSD digital boxes. 

[WannaBeFast]

I thought about very hard and this is what i came up with. I left plenty of room for future add- ons as I go through EE school.

I installed all the buses - why not - I already paid for them - and they are going to be bridged together.

The location is super accessible - since I made my dash very high.

I will make a dimpled cover with butterfly nuts.

[Jordan Innovations]

I really like that location!  Panel looks great.

[WannaBeFast]

Thank you.

The panel was the easy part. Now I have to figure out how it all goes together.

[Jordan Innovations]

Thank you.

The panel was the easy part. Now I have to figure out how it all goes together.

Haha I figured you'd know that before you picked out parts to put on the panel?  As long as you vibration-isolate that ARC relay block you should be fine there, the Painless fuse panel only has that one relay, but at least it has both flashers. 

I hate trying to conform my designs to those boxes so I generally don't use them, but if you use their wire/circuits for the intended stuff the printed wire is a nice bonus.  If you want to post up a design we can take a look at it before you wire it all together?

[WannaBeFast]

If you want to post up a design we can take a look at it before you wire it all together?

I didn't understand this part? I don't have any design - I was just going to hook up everything like a hot rod.

I would like to hear you idea since I know nothing about this stuff. I just go with intuition.

[Jordan Innovations]

Usually you'd want to draw it out on paper so you know what devices need power (or signals) under which conditions/etc, and hopefully you'll know how much power they each draw and an approx run length so you can choose wire size. 

Wiring things up 'as you go'/one wire at a time leads to messy wiring in the best case, and stuff that's unsafe or just plain doesn't work how it's supposed to most of the time.

[WannaBeFast]

OK it makes sense.

I need to spend more time looking at the wiring and will start drawing a diagram just like you suggested.