30 January 2005 - Light duties today...

Nasty horrible 1980s alarm this.  No idea how it came to be fitted in this car, because there's a certificate in the paperwork for a Cobra N41 (or NH1) alarm and no evidence of one.  The only reason I started this job was because the central locking packed up and I wanted to find its control unit and diagnose/fix it.  Simply unplugging it and replugging it in solved that but the irritating mass of alien wiring had got my attention by then.

As I was fighting to get at all the cabling to the old alarm I wanted to castrate the person that put it in, but remembered some of the alarms I fitted myself in the early 90s and had to show some respect for the soldered joints around the steering column for indicator flash connections.

This looks like one of those DIY fits that just took advantage of everything that was easy, rather than thinking about how to make it difficult for a thief. All of the connections terminated within about 4 inches of each other including the immobiliser circuit, a single point break in the fuel pump circuit.  So I went snipping the cables from where they were joined to the car loom, that left me with the two grey wires and nothing else connected between the alarm and the car.  Started the engine, let it run for a minute or so and snipped one of the grey wires, 10 seconds later it died as the fuel supply had been cut.  I hope that alarm was never Thatcham approved!

Untidy under here, some bodging where the alarm was fitted and wires were cut behind the fuse box.  Looks like the fragility of the cardboard dashboard dissuaded the last owner from reassembling it correctly - the lights-on warning buzzer (pictured) and a pair of fuses were flapping around instead of being clipped to the base at the rear of the fuse box.

Here's the alarm...   and its connections!

And finally the moment we've all been waiting for.  Bye bye crap.

I've no idea what this plug is for - I'll ask around on that one - its loom goes up into the main loom from the fuse box so could be anything.

So that's done, gave me an opportunity to discover that the drivers footwell was wet under the carpet - the black sound deadening sponge was doing what it does best and holding lots of water.  Drivers seat is now out and the fan heater is doing the business.