[mikebro]

Colin,

Firstly, Autosparks in the UK do a wiring loom for the 403. I have used one successfully. However, their loom ends up a bit thicker than the original, so I had to enlarge some of the holes through the bulkhead and use larger grommets. I had been told by someone else who had done an Aerodyne restoration that the main part of the loom had to be wired to the dashboard in situ in the car, with the windscreen not fitted. I decided to see if that was really necessary, as my windscreen was already fitted, and I was sure that wiring up on the bench would be infinitely preferable. I was able to remove the old loom complete with the dashboard without undoing any wires at the dashboard end. In which case I reckoned it would be possible to wire up the new (main part) loom to the dashboard on the bench. This I did, then reversed the sequence of pulling out the old loom and dashboard. Please don't ask me for detail on this! If your old loom is out already, I doubt you will be able to visualise how to thread the various bits of loom back in.

Regarding the 2.5v bulb and fitting - the bulb is a once very familiar standard hand torch bulb which draws 200mA. These are still available on (eg) Ebay, but be quick, as they are being rapidly replaced with LED torches. The Lucas bulb holders with the built in dropper resistor I don't think are still available and last time I did see replicas, they looked like the originals, but the dropper resistor was a dummy one. If you want to retain the 2.5v bulb, use a standard bulb holder but wire a dropper resistor in series. My calculation shows that about 50 Ohms at 2.5W should be about right to keep 200mA flowing through the bulb, but please get this checked as I did all this several years ago.

Regarding how to get the other two 2.5v bulbs and holders out, this is another good reason to get the dashboard out of the car. It's only a few 2BA screws and you'll be able to get at everything. Good Luck! Mike