The schematics in the TR8 Repair Operation Manual can be mighty hard to read. That separate symbol key is a pain to use, too.
The ROM schematic shown for the 1980 carbureted TR8 is actually for a 1978/1979 TR8 (see below). If you're trying to figure out why your fuel pump suddenly stopped working,
you're not going to get much help there! There are a few other errors scattered around, some of them real howlers.
If it were someone else's car, it would be funny. But it's not, is it?
After Triumph's Speke plant was shut down the bodies were no longer built in-house. Pressed Steel Fisher built and numbered the bodies in one of their plants
(I think the photo is of Castle Bromwich) and then shipped them to Canley and later Solihull for finishing.
Apparently it was not a first-in first-out operation and the cars went down the assembly line in only roughly numerical order.
After the cars left the production line they were often stored for lengthy periods before they received their official sign-off.
As a result, changes in wiring, upholstery and parts in general cannot always be tied to an exact chassis number or even a specific model year.
It appears that quite a few TR7s and TR8s that should have been designated as 1979 models were shipped as 1980s. Understandably, the folks at
BL weren't too concerned about how much trouble things like that would cause for hobbyists in the next century.
So, use the schematic that seems to match your car best. You may have to mix n' match a little. I scoured catalogs and parts lists and put together the
chart at left. It shows which harness was used in which TR8, when. It is almost certainly incorrect somewhere, but is a good starting point if you need to do some serious
electrical reconstruction.
If something seems wrong or weird, pause and double check - do some research.
The documentation for Wedges is often less than perfect. The TR8 ROM sometimes uses illustrations for TR7s - right hand drive ones, at that.
I was very consciencious when I drew the schematics, but no miracles were performed. The switches and other components have been
drawn carefully so that their behavior can be figured out if you zoom in closely and ponder them for a moment.
Wedge electrics contain a lot of very clever engineering (I'm not joking).
Unfortunately to those unfamiliar with it, it looks like one idiotic mistake after another, just begging to be 'set right'. If you don't take
it easy and be smart, you're more likely to set it alight than set it right.
'Right click' on the picture at left or this link and select "Save Target As..." to download
the schematics in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Of course, with the proper browser plugin you can just view it online.
The schematics for all years of TR8 are gathered together in one multipage file.
The drawings in them are not scanned bitmaps, but 'drawn from scratch' vector based material that is extremely detailed.
If your eyes aren't what they used to be, take the PDF to a print shop - they can be printed out at any
size from postcard to billboard with perfect clarity.
