German WW 2 wire color code

[0311]

I'm replicating, trying to anyway, the wire that serviced the engine compartment on my BF 109. I have this tech manual,

 

 

But it's written in German (As you can see) and the wiring diagrams provided don't show anything that I think would represent wire color for the individual componants. I really would like all this tedious work to stand out and be correct.

 

 

Also, does anyone know what the cap with the hose coming off it was on the top (bottom) of the engine? I'm guessing it was the oil breather and so would empty back into the engine block somewhere, but I can't seem to find anything about the hose routing in the manual.

Thanks, Jim.

[LSP_Ray]

There was a wire/hose color code sheet posted here a while ago, I think it was posted by Alan in Austria. Might try a search. I'll re-post it if I can find it.

[PhilB]

Jim,

Although its the later 605, the pipes from the cap have connections back into the system.

 

 

Here's a couple of pics from a previous build:

 

HTH

 

Phil

[Radub]

If you mean electrical wires, there was no rule as such.

Most wires were insulated with plastic of various colours and I have seen yellow, red and white insulation on such wires. For example, the Ju88 that Guttorm is working featured only red insulation, not a single yellow piece of insulation in sight. But Guttorm also showed me yellow insulation from a Messerschmitt. No rule, really. It seems that manufacturers sourced their own electrical cabling according to their own needs.

HOWEVER, the plastic insulation was seldom visible. Most wires were bundled inside a woven metal "tube" that shielded against all interference and offered some protection against damage. The above-mentioned plastic insulation on the Ju88 cables was visible only after the metal woven "tube" was stripped. These "tubes" were around 10mm in diameter in real life, and these would be visible enough in scale 1/32 as 0.3mm wires - these should be a dull natural metal in colour. There were some instances of single strands of wire featuring coloured plastic insulation visible - these wires were 4mm thick in real life, in scale 1/32, they would be 0.125mm in thickness. The best thing to do is to check your references and photos.

 

Here is a photo of the Ju88 wiring and protective mesh that I took when I visited Guttorm.

 

The colour code that was mentioned before is for conduits/pipes/tubing and the official diagrams identifying the colours was published in Kenneth Merrick's "Luftwaffe Camouflage and Markings 1933 - 1945, Volume two", pages 424 and 425. These were used to identify the purpose of various pipes and what they carried, such as blue with two white stripes for breathing oxygen, blue with two red stripes for compressed air for armament, yellow for fuel, brown for oil, green for coolant, etc. This was a quick identification guide that avoided any mishaps. These colours were also painted around the instrument bezels and ancillaries - Oxygen bezels were painted blue, fuel bezels were painted yellow, fuel pump handle was painted yellow, oil bezels were painted brown and so on.

Another common mistake you see is when people paint in yellow all conduits, tubes, wires, every filiform item in the cockpit or gun compartment - you often see that at the back of instrument panels. In conduits, yellow symbolised "fuel" and as such ONLY those instruments relating to fuel should have yellow conduits. But most of the times, those conduits leading to instrument panels were simply black with a little tag identifying their purpose.

 

 

HTH

Radu

[0311]

Thanks, sounds like color code identification for engine fluids is universal and hasn't changed from grandpa's generation to mine when I was dealing with military vehicles (marine craft). If so this makes it easier for me, because I still have all my course books with such information (memory slips after 20+ years). The hard part will be identifying the different system components. I guess I'll be learning a lot of German words as I translate the manual.

 

The loom you speak of sounds like the old stuff used in buildings years ago, can't remember right off the top of my head what were on the diesels in the waterborne vessels I was on. But I noticed some of the engine and weapons assemblies having a single lead off a controlling mechanism, the cowling gun interrupter for example. It's these single leads that I was referring to as far as color coding. It's great to hear they weren't hung up on tracing the wiring too much. I can dig that since none of my referrences are in color.

 

I have plenty of yellow wire that can fit scaled down 10 gage.

 

Phil, can you tell me if the return is for oil?

 

This helps a great deal, thanks all.

[CharlesMetz]

Here is a photo of the Ju88 wiring and protective mesh that I took when I visited Guttorm.

Because of my love for the Ju 88, I keep an exact, fully operational replica of that wiring beneath the desk at which I'm typing this post.

 

Charles Metz

[LSP_K2]

Because of my love for the Ju 88, I keep an exact, fully operational replica of that wiring beneath the desk at which I'm typing this post.

 

Charles Metz

My pile looks equally ratty.

[Radub]

Because of my love for the Ju 88, I keep an exact, fully operational replica of that wiring beneath the desk at which I'm typing this post.

Charles Metz

 

Yeah... me too! It is like a snake pit with all cables for the monitor, power, printer, keyboard, mouse...

 

Anyway, here is a photo of the back of the Ju88 instrument panel. As you can see, the electrical cables are dull metal and the conduits are colour coded.

 

 

HTH

Radu

[0311]

Without a color code on these wire hogs I'd hate to have been the one to track down a short. "Which black wire is it?"

[LSP_Ray]

Here is diagram I talked about. Yes, it is really for piping.

[LSP_Ron]

Yeah... me too! It is like a snake pit with all cables for the monitor, power, printer, keyboard, mouse...

 

Anyway, here is a photo of the back of the Ju88 instrument panel. As you can see, the electrical cables are dull metal and the conduits are colour coded.

 

 

HTH

Radu

 

That's exactly what it looks like under the dash of my 57 chev!