MatraSport Forum

Hi

I have in the best Microsoft Paint fashion put my old wiring diagrams from my German repair manual together into a complete diagram, in a decent size, without most of my oily finger prints  ;)

I have attached the diagram in a small .jpg format and a large in .tif format.

Regards Frederik Moes

I have cleaned the wiring diagram a little, here is the new one.

 - Frederik

The problem with those Matra diagrams are all the mistakes in them!  And the one you have provided is so poor that I defy anyone to try to trace the circuits - particularly where all the lines merge into a black mess!  And the instrument panel is just as bad with large areas of black where you can't tell one thing from another!

Update: after many hours I have now converted that tiff file into something that would be much more usable with better clarity and most mistakes corrected, see attached sample. (but please don't try to use this as it is just meant to show what it should have been like!)  The diagrams I normally supply are larger and even clearer as I don't use those originals where everything was packed too close and became confusing!

For years I have produced accurate Murena wiring diagrams because the originals had faults in them.  Just recently someone asked if I had one for a Bagheera.  As I've never had a Bagheera, I couldn't really check the accuracy of any wiring diagrams against the actual cars, so never even studied a Bagheera diagram until now.  However, I do have an RTA (Revue Technique Automobile) manual for the Bagheera, so I carefully studied the various wiring diagrams in it, against my knowledge of electrics, wiring diagrams in general, plus the layout of the car and photos of things like the instrument panel, and I easily found over 20 mistakes in them and the keys to them.  I wasn't sure if the RTA diagram was a copy of the official Matra one or not, but as you say here that this diagram is from the official German manual, then it appears the RTA version is a copy of the Matra one.

That being the case, how did they allow so many mistakes to get through to print?  The instrument panel is the worst part with just about all the warning lights labelled up incorrectly, and the key to that diagram is hopeless with many items in the diagram, missing from it, as well as some in the key that don't exist in the diagram.  I have spent several days correcting all the faults I can see, even without an actual car to double check things against.

I'll give you just one example.  The Ignition switch has three wires to it labelled '1', '2' and '19'.  Circuit 1 is the live 12v feed to the switch.  Circuit 2, with a suffix 2, is the feed out when you turn the key to the ignition position; and circuit 19 is the feed to the starter motor solenoid to start the engine.  However, when you try to trace the circuit 2 from the switch it doesn't appear to go anywhere!  It should split at some point and feed unfused, the coil, but the coil is fed by circuit 3 suffix 3; and it should feed many other items but via a fuse, such as the wipers, etc.

However, the 3 fuses are labelled 'circuit 1' 12v input and on the fused output side 'circuit 2' with no suffix, to feed such things as the clock and interior lights, which need to be fused live circuits.  The second fuse has 'circuit 3' suffix 1 on the input side and 'circuit 4' no suffix on the output side.  And the third fuse is the side lamp circuit fuse with 'circuit 7' no suffix on the input side and 'circuit 7' suffix 1 on the output side.  So how does the ignition system get its power from the ignition switch, because if you follow that diagram there is no continuity!  I'd love to have a real Bagheera to examine to see how they were actually wired because it has to be a lot different to those diagrams - and they all have faults, whether Series I or II.

Consequently, if you have to rely on any Matra Bagheera wiring diagram, then please take great care as they are not very good or useful at all.

Roy