Isn't it funny how a new task or project leads you into buying a new tool or piece of equipment?:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
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Isn't it funny how a new task or project leads you into buying a new tool or piece of equipment?:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
I'm starting to "clean" up my wiring runs now:LOL: :LOL:
I JUST KNEW I should've invested more in wire ties! :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by IC2
That doesn't count the several hundred replacements for those seen and the several hundred BEHIND the dash - I just got 500 more**) **) :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by 34_40
(I did do a trash dump about 10 minutes after I took the photo:whacked: )
My golly - it looks like the real DennyW has resurfaced!!!:DQuote:
Originally Posted by DennyW
Denny - I have probably a hundred feet of the convoluted wire loom - but it really doesn't work well under the carpet. I'm going to use some flat raceway if I can find it locally and at a reasonable cost - if not ........
IC2, Yes indeed it is great to see a message from DennyW! I have some of that loom stuff for the line to the windshield wiper to hide the wires on the roadster windshield frame. Maybe I can use it more for other things too. My real question here is for IC2. I am grunting down under the frame to fit in the tubing from the transmission to the cooler in the radiator after deciding it was not a good idea to have both the fuel line and the trans cooler under the running board apron. Soooo, I want to ask you where you put the wires to the front lights and turn signals and how? Now on the outside of the frame I have fuel line and inside the frame I have trans cooler tubing and hot headers. Maybe DennyW has the best idea to bundle that stuff under the frame but still away from the wheels. I will have to bring the wires up under the frame near the fuel pump (SBC) along the edge of the radiator shell about half way up until it gets to the grommet hole but it will be at least four wires on each side: high, low, turn and ground so it would be great if you have a picture of how you threaded the wires from the dash to the headlight bucket. Any related picture will be appreciated very much! I am sorry to be so trivial but I am between frustration and determination to not give up and finish this bigger-than-I-expected project. Holly Cow, every time I turn around it is time to make another bracket! I am thinking of putting mis-bent tubing fragments on the Christmas tree, what else! Hey, if I get going on the wiring soon I will have some multicolor wire too!
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Don,Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
I'm not completely satisfied with my wiring, but since everything works, probably wont do too much.
As far as my headlights and other forwrd wires, and on a Ford motor, there are more then a few, I purchased a wire port from Watson's Street Works, part number B-16, mounted it in the center of the firewall and fairly low and ran my wires through that - I believe that there are 9 or 10 wires. I wrapped them in protective tubing and ran them down the back of the engine, bracketing in various places. I then ran these wires, again, in protective tubing along the left pan flange, held in place by some good clamps to the front of the engine and under the fuel pump. I separated the wires and ran some to, again brackets and clamps to the grille shell for my lights and fan, up to the oil pressure and water temp senders and the horn. Some are yet to be "cleaned up" and wrapped in protective tubing. The alternator (single wire at this time, but might change later) wire is run down to the right pan flange to a battery terminal, in this case, the always hot starter terminal.
Photos - I don't have enough but will be catching up shortly. I'll attach some - the first of the wire port, the second will give you an idea of where it was mounted on the fire wall. I can't do firewall photos now as the MSD box is hanging waiting for some vibration mounts.
Brackets - how well I know these damnable time eaters!!!!
All of my fuel line is within the frame - and with the Ford motor, a pain as it has to be mounted on the left - and the power master cylinder and steering make for a lot of interference. Again - more brackets.
The 24" double pass transmission cooler is mounted under the right splash shield. I hope it does a good enough job - I do have a temp sender in the trans pan, so will know.
IC2, Thanks for the pictures, the headlight cable is interesting too. More pictures are welcome when you get a chance. I realize the wires along the pan are an option but it is really getting tight under there in a narrow frame relative to heat protection.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
Don, the cables are Lokar. As far as running the wires along the pan rail, the engine at that point will probably never exceed 160F and the wire insulation is rated for 600F. Most exhaust heat, unless you have really tight hugger headers should be dissipated and/or cooled by normal air flow. Had I been smart, I would have wired the car before paint and made the runs in the frame rails (along with my gas line), then disassembled everything for the final finish.
IC2, I have to just DO IT! Today I got out my ITS-A-SNAP kit and mounted the fuse box on the inside of the firewall and uncoiled the set of wires that go to the rear tailights etc. I messed with the other coils and studied the nice labels on each wire and found that I have many extra unecessary wires since I bought the 24 circuit kit (power windows??). I used up a few ties keeping the wires together on the way back and there is a convenient deep groove under the door sill to hide the wires. I studied the other coils from the names on the wires and there is one group with headlights, coil and tach which goes forward, another for under the dash and a fourth for the dimmer switch. The dimmer switch looks easy because it has a female plug just like my foot switch but there are some other things which do not match up. Taking a hint from Ken Thurman's masterpiece I need to add a cigar lighter on the dash so my wife can charge her cell phone. Anyway, MAYBE (?) I can do it after all if I take my time and read the labels on the wires. The alternative is to get some professional help at about $70/hr so that spurs me on to do as much as I can myself. The other factor was that the weather was very good today while it had been down in the 40s F earlier in the week but today was about 60 F in the garage. The next big thing I need to do is study your wires to the headlights along the frame away from the header pipe heat so I will study your pictures. With my block hugger headers there is very little room between the pan and the header pipe so I may have to just run the wires along the bottom of the frame? If you have any other pictures from underneath your engine that would be helpful. Last week I did finally get a combination of fittings together to run 5/16" lines from the 700R4 outlets to the trans cooler in the bottom of the radiator after I bent tubing about four times but it finally does look OK and I do have a rubber hose connection under the firewall where the hardline goes into the trans to provide some flex between the driveline and the frame. However you don't want to know or see the fittings needed to adapt pipe threads to 5/16" line. After four tries I am leaving it alone unless it leaks! It does look to me that my setup can be simpler than the stuff you have under the top of your cowl so again all I have to do is DO IT!
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Don,
May I be the first to offer congratulations on this giant step:3dSMILE:
Heck, if you can put a computer together you sure can do this. I do hope that the wiring system has a good set of instructions or at least some sort of a schematic.
I'm not sure that I can get good photos of my under engine wiring where it is as my camera wont focus that close but sometime after next week I might have some more free time. My "free" time is being taken by working on a US Congressional candidates election campaign trying to overthrow an incumbent who is very well funded(we appear to be leading).
More later.
IC2, By coincidence there is another recent thread by Stu Cool about hiding the wires in the frame so maybe that is the solution for me, I'll give it a try.
Don Shillady
Retired SCientist/teen rodder
Don - I considered that but since I wasn't astute enough to provide access to the fully boxed and powder coated frame while building the chassis am resigned to just laying the wires on the floor with a protective cover - and it's doubly "interesting" since my AAW module is behind the passenger's seat in a separate compartment. For sure not one of my better ideas!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
LOL's. You guys are making me nervous as Scrat (the prehistoric squirrel in Ice Age). :LOL: :LOL: I love that little guy.
I love wiring......did all the wiring in my 1rst and 2nd home.....do equiment (DSLAM's, ATM, IGX, Mux Shelves, fiber terms...you get the idea) installs at work....but I worry about the pain involved with wiring my 36. LOL's.
I set mine up to hide in the frame behind the boxing plates. I double stacked conduit between 4X4 electrical outlet boxes and different points along the frame and bore a 1 5/8" hole at each point I thought I would need an exit. Will cover with a nice little aluminum cover. Really, I'm excited that I'm starting to worry about it. Thats means I'm getting closer I guess.
I want to say to both of you (Don and Dave).....your inspiring me to keep going. :D
Denny....have you ever tried the expandable flex? This stuff looks awesome whether you have it stuffed full or just a couple of wires. I use this stuff all of the time at work. Just thought I'd mention it too. http://www.cableorganizer.com/braided-sleeving/
Dave G
Dave G - What you are doing is what I should have done - that is if I had had any idea how many wires are terminated at the module. In my thinking errors I forgot that wires from a switch went back to the module then back to the device. The American Autowire system that I have is really very straight forward with excellent drawings and directions but the fact that it's behind the passenger seat makes for a lot of very long (in automotive terms) conductors. It may come down to the fact that I will need to get some connectors, figure out a way without pulling the body again to make some holes in the frame and run them that way - but at this point, it's a later mod.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stovebolter
As far as oher personal wiring experience, I've totally rewired one house, made major mods on another and have redone most of this current house after the previous owner, an electrical engineer screwed up many areas (I'm a mechanical:eek: ). I've also sucessfully done 2 cars completely.
This has been a fun thread - a lot is my griping just to get it off my mind and out where others can "work me over" so I hope that it's inspiring to others. I'm almost done - delayed by some outside activities, a few honey do's and other interesting things
Hi, the garage is getting colder day by day and I have been reading this thread for help noting the early entries are from hot months. Today instead of actually working on the car (which I may do this afternoon) I am trying to get into the mood for frustration with the wiring so here are a few pictures. First, I am pleased with the tail light LED kits I got from Bratton's. I can test things with a small 1 amp trickle charger which I plan to use more often as suggested by C9X. That way I can test circuits without frying the whole system with the full battery. I am getting to know a guy named "Rick" at TPI who has been very helpful and usually right. He did say, however, that cigar lighters were hard to find but as some of you suggested (NTFDAY?) Advanced Auto had one for $3.79 but I let my order to Whitney ride and what I got from them was more expensive and came to $13 when shipping was added. However, the Whitney cigar lighter came with a chrome plated mount which looks pretty good so I may use that one instead of the very minimal unit from Advanced. The rear LED units from Brattons are simple replacements with connectors to fit into the Model A teacup units like bulbs but they are totally incased in plastic for moisture protection. The first picture shows the tailight in the daylight with the brake light on, looks good to me! At night they light up the whole rear half of the garage! Then I did some research on where to get the flasher units for LEDs and "TPI-Rick" gave me the phone number for Technologic in N.C. (812-265-0062). The tech guy at Technologic said the LED units I have are probably for restorers as made in China but Technologic does have the proper two prong flasher units for them so I ordered two of them. TPI-Rick said the three prong units get hot when used with the emergency flasher so it is better to have two flashers, one for the turn signals and the other for the emergency flasher. I also chatted with "Clark" at Speedway but I am satisfied that the Technologic units will solve the flasher problem to use with LEDS front and rear. The second picture shows the present situation with the next step to figure out how to route and hide the wires to the front lights. With full fenders I may just run the wires on the outside of the driver side of the frame and be done with it, hoping that the fourbars will protect the wires exposed up on the frame but I will encase the wires in a spiral plastic cover. The "front bundle" is large because I have not attached wires to the choke, coil or tach; one wire intended for an electric fan will not be needed. I have totally given up on any fleeting plans for a show car and now just hope to get a safe car that runs! Any of you who "love wiring" are welcome to drop in and help but I think I will just have to plod on slowly.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
DennyW, good to hear from you! The PET cover looks like you have to slide it on before you connect the wires while the spiral stuff can be added after the connections are made?
Don Shillady
Retired SCientist/teen rodder
That is an unfortunate drawback....but they look real clean with the PET cover. We use them here in the central office on transport equipment and such. Real clean....very very flexible.
Denny,
Do you know of a site that sells the GM factory oiltite plugs...like the LS will have on the engine harness. I saw a site a long time ago and cant find it now.
Thanks,
Dave G
BTW Don. That car sure is perty! Cant wait til I get some color on mine.
Dave G
Yes. Thank you so much Denny. I wasnt sure what they were called so I was having a time searching.
Thanks,
Dave G
I got some plastic corregated split-flex tubing in 3/4" diameter and so far I was able to put all the wires from the firewall to the rear lights in one flex tube under the ledge along the left door. Another 3/4" corregated flex tube takes the wires for the front lights through the firewall in one seemingly single bundle down under the left side of the frame and then to the headlights. I can split out any branching wires though the side of the split at any point. That part is not finished yet but today I tried to unify things simply and put a short 12 gauge ground wire from the motor to the bolt which mounts a little aftermarket horn. That bolt goes through the firewall to the gray plate in the picture above with a star washer on both sides so that now the steering column and everything mounted to the gray (painted 3/8" aluminum) plate is grounded and tested with a voltmeter. Since my little garage heater brought the temp up to 49 F I kept working and installed the wire to the water temp sensor in the Edelbrock intake but I have question. I have the correct water temp sensor for a '76 Corvette 350 and it has a grooved post instead of a threaded post. The local NAPA guy looked through the parts book and that is the right sensor but he did not have a connector. I made a connector out of one end of a coil wire with it's rubber boot and it does snap on to the sensor. I removed the coil wire and crimpled the water temp wire in there but I wonder where to get the right connector? I have some faint hope that maybe just maybe I can get the car wired over the winter by just installing "one wire at a time". All of the TPI wires are labeled so I have a fighting chance and with the firewall plate grounded it looks like the gauges will be easy to ground at several places. The engine is grounded to the battery negative post with a long 00 gauge welding cable.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
On another thread Tech1 commented on the potential low quality of home built cars. I hear that but short of farming out the work I am doing what I can. I am posting pictures just to keep my own momentum on the wiring job. Actually I am learning a little about crimping and connecting, AND when I connect something the wire gets shorter. The TPI 20 circuit kit would probably handle a very big '76 Cadillac but the roadster is much smaller so I end up with long lengths of wasted wire when I cut them down. I think I solved a major grounding problem with the black 12 gauge wire from the engine to the aluminum plate on the inside of the firewall. The inner 1" steel framework is already grounded to the frame and engine. For some reason the 700R4 has no bolt boss for the very top hole on the block so I used that for a grounding point. I leave the pre-oil rig in the dist. hole to keep out dirt. I hope the horn connection is not too gross, the mounting bolt is grounded through to the firewall plate. I know this is trivial stuff but it is encouraging progress to me. The second picture is what is left on the interior. Hopefully that mass of wires can be hidden up under the dash once I get the gauges hooked up. I still need to rig up a good ground for the rear lights since I will need an extra ground for the tailights and the ground of the gas tank sensor. It is getting exciting as I near the day of startup, but that may still be in the Spring!
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Don,
Get a big bundle of 4" tie wraps and put one on every 2-3 inches then tie wrap them to some support structure behind the dash - I've used several hundred. I suspect that there is some wood or steel reinforcing that if you can't wrap a tie around, then you can install some wiring loops by drilling and screwing some too support structure for the wires.
When you cut the wires make sure that when you go up the side of the cowl and/or across the floor or any other areas that will be covered that you make allowances for the upholstery. I've done and redone mine enough times that I'm just barely going to keep my upholsterer speaking to me:(
Dave, a great, easy to assemble/disassemble connector to use for a weather/oil resistant seal is the Deutsch connector. This is the type connector Ken Thurm used on his wiring, I asked him. I became familiar with them working on Harleys. I get my supplies from Batts Racing, http://www.deutschconnector.com/ Once you crimp the terminal on the wire (you will need a Deutsch crimper, but Summit has a great one), these are the easiest to build connectors I've ever worked with and if a repair is necessary, the individual wires can be very easily removed. I'm sure you can find other sources by doing a Google search for Deutsch connector. Hope this helps.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stovebolter
Mike
Latest in the saga of wiring my car. I only have one wire left - from the AC electronic control module. It just isn't there!!! Vintage Air supplied me with an AC 'kit' that is missing a wire! There are supposed to be 7 wires to the dash switches - and the green wire ----is not there nor has it ever been there. I even asked my wife who is NOT color blind as I am to make sure. Then there are the two switches - fan speed and the mode - and the terminals are so loose that this AC would never ever work correctly. I may try to solder them but feel that this might be a waste of my time - they are $12.25 each. The electronic module is $35 if Vintage want to blow me off tomorrow when I call. Bah Humbug!!
IC2, I have an electrical soldering "gun" but when I try to solder wires there is not enough heat, probably due to the length of the wire. I also have a smaller electrical iron that I used for circuit boards in my lab but it is intended to be low heat for protection of solid state chips so it is certainly not hot enough. I am surprised that the soldering gun will not solder the wires. What are you using? I bought a second heater for the garage, but this morning it was 26 F in the garage and even with two radiative heaters I decided to do some other clerical work today rather than plug on with my one-wire-per-day plan. Although there was the first frost of the winter this morning I hope to put on both heaters tomorrow and maybe in an hour or two I can get get some work done on the wiring.
Don shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Don,Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Shillady
I have several soldering irons from the little electronics pencil size, a heavy duty gun and a 60 year old GE clunk that must weigh 2 pounds and makes the electric meter spin up when I plug it in. As far as the electronic board, I need to know where the missing green wire goes before I attempt any repairs. There is no wiring diagram for the innards of this module and since there was never a wire, no indication on any of the empty terminals. The two switches - those will be worked on later this morning, What a PITA!!!
I think VA was colder then here on Wed morning according to the weather map. We were at ~28*, but my garage was at 42*. By the time I ran a couple of errands and leaving both heaters on for about an hour, it was ~64* - (flannel) shirtsleeves temp. I shut one heater down and the other held 62* though the afternoon.
I have to poor boy everything, have never had a boughten harness or kit. I take a lot of wiring and connectors from parts cars so I have a good variety of colors and the good weather-pac connectors. I have never been very good at soldering so I like to use the un-insulated crimp connectors and terminals with heat shrink tubing and find it very suitable. I do use an old Thomas and Betts crimper that does a much better job than the combo striper/crimpers. I also design my own systems and use a NAPA application guide to find the component that does just what I want.
I personally like to use wire loom for my wires to run inside of, It makes a lot more factory looking job. The rubber lined metal holders are good. I also use the factory style plastic ones that snap in. I don't know where I got them but I had some zip ties with a mounting hole in the end too.
Zip ties vary greatly in quality and those cheap Allied ones from Sam/s or Costco are junk. If you can find 3M ones they are the best. Here is an item that you get what you pay for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by willowbilly3
No problem with doing it that way - my biggest problem is the lack of good donor cars. I can't have them on my property. Then the local salvage yards with one exception don't allow people in the back - the old "insurance" BS. The one that will - he and I have chosen to no longer like each other, regardless of the fact that we were friends outside. He, a couple of times quoted a price, then when I pulled the part conveniently forgot how much and it went way up. The first time I paid, the second, I dropped the item in the yard and left - forever.
The AC wiring problems I have are Vintage Air quality problems on supplied pieces of their Gen ll Mini heat/cool control unit and will probably cost me ~$75 including shipping to fix if I can't convince them that they had shipped defective items
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Update ~1:30PM. I talked to Vintage Air. OOPS, they supplied the wrong wiring diagram with the original "kit" and for mine, there is no green wire - it's for defrost, which I don't have. They will be supplying 2 new switches for the control panel though I did temporarily solder my terminals back solidly together for check out
IC2, Just reporting in with some progress. The weather was pretty good today and it was 66 F in the garage so I did get some wiring done. The wire to the electric choke only required adding a push on clip and then I worked on adding ground wires to the tailights which are mounted on the fiberglass fenders. Threading in the tailight wires was a worry because the rear tires are big and I don't want to get into a situation where the tires rub the wires. Fortunately Henry Ford figured that out in 1929 by providing a back plate for the tailights (I got repro plates from Brattons in Md.) with a large bulging ridge in it for the wires so, if at all, the tires will rub on the smooth steel backing plate. I had to take the rear wheels off to drill a small hole through the side of the quarter panels for the wires but it was reassuring to find that the width of the 8" Maverick rear places the tires out away from the inner part of the body so that if the tire hits at all it will hit the protective steel backing plate instead of the wires. I might not have known about this except for my use of the original Ford manual for the Model A which shows the protective plate which was certainly needed for the 21" wheels on the original 1929 A. For once trying to follow the "restorod" trail was actually helpful. However I now realize why many roadsters have the tailights in the base of the body and not on the fender where large tires can rub the wires! Hey this was a "three wire day"! (I have been using "crimp only" connections so far; hope I don't regret that.)
Don Shillady
Retired SCeintistteen rodder
Hi Don - sounds like an early spring day yesterday in VA - we were here in the frozen tundra of the Upstate NY area had only mid fifties - but nice. Today isn't!!
Sounds like at least some progress. Never in my life did I anticipate that my wiring would take so long. It is a long and involved process, then factor in some "unforseens" and some part failures it just gets longer and longer. At least I don't have the 'glass body to contend with. I'm still waiting on the replacement switches from Vintage Air noted in my last post here, but in essence have my wiring 95% done with only the cowl lamps and under dash and trunk light left. I did add a 'power point' after you mentioned your addition
I've seen those backing plates that Bratton's sells - they do a good job of protecting and turning the wires. I'm using Pontiac LED repro's bolted through the lower body panel below the trunk lid so I don't have those kinds of problems. I originally started out with '32 lights that mount on the ends of the spreader bar - but on a '31, even with the '32 gas tank really didn't look right.
Heating your garage - take a look here: http://www.mrheater.com/productdetai...catid=42&id=21
I have 2 of these and one will move the temp in my 24x30 garage to the mid fifties on a 25* day, two, mid 60's in about an hour. I have my garage again partitioned off (yesterday's accomplishment beyond my honey-do's) and based on last year will move the 12X30 bay easily into the 60's. I do have a CO monitor for safety's sake.
My wiring story for my '71 pickup project.... Plugged in the battery the other day and everything worked great, the relays for the new headlights, all the new gauges, most everything...with one small exception.... I must have had a Norwegian moment when hooking up the tailights, when the turn signal lever is moved to a right turn, the left lights come on, and vice versa... Guess when I was laying on my back hooking up the wiring my Norwegian brain got left and right bass-ackwards......:o:o:o:LOL::LOL::LOL:
IC2, I am just reporting in to keep myself going. Yesterday the outside air was a reasonable 44 F and surprisingly my two small radiative heaters (1500 watts each) got the garage up to 64 F in about an hour. As a former Chemist I have seen quite a few lab fires so I don't want to use any heater with an open flame in a small frame garage where I have a few flammables. Anyway I checked with "Rick" at It's-A-Snap and with the guys at Brattons where I got my LED tailights about the tailights. They both said that I don't need diodes in the wires which connect the brake light and the turn signal to the same tailight since the blinker circuit in the GM type column takes care of that. It should work so that if you brake while the turn signal is on one tailight should go bright with the brake light while the other should continue to blink. I still don't know how the GM column (Ididit in my case) does this but I went ahead and wired both wires (brake and turn signal) in a "Y" to each tail light without any diodes so we will see how that goes. I hid a bit of a rat's nest of the wires down behind the "rumble-seat-tank" and really I don't see how to make it any neater since I really can't get my arm down in there so I just let the wires flop down in the space along the rear of the body, out of sight with a few tie wraps. Any comments on putting the brake and turn signal wires together?
By the way I have a gap of about 1/8" at the bottom of the rumble lid and the body which I have tried to seal with a clear strip of door edge plastic but I am sure in a heavy rain it will leak down into the back of the body. I can seal the upper parts of the lid with weather seal foam strip but I think it will still leak along the bottom edge. There is no problem with rust since the body is fiberglass so my question to folks on this Forum is whether it is a good idea to drill several 1/2" diameter holes along the bottom edge of the rear of the body to provide drains when it rains?
Dave, my wiring kit from It's-A-Snap has a yellow wire for the left rear turn signal and a green wire for the right so I think I got it correct except for wondering about putting the brake and turn signal wires together. We had relatively mild weather here in range of my small heaters but I see the North West is heading into blizzard conditions so as long as the power stays on it may be time to hunker down with the PC? The problem is that usually our rural power usually goes out with ice on the wires and a PC won't work with candle power. I have a home generator but it is mainly to keep the TV and refridgerator going.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
IC2 I went out to the garage to take a few pictures and found the thermometer reading 26 F so I will wait and give the sun a chance to warm it up a bit. Thanks to this Forum I can openly show my amateur installation and get suggestions from the many pros here. The first picture shows a "down view" of the new wires behind the gas tank and it is embarrassingly messy. Thanks to this picture I can see that I can add several more ties to make this much neater. I got a bag of ties from Radio Shack for $8 so I have plenty of ties. In there is the ground and sender for the gas tank and the wires to the tail lights. Nobody will see it once the seat cover is on that tank but you and I will know it is a rats nest unless I tidy it up some, thanks! The second picture is not as bad as it looks. I have just pulled the unneeded wires from the harness to the rear such as for a dome light (in a roadster?) and backup lights and coiled them on the floor. Rick at It's-A-Snap says to just cut off unneeded wires with a short pigtail at the firewall in case you want to add them back later and pull the fuses to those wires. The striped wire coil on the floor is a heavier gauge (12?) intended for an electric fuel pump with a 30 amp fuse but I am going to use that for my cigar lighter/power outlet to recharge a cell phone or a small electric tire pump. Thus at the firewall there is a seeming mess of coils that are not installed yet. I note that Rick emphasized that there has to be a long ground wire from the gas tank sending unit all the way to the fuel gauge in the dash. The other gauges will be grounded to the 1" square tubing framework in the dash which is grounded in several places to the frame. I know I am showing the gory details of my amateur installation but I don't mind if anyone sees some problem so let me know. One of my foibles was to drop a nut and a small wrench BEHIND the 3/8" aluminum plate I used to mount the floor dimmer switch (my generation used a floor switch and I dislike the dimmer on the steering column, besides with no clutch my left foot needs something to do!). I did not mind losing a nut down there but not a Craftsman wrench to rattle around so I had to cut out a 1" diameter hole with a hole saw to fish out the wrench instead of dismantling the whole firewall plate which is now a complicated sandwich of stainless steel on the engine side and 3/8" aluminum on the interior to mount stuff on. It was easier to saw the hole than rebuild the firewall! I will have to add an "inspection cover" for that hole from some sheet metal.
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
I keep my shop a balmy 70 degrees when I'm out there working. I shut the t-stat down to 45 at night, takes about 30 minutes to warm it up. My hands just won't function in the cold.....
When I get to the 'maro again, I'm going to try one of Speedway's wiring kits, they're not as fancy and detailed as some of the others but they're a heck of a lot less money and still have decent wiring, connectors and components... The 'maro will have nothing fancy for electrical systems, just your basic go-fast machine so I don't really see a need for having a bunch of circuits I'll never need....
Got the pickup wiring all done, everything works fine. I retained the stock harness and altered some of the circuits to accomodate the upgrades.
All the electrical pieces have come a long ways from the days of just starting with a bunch of spools of different colored wire, sketch out a few of the circuits, and going at it.... Way easier now!!!!
Don - I have to say that your wiring "mess" is normal. When you say 'done', then you start to wire tie every thing together. I think I said above that my learning curve, or words to that effect, was that you need a lot of preplanning to have a wiring module behind the seat. Instead of having wire ties, the entire run - all 4 of mine are now bandaged with an orange 3M tape the entire length of the floor. Not the way I wanted to go - and I do understand that it isn't the favored and best way and will end up creating a future hardship(I already have to add a wire, but it's the only feasible way without having a lumpy carpet. I'm clamping it to the floor along the door sill as well as one hidden run up the middle for the radio and neutral start switch. Oh yeah, as a note, I finally got my Vintage Air switches
Temps - my garage/shop is at this writing, 38*, but it's only about 15* outside. I'm surprised that it's that warm since we were hit with an ice storm and the power was out for ~18 hours. Then to make things more interesting, my generator decided to die - another project. The engine has no spark - the low oil shut off created a problem one other time, so will try to bypass and make another attempt to run for the "next time". We're lucky as most folks are still down and out and might not have power for another day or several. We have several very large branches down, mostly from my slob of a neighbor's yard but no trees. Since it's supposed to be in the 40's Sunday and 50's Monday, my chores are laid out:CRY:. Then it's back to the car.
Dave S - I do understand about hands that don't work in the cold. I don't need 70*, but 60-65 is nice.
My first wiring jobs were a few rolls of wire - color coded - who cares!!! Now I have many spare rolls of wire for add ons - but all are color coded. NAPA (Federal Mogul made in USA) wire is $6.99 a roll now:eek: wow - for 15(#12) to 40(#18) feet of wire!!!
IC2, One other sad factor about the ties is that I have already had two cases where I had to add a wire and tried to clip off the previous tie only to find that tragically I had cut one of the wires too! In those cases I patched the error with a straight pipe crimp connector after I found I do not have a soldering iron hot enouth to solder the ends together. I have to wonder whether those crimps will corrode later on? I think with long wires a lot of the heat just spreads out into the wire rather than remain local at the desired solder location. Thanks for your encouragement! After cutting two wires accidentally I was reluctant to add ties that I might have to remove, but as you say if it is now essentially finished back there I can add more ties, but not too many so that if I ever have to add a wire I won't have to cut so many ties and chance another accident! The bottom line for me is if I have to remove a tie it is better to slide a sharp knife along the grain of the wires rather than use snips. So far here in Va we only have frost and a lot of rain in the last two days, but no ice storm. We live in a small forest with buried power lines but we are still at the mercy of nearby power lines on poles in wooded areas, although one wonders how many trees have yet to fall after the thinning from Hurricane Isabel several years ago.
Don Shillady/teen rodder
IC2, sorry to bother you but I need an idea. I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon removing and disassembling my headlights because the pigtail leads on the H4 units were too short to make it through the braided cable to the radiator. It was straighforward to crimp extension leads and feed them back through the conduits. However, the next step is to connect the headlight and turn signal wires. So far I have all the wires to the front lights in a corregated plastic tube down under the steering column to the outside of the driver side of the frame and held there by a rubber clamp. The problem I am asking about is that when I look at the routing of the wires there is a lot of moving stuff behind the radiator and not much room. Inside the frame rails there will be hot headers. There is already a stainless brake line across the bottom of the radiator area. When I try to figure out how to route the wires across the front under the radiator I run into the frame rails on each side. The worst case scenario would be to use a small hole saw to make two holes in the frame at the firewall down into the frame rails and then two more holes in the frame at the base of the radiator. I have just slogged through using a hole saw to fish out a wrench I dropped behind the hi/lo-beam switch through 3/8" aluminum so I do not look forward to cutting four holes in the steel frame rails. Putting the wires down into the frame would be easy but fishing out the wires at the front end would be tricky and require a pretty large hole to work through. Am I missing some easy way to thread the wires across the front end without drilling holes in the frame? How did you get the wires across the front end?
Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Hi Don - never a bother -so don't hesitate. If you would like it, I can PM you my "real" email address/name and we can go that way as well. Just remember, I'm an amateur as well as a retired OF, so my methods aren't always as well thought out as they should have been.
Right side lights are up and operating - but now is only a punch list item #25(??) to clean up later. The wires are only wire tied to an electric fan brace. What I did was make up a bracket on the left side and put a 3 post terminal block for the head light wiring. This is for a couple of reasons - first for ease of disassembly and the second for a "professional" appearance. What I will do later on is run the wires below the radiator to clear them out of sight
I was able to get a warmer day, Xmas past and finally get the wiring completed for the air and heat system with the new switches provided by Vintage. I do have to thank them as there was no reason except for good customer service to provide me with $25 worth of way out of warranty parts. The wiring is now clamped to the floorboards, unfortunately taped rather then wire tied as they were planned to be left - if I have a wire problem or need more run, the failed will just have to be cut off and left in place and new ones run. A BIG lesson learned - wire before you paint so those pesky snarls can be hidden rather then become a nightmare for the upholsterer