I am currently wiring the 53 that I am restoring. Follow along and I will show you how I do it. You will need a good set of crimpers, electrical tape....several rolls, heat shrink tubing, multiple styles of fork, bullet, and slip connectors, LOTS of zip ties, A few books.... Solder and soldering iron. Also, have your chiropractor on speed dial. Some of you may need some installer lubrication, choose beverage of choice, but I highly reccomend going easy on the leaded variety. Also, colorful language is shure to be employed, so clear the area of small children, church members, and ALL preachers, though you may need some prayers from them later. First, strip the dash of trim and guages, and all old wiring. I am wiring this one as close to stock as possible. This will require some changes in the harness. Now lets open the box. This came from E Z Wire. Spread your harness out on the floor and see what you have. The harness is bundled prety well with like wires, but now you need to do some bench work. Pull out unused wires (oil press. sender, temp sender, tach, turn signal indicators..they are included in the signal stat 900 in the truck, etc.) Keep these wires in case you need to add a wire or 2 for accessories. Keep your bundles straight and re zip tie them as you finish with each. These are the wires I removed. Lets mount the fuse panel. Find an out of the way spot under the driver's side of the dash. Make shure you are low enough that you screw into double wall metal, not directly into the outer body! Begin pulling wires to their approximate locations to get them organized and out of the way. Pull the wires through the factory harness hole. These are the engine, front lighting, horn, rear harness, starter wires, brake switch, alternator power exciter wires.( THis truck is running the generator, but run the alternator wires in case it is converted in the future. Now pull the wires through the grommet. ALWAYS use a grommet when pulling wires through a hole in sheet metal. When the bundle gets thick, you may need to slick them up to get the last ones through. I used white lithium grease. Slide the grommet up the bundle of wires to it's home in the firewall. Begin running the wires to their places under hood.
Mount the voltage regulator for the generator. Run the alternator power wire to BATT terminal, then from FIELD to Field coil on generator. Noe pck up one of those wires you removed and run from ARM terminal to ARM on generator. HINT: wipe down wires that are re assigned with laquer thinner to remove printing, that way you won't be confused later. I also got to looking at the factory assembly manual and noticed that the Starter and Coil wires are routed out of a different hole. I pulled then from the main harness and inserted them into the proper grommet on the left of the regulator. Ihave begun wrapping the wires from the regulator with cloth tape, so that it will look close to the factory wiring. Some unused accessory wires that come from the fuse box can be coiled out of the way for later. You may need an accessory power wire later, and these are already fused! This looks like a tangle, but shows the wires exiting the firewall, and the bundle going to the guages and the headlight switch. careful planing and routing will make life much easier when installing and trouble shooting later. Use lots of zip ties, and don't be afraid to cut them off and use more when adding or subtracting wires from bundles. Wire up the headlight switch as to instuctions, I followed the wiring diagram from the service manual. I have about 4 hours in the prep work and installation right now. More updates will be coming Monday...Stay tuned.
This is Great Stuff I wire Airplanes for Avionics as a living and use similar techniques but starting from scratch not pre wired bundles. The Machine used for putting the markings on the wires runs about 40 thousand Dollars and marks with lazer printing ever 1 ft it is a shame to have to wipe it off of unused wires. One sugestion as you use many zips ties is to be sure to get yourself a pair of flush cutter Dykes ( I use a Snap on pair but dont have the part number here at home) these will cut teh ties flush to themselves so you dont have the razor sharp edges that will rip your arms to shreds when reaching under the panel. this is one of the reasons I use lacing cord on all my bundles to lace them together in like pairs I imagien any cotton string would work for this purpose and if you know your knots it is as simple as placing a clove hitch around the bundle followed by a square knot which holds the bundle nice and tight. Bill
I use liberal amounts of ties, then at the end I cut them off and use a few wel placed ones to finish the job.
All I can say This is a Great thread , Far better info & Pictures then any book , At least for Me . Thanks for taking the time . Looking forward to the rest . Bob Btw , Very nice looking truck .
i realy like that you've included pictures. i dont have pictures unfortunatley but i used some 3/8" brake line and bent it up and flared the ends then put my wires in it in the engine compartment to kind of tidy things up. i also painted it to match my engine and fire wall. -Robert
Above and beyond! Dang, Robert~ Sounds like you are going the extra mile and then some! Thanks, Ol'chebby! The visual learner in me appreciates what you're doing here. I love the way you post pictures anyhow! Beats our little "click-to-enlarge" formats!
wow!!! thanks so much for the detailed post. this is a great help to people looking to rewire there trucks. Is there any how-to sections in this forum? if there is, this should go in there!!! by the way your truck is looking sweet
[/URL][/IMG] If you are not too anal about originality and want your engine area a little neater than it came with, I bought this PVC from Mcmaster-Carr.
Great job Russ! Thanks for taking the time to document this. A lot of folks are intimidated by this step in the rebirth of a vehicle, but due to your efforts, it doesn't look too hard. Keep the pics coming!
O.k., lets talk technique. i AM MAKING THE GUAGE LIGHTING CIRCUIT, AND NEED TO HAVE SEVERAL LAMPS on one wire. Strip back about 3/4" from the end of the socket wires, and about 3/4" in the middle of the wire to be tapped. Now split the wire to be tapped....... And insert the socket wire through the wire and twist the leader around the wire.....be shure to use shrink wrap and put it on BEFORE you insert the wire... Now solder together. To join 2 wires, first strip back each wire... Now cross the 2 wires.... and twist in opposite directions. This makes a nice tight connection even without solder...Remember this for roadside emergency repairs... and solder. A nice solder joint should have the solder soaked into the wires, not bubbled on top. If you have bubbles, you do not have enough heat to get the solder to penetrate the wire. This is what you should have. and remember to use heat shrink BEFORE you make the joint. Here is the main harness after a little cleanup.. I took a little trip to the local P.A.P. to nab some of the firewall clips and bulb sockets that came up missing. I cleaned and painted them and installed them according to the factory assembly manual. I also covered the wires with the cloth covering from our host and routed it along the firewall to the starter and coil. I used cloth wrap tape from O'Rielly's to replicate the factory wrapping. Wrap the offshoot wires first, then the main bundle, so that the tape seals itself and has no loose ends to unravel... I reccommend about 3 rolls of the tape, depending on how much wrapping you do. Here is the guage holes with the wires prepped. I haven't installed thm yet, as I am waiting on a new firewall pad to install so I can run the lines, cables, and wires through. Hopefully the pad will be here tomorrow so that I can get most of the wiring buttoned up. Final thoughts....Don't use electrical tape on joints, the tape gets gooey and slips after being exposed to heat, leaving an exposed wire to ground out. I don't like crimp connectors, as they tend to make bulky spots in the bundles and some say the exposed wires inside can corrode faster. I do crimp the end terminals, however, I remove the plastic insulation from them and then cover with heat shrink. Makes for a smaller connection, and looks much better. I planned on getting a lot more done today, but upon arrival at my truck from P.A.P., I discovered what I thought was a burst radiator on the chebby. Ends up it was just a hole rubbed in the lower hose. Be shure to check your belt clearance........
Ver' Nice ! This is why I stayed with the $100.00 stock harness from Chevy Duty , if you want a fuse box , get one for a '49 it has a buncha fuses and mounts on the firewall... Your truck is going to be *so* sweet when it's done !
O.k. now I started with the turn signal. I have a signal stat 900 turn signal. I found the wiring diagram online here..http://www.film.queensu.ca/CJ3B/Tech/SignalWiring.html. Using the instructions that came with the harness and the diagram from the website, just link up the wires. The only descrepancy I found was that the yellow wire (load) should hook up to the hazard flasher..brown wire, the blue indicator wire is to purple blinker flasher. Now tape up and it is complete. The firewall cover finally arrived! Just stretch out and install with the factory clips. Here is the origional switch. The power goes to the bottom terminal, pink coil wire to terminal closest to the light bulb, the accessory and ignition wire to the other terminal. Since I am not using a radio, I used the radio constant power wire for the cig. lighter. Put a female bullet connector on the end, shrink wrap it, and it will plug in to the pole on the back. Slp the back plate over the wire, wire through the hole, and plug in the cig. lighter. Now thread on backing plate and tighten up. It should ground through the dash, if not ther is a terminal on the end that can be wired to ground. And here is the guage cluster. Remember to wire the fuel guage and ammeter with input from left and output to right.
Rus - this is so timely and awesome. Wiring is the next project on my list - as soon as it thaws out up here...THANKS!
Larry, When is the "thaw" in Spokane? Around sometime in June? 8 inches snow here yesterday. Glad I took out the truck twice this week. Think it's going to be a long wiinter. Andy
THREAD HIJACK ! (weather) I think his thaw is in early August , then the cold comes back in September... It's been cold & rainy in formerly Sunny So. Cal. , stopped raining for a couple days now and it was 34° F last night I was in a junkyard in Pomona the other day and there was frost on all the cars ~ 1/8" of it , not often seen in these parts . Here's hoping everyone in snow country is O.K. .
49 degrees north Andy - We had a 24 hr record snowfall Wed-Thurs 24"-36" and shut down the city to 4x4 only travel: schools and shopping malls closed. We are at the 49th parallel and should be riding and able to drive the truck again in April. Skiing at the 4 local resorts is on the agenda for the next few months.
Temps going... I have some time off. I was hoping to be able to get the walls up on my garage. Right now in SE Kansas, 6 degrees and a -8 wind chill. The highs aren't supposed to make it above mid 20s until Thursday...
As soon as I get finished with my home addition, I will be back on this truck and will finish up the thread.
