thrashingcows

Bringing this one back to the top..... In my re-wiring job on Ol' Fernando I am now working on the blower and wiper motors. I bought a RU-100 / 12V to 6V reducer from Standard products, but it heats up WAY TO MUCH! Guess I didn't do my research well enough before getting this unit. Turns out this unit, as best as I can find, is rated at 1.5 ohms x 4 amps. No where near what a blower motor, or wiper motor needs. The 1 Ohm x 50 Watt x 10 amp resistor mentioned in this thread, and the aluminum mount Fred made for it, should solve my issues. Thank you to everyone for this great knowledge!

And I installed all new gauges in the OEM dash...except the speedo. I used Auto meter (Autogage) units, these were your typical 2"-ish gauges. I had to pry them out of their housings, but eventually got them all out. Then had to figure out how to mount them to the OEM cluster...without damaging the cluster. That was my main concern. Got them in, not pretty form the back, but think they turned out OK from the front. I have also had the doors, trunk and ignition re-keyed! And I have ordered new steering column turn signal assembly, headlight switch, heater switch and a few other pieces to make the conversion to 12V a little easier. That should bring things about up to date.

And I had to hook up a couple jump wires to see the car with the lights on!

Once the main wiring harness was through the firewall I had to sort it all out. Three bundles....Front end lights, turn signals etc, then engine compartment wires, and finally all the wires that are not needed...elect fan, AC compressor, etc. Then on to the front end wiring.... Removed the old headlight wiring, and made up all new harness.... Then the same for the front turn signal assemblies.... And all wired up neat.... As well as a new set of horns...well used from a 80's Dodge van I believe....

Back end all finished off.... the green wire is for the reverse lights. I have not installed them yet, and might not since I plan on selling the car. The new owner might decide on a different reverse light set-up, and I did not want to cut up the body.

Well haven't been updating on Fernando regularly...just too many projects, on too many vehicles etc. So here is an update from the last few months... I've slowly been working on the re-wire job. Not having much fun to tell you the truth, so hasn't been high on my "to do" list. I get easily side tracked on other projects. But I have finished the front and rear wiring. I was able to re-use most of my OEM ligth fixtures, just needed some new guts. I dug into my box's of old misc mopar wiring to help in that project. Box of misc.... Old vs new rear taillight wiring and connections... Then I bought a whack load of new 1,2,3,4,6 and 8 terminal plugs for my wiring connections. I crimped on the new terminal ends, then solder each one, di-electric grease and then shrink tube.

Love that line..... But thank you for your thoughts and advice!

Was discussing things with the wife this evening and maybe it's due to the fact that over the years I've brought a half dozen cars back from the dead, and I just don't want to do it again. Been there, done that, and would prefer to have a car I could get in, drive and enjoy. Maybe this also comes along with age too...in my 40's now. I think I'm leaning more towards selling, and if in a few years I want another vehicle, then I can pick one up that is road worthy, and mostly complete. Then I can enjoy it, while making it my own. Thank you for the advice so far....

Need to talk this out....I could ramble a bit.... Been thinking a lot lately of selling my 48 Desoto 2dr Sedan. I feel I have too much on my plate with House, family, wagon, and my DD cummins crewcab. The 68 T/C wagon pretty much gets neglected, and only the bare minimum in repairs and upgrades to keep it on the road. Most of my spare time I do have gets split between the desoto, and into the general maintenance, and upgrades of the crewcab....which I love more then any of my vehicles, past or present. I only have a single car garage, and enough room for one additional car on the driveway. Currently the truck is parked on the road. I had been keeping one of the cars in storage that I rented from a local fellow. But he finally had to ask me to leave, it was not unexpected. So now the wagon gets parked in the driveway, and the desoto is in the garage. I have discussed, and got the OK from the wife, to buy an Enclosed car trailer to store one of the vehicles in. But I don't know if I want to commit to that expense or not. Also I really don't know if my heart is in the Desoto or not. I like the car, but I don't know if I can see myself keeping it long term. I was passionate about it when I got it, but the long term time frame on getting this car back from the dead I think is wearing on me. It's not like I need the money from the sale of the Desoto....but it sure could come in handy with building a fresh 440 for the wagon, and a few other things. Or I could buy the car trailer, load up the desoot and all related parts and lock the doors and forget about it for a few years....concentrating on the wagon and other more pressing responsibilities. I just don't know if I will fall back in love with the car after that time or not? I would appreciate any thoughts, opinions, points of view, or similar decisions you've made. Thanks for listening.

Thank you. Sometimes tuff to find time with work, and family life....but get what I can done, when I can.

Pretty much any vehicle should be able to move it safely. A rope, or tow strap around the lower control arm should be a good enough place to tug it gently out of the wheel divots. As mentioned with a fluid drive it is technically in neutral whenever the car is off. So a parking brake is a must!

Then it was onto the forward harness. I was shocked when the wiring fit within the factory firewall grommet and bracket! Again I think it has plenty of wire! And the fuse box and wiring run to the front and back. It's nice and clean with everything up out of the way.

Then get it sorted a little better and fed down through the package tray area and into the trunk. The old rear harness... And the new wiring strung....

I first mounted up the fuse box, then tried to tie the new wiring to the old wires to drag them up through the pillar post on the drivers side. That did not work since the old cloth wire kept catching on things inside the pillar. I eventually had to cut the old wiring and carefully drag it out of the pillar. Then had to feed a stiff wire down through the pillar and tape the wiring to it and drag it back up and through. And all strung up above....

So I started stringing the wiring through out the Desoto the last few days. First I had to sort it and wrap it. I like to use hockey tape to wrap my wiring, cheap and looks good IMO. Had to organize it, and wrap it up and tape up as many of the wires so it would have less things to get caught as it was fed throughout the car. I think there is going to be enough wire....