Any idea?

[Guest fordodgeconnections]

So I was able to get my truck running but when I turned it off I had a wire meltdown behind the instrument panel. I took the panel out and disconnected all the wires. It looks like I only have 1 hot wire to the panel.

I will be building or purchasing a wire harness, but until then I want to be able to run the truck to make engine adjustments, etc. Anyone know if I was to run that hot wire directly to the ignition and bypass the instrument panel all together if I would still be charging the battery while running? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Dan

[Merle Coggins]

Dan,

I don't remember what year truck you have, but on my '50 B series truck I rigged up a temporary control panel so I could run the truck while the body is off. I clamped a piece of plywood to the steering column tube and attached the voltage regulator to it. I also installed a simple toggle switch and an inexpensive set of gauges for amps, oil press, and temp. I just wired it all up using the wiring diagram in my service manual as a guide. It works great. It's hard to see in this pic, but you can see that it's possible to run the engine without any cab electrics.

If you just need to run the engine you could just run a jumper wire from the starter lug to the coil with an alligator clip at at least one end, and disconnect any wires feeding the cab. It won't charge if you disconnect everything, but there's less chance for a Car-B-Q. Or you could hot wire the regulator too so it'll still charge the battery.

Merle

[Reg Evans]

That's a nice bucket seat Merle ! Ya gonna install 2 when the cab goes back on?

[Merle Coggins]

I could, I have plenty.

[RobertKB]

You don't need to charge the battery as an engine will run a long time off the battery if the battery is fully charged. It takes suprisingly little juice to actually run the engine. Have a friend with a '37 Chev who had some regulator trouble a long way from home. Disconnected the regulator and drove home over 300 miles without any trouble. Obviously cannot use anything like lights, heater, radio, etc. A lot of people don't believe that story but it is true. He is an old time mechanic and knows of what he speaks.

[Young Ed]

Merle I drove my truck the first few times on milk crates! And my coupe the first time with the rebuilt engine on a 5gal pale. Then later I had the seat out to POR the floor and drove in the garage sitting on an 18gal rubbermaid tote!

[Don Coatney]

I ran my engine for over 10 hours on a test stand using the battery only (no charging system hooked up).

[Norm's Coupe]

You really only need the battery to start the engine. Once it's started it'll keep on going for a long time.

While stationed in Granite City Illinois Army Engineering Depot (across river from St. Louis, MO) I had a 52 Dodge. Was going home to Louisville, KY for the weekend. Got in the Dodge and the battery was dead. Had a friend give me a push to start the car. Was after 4 or 5 PM on a Friday. Louisville was about 300 miles away. Drove the car with the lights and windshield wipers going all the way home. Even stopped for dinner somewhere in between (left car running). Then stopped in Evansville and dropped off another guy, then headed on to Louisville. Dead battery all the way. Next day in Louisville put a new battery in and it was like nothing ever happened. So if you can start it, you can run it to check it out.

[Frank Blackstone]

Left Dayton at Noon heading for Syracuse. Stopped in Columbus to phone home with ETA. Dead batt jumped and ran good to Cleveland. Lights on , engine stopped, roll restart from momentum. Asked help at 15 service(?) stations. Make Cleveland eastside on 3 charges by 11 PM. 4th charge sent me on moonlite interstate 90 running hot , fast and steady but no lights . $50 regulator at first rest area got me on the road. Home at dawn. Tell me about running on battery. Frank