Winter Project

[oldodge41]

Today I started my winter project. Started at the rear and worked my way forward removing and labeling wires. Finished up at the firewall for today.

[randroid]

Oldodge41,

A scary project, huh? As has been said here in the past, don't let it intimidate you but think of each wire as part of a subsystem (the heater fan, the amp gauge, etc) and do each subsystem on its own and it becomes a lot easier, almost fun. One quick note, though, and that is to take LOTS of notes on the wire colors and make drawings of what you're doing as you do it. I can promise that you won't remember what color a particular wire is two weeks from now and if anything goes wrong it will be easier to find the problem later on.

Good luck!

-Randy

[oldodge41]

Not so much scary. I am a journeyman electrician so the last thing I like to work on normally is wires. LOL. Now that I am a supervisor it is sort of nice to just do it myself though. Got everything gutted to the radiator support yesterday. Only the lights wiring in front of the radiator left to remove. I have a shop manual for the car that has two wiring diagrams, Deluxe and Custom. Mine is closer to the Deluxe except for the wipers, lighter and heater are not included on the Deluxe drawing. No matter as I will create my own schematic with a fuse block for power distribution as well as converting to a true turn-signals and three brake light configuration on the rear of that beautiful big butt. Since I am cheap I think I will use all #12 wire and run parallel wires where #10 would normally be. That way I can buy one spool of wire and do the entire car. Probably use black THHN. Maybe wrap some loom style with friction tape where it is visible. We will see...............Tim

[Plymouthy Adams]

10 guage wire is a bit more but I think it would be a wise idea to invest in a few feet of it. There is not that much 10 to run in the car..

[Young Ed]

If it were me I'd invest in as many colors as I could find. Troubleshooting wiring thats all 1 color is a nightmare.

[oldodge41]

10 guage wire is a bit more but I think it would be a wise idea to invest in a few feet of it. There is not that much 10 to run in the car..

You are correct there is not that much #10. I just like to be a little different I guess. Plus if I buy a roll of #12 I can do the whole car and use any excess in the basement I have to wire.

[oldodge41]

If it were me I'd invest in as many colors as I could find. Troubleshooting wiring thats all 1 color is a nightmare.

With everything labeled, documented in a wire schedule and good schematics I won't have any problem troubleshooting. When you know where both ends are it is easy to test the middle with a meter.

[oldodge41]

Today I made an Auto-Cad wiring diagram for the brake/turn/tail lights and created a wire schedule on Excel. As bad as the insulation was on some of what I pulled out it ts amazing to me that it worked and never caught fire, I only blew one fuse in the 20+ years I've had it and that was this summer.

[oldodge41]

All wire is now gutted. Today I pulled apart my gauge cluster to see why I never had any light on the gauges even though the lamp worked. I found the inside of the housing was painted a bright white, sort of reflective. It was very dirty and the paint was deteriorated. I cleaned it up and painted it silver to reflect the light. Re-assembled it and hooked it up to a 6 volt lantern battery. Definitely an improvement. Next is to start wiring to the prints. Progress.......... finally.

[Frank Elder]

All wire is now gutted. Today I pulled apart my gauge cluster to see why I never had any light on the gauges even though the lamp worked. I found the inside of the housing was painted a bright white, sort of reflective. It was very dirty and the paint was deteriorated. I cleaned it up and painted it silver to reflect the light. Re-assembled it and hooked it up to a 6 volt lantern battery. Definitely an improvement. Next is to start wiring to the prints. Progress.......... finally.

White actually reflects light better than silver, silver being darker absorbs more light and reflects less than white.

[oldodge41]

White actually reflects light better than silver, silver being darker absorbs more light and reflects less than white.

Oops! Oh well the silver I used will be better than what was there.

[oldodge41]

First section of the new wiring harness ready to install. Headlights/Turn signals/Fog lights/Parking lights to terminal strip on inner fender.

[oldodge41]

Another step complete. The engine compartment harness is complete and I got it and the front light harness put in place. Next is making and installing the rear light harness and then terminating everything. Below is a picture of the engine compartment harness before installation.

[randroid]

oldodge41,

I'm anxiously awaiting a picture or six of what you're going to do under the dash. I can only imagine it will take several looms to complete it and am getting curious as to how you will split it, if at all.

-Randy

[Mark D]

Tim - Give us some insight as to how you made the harnesses. I've seen folks do the layout on plywood, followed by laying in the wires, then wrapping them up with tape and terminating. Was wondering if anyones ever created a fullsize autocad drawing for the layout. Might be something worth doing? Is there a document that exists which describes the individual wires lengths?

[BobT-47P15]

My car is done in all same color wire.....thanks to son in law a few years

ago. He made tags on various wires using masking tape. The bad part

is the tape kind of fizzles out after a few years.....either falls off or can't

read the writing. So, if making tags, find something more permanent than

the masking tape.

[oldodge41]

"Give us some insight as to how you made the harnesses." My process probably only makes sense to me. LOL, but here goes. I made a list or "wire schedule" of all the wires that I removed when I gutted the old stuff. I then assigned all the wires numbers that are noted on the wire schedule. I made some auto cad drawings of some of the wiring that I needed to get straight in my head because of deviations I made such as turnsignal/brake lights with dual filament bulbs and added them to the schedule. Next I made lists of wires that end up in the same vicinity and would place a wire in that location. Then I would place a representative wire from another location that enters the same loom and so on. I then cut the other wires, numbering each one to the schedule, using the ones I had placed to determine length. I placed tie-wraps as markers at each point of exit from the loom and began wrapping the bundles of wire that exit the main harness. I then wrapped the main body of the harness and put it in place as a unit. The wires will be trimmed to length when i terminate them.

"I'm anxiously awaiting a picture or six of what you're going to do under the dash. I can only imagine it will take several looms to complete it and am getting curious as to how you will split it, if at all."

I will take some pics. There will be several bundles under dash as there are three seperate looms entering. One from engine compartment and one from each side that go to the rear. By splitting the wires by side I was able to tuck the wires under the ridge in my door sill plate. Four on one side and three on the other. Didn't want to try to fish through the headliner. Fishing the dome light wasn't too bad though.