Hot Rods Wiring tricks for your hot rod?

I like to use crimp connectors without the plastic insulation, crimped mechanically,then solder with electric resin core solder, then heat shrink the end. Use SS star washers for a good positive connection. As a Naval 2nd class Petty Office aviation electrican's mate those days we soldered all connections into "pins" into the back of "cannon Plugs then sealed the back side with potting compound to prevent moisture and corrosion (Carrier based aircraft) if soldered connections work for those aircraft with vibrating twin radial engines then it should be good for an old hot rod. I will say that the wire quality was second to none with tinned copper fabric wrapped and Teflon coated. I don't know where to get that wire anymore last time I got some was 1972 Quonset Point RI 'surplus yard just before my discharge

 

There are several lacing videos on youtube. Here are a couple.

 

getting older and can't see when itry to wire under dash, used trailer conectors on guages and some other wires now i gust unplug the dash and remove it to get at wiring.

 

Newark, DigiKey, Specialized, and even Amazon list waxed lacing twine. Specialized sells tools, too.

http://www.specialized.net/Speciali...-lacing-twine-waxed-polyester-twine-8587.aspx

 

And a how-to....

http://selectric.org/manuals/lacing/index.html

 

These are only plans at this point, but I'm hoping to do several "different as far as I know" things when it comes to wiring my stretch body bobtail T.

• At least 1 extruded aluminum T-slot channel running the width of the firewall, in part for organized wire routing
• Because of the stretched body, the dash is too far for safely reaching for switches. To fix that, all the switches except a master kill will be mounted in a 4"x9" flip top aluminum switch and indicator light box on top of the steering column, just behind the quick release wheel
• The only other things in the dash, beside the master kill switch, will be the speedometer and tach
• Under the center of the dash will be a drawer to contain the fuse box, flashers, relays, etc. The face of the drawer will hold the remaining gauges
• All of the wiring going outside the body will pass through one or more Weatherpack bulkhead connectors

Between the drawer and the column mounted switch box, everything should be easy access. The various T-slot wiring management accessories should keep things organized.

 

String tie is what we call it. It's a wax string.

 

I have the Haywire kit. 14 circuit. It's the smallest one I have found to fit on my wiring tray.

 

Let me know how you like the haywire unit, this is in my not so distant future.

 

roothawg this in reference to your other thread I seen that you chev ad truck front spring for your rears. I have a 41 which is same frame as yours. what did you use as reference for locating springs. thanx in advance Tom

 

MJS40 did a tech thread on his 40 Ford pickup. That's where I stole the idea from. He does an in depth tech post on it.
This may be of value to you , if you haven't read it.
http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/my-40-ford-pickup-build.527407/

 

This is like the 3rd one I have used. I like them ok. Their tech guys are always willing to help.

 

This is slick, stealing this look for sure. Well done.

 

I found one time heat shrink that was labeled with what the wire was for. I think it was in a MACS catalogue. I also use heat shrink on all my connections. It just looks better. Also just a touch of rosin core solder on the end. Wired mine over 10yrs ago from scratch, no problems. Take your time, measure twice cut once.

 

I'm doing a 14-circuit Kwik Wire in my Ford right now. Two things I should have done right off the bat... make up an Excel spread sheet of the From/To, wire # and color. And of course function. I also like to assign "station" numbers to where they terminate. The other thing I should have done right away was to cut all the tie-wraps off the harness.

I made up a 1/2" plywood harness board and marked out everything on it in 1:1 scale. So I have it very well roughed out at this point. I have 2 bundles going out the firewall right now and may break out the HEI wires into a smaller bundle that will go through a smaller grommet.

 

I know next to nuthin' about 'tricity and what I do learn soon rolls off my teflon coated brain. When I rewired my '55 Chevy truck several years ago, the one page diagram I received with the harness didn't make much sense to me. I got a multimeter and began to check continuity one wire at a time. Then, I would record it on a CAD drawing. Different circuits were put on different CAD layers and devices were depicted as they actually appeared, not as symbols that I don't understand. Here is a link to the PDF file of the resulting (and everchanging) wiring diagram that resulted -

http://www.laroke.com/larryk4674/2007/bbwiring1.PDF

When I was finished with the diagram, it only took me two days, working outside, to rewire the truck and when everything was hooked up, no smoke escaped from the harness so, I didn't have to learn how to use my fire extingisher.

 

the biggest tip is that when you are done with your wiring project, test it with a small battery charger set on 2 amp setting, this way if you do find a boo-boo in a circuit, you are less likely to let the magic smoke out of the wires with 2 amps instead of 450+ from a battery.

 

Nicely done. I'm about to start doing something similar here. I'm buying a car that somebody else rewired, and I want to be good and sure that I know where everything goes now, while its working, so that I don't have to trace wires later while troubleshooting a problem. I'm also planning to neaten up the harness with lacing twine, probably rerouting some wires as needed.

What do the circles, squares, and underlines on the circuit numbers denote?

 

looks like the circuit numbers on the reproduction wiring harness.

 

My best kept secrete and the all time best trick in the world is to have my missus do it. LOL

I use insulated buss bars and terminal blocks all the time. The wife works in the electronics industry and brings them home in various sizes and configurations every year at year end inventory when they don't want them to roll over to next years stock. The do make for neat wiring.

I also keep wore numbers around and use them all the time that way of I am looking for the end of a wire in a neatly wrapped harness I can do it without taking the harness apart. I also don't have to worry about confusing brown for red wires that way.

 

Jim has it right. Here is the one page diagram I got (with circles, squares and underlines)

 

That's ... Actually I'm not sure what to say. I can see why you had trouble with it. It makes no sense. Looking at circuit 20 (horn) for example, it seems to show the horn button on the wheel (ok) and under the hood (?).

I expected something like wire color, solid color vs color with tracer, something like that. I'm used to reading complicated schematics. Yours is much better than this one.

 

Many thanx. Actually, my diagram is not complete and the horns are not shown (they are behind the grill and I did not get around to drawing them yet). The gizmo under the hood, on the firewall, that the main harness references is the horn relay.

When I drew the CAD diagram, I tried to match the harness colors. I wrote a log entry on my site when I rewired the truck and there are individual circuits in PDF format indicated in links on the left side of the page if you are interested. They are the same CAD wiring diagram with CAD layers turned off so you can see individual circuits.

http://www.laroke.com/larryk4674/2001/wip13a.htm

 

No pics, but my T Bucket is wired so that the headlights can only work in the ACC or ON position. Just in case a prankster decides to reach in and burn my battery down.

 

Not a bad idea, that also prevents doing it to yourself by having a senior moment and forgetting to turn them off.

 

I read all the replies but didn't see that anyone was running the wiring from the fuse box down thru the floor and along the frame rails, is this a bad thing? I am getting ready to wire a model a and was thinking about running them thru the floor with a grommet but if this is not correct then I will run thru the firewall, all be it lower so closer to the frame.
Is there a preferred method?

 

I started mine today. I notched the toe board to facilitate my loom. I put it right in the corner. I split it and followed the frame fwd and aft.

 

What size hole did you make and do you have a picture? That would help me out a great deal.

Thanks