Technical Rebel Wire Harness diagrams and wiring info

Thanks! We do sell some terminals, usually when someone figures out what all they need. Honestly the problem is that even though we're still cheaper than other's, the good terminals average about .25 each. We tried to put together a small package once, and quickly came to $20-30. Which most people who do electrical work know isn't bad, but not everyone wants to pay. I just mailed out some earlier today. I fully agree the ones in auto parts stores are terrible. A good resource for smaller quantities of terminals is waytekwire.com they do have some minimum quantities on terminals, but it's a lot smaller than most

 

Can any of your fuse blocks be ordered to accept a 3 prong turn signal flasher? Like needed for a Signal Stat 900. Or conversion harness instructions on how to use your block with the 900 and a remote flasher holder?

 

I put one of your harnesses in one of my cars. Nice product, never needed your tech line. When I ordered it I informed you I was running a generator and a nice little diagram and instruction came with the kit.
I highly recommend you.

 

Excellent info.

 

We can switch out the (2) 552 flashers for a single 3 pin, done it plenty of times. It's not a problem. You can actually use the 2 pin flasher and put the P (pilot) and L (load) wire both to the flasher wire in the harness. The only drawback it that the indicator in the switch will glow whenever the key is on, and flash when you use the signals, like normal. If you're running dash indicators you don't need the 3rd prong at all, that's what it's for. But I'm rambling, just call before ordering and we can switch it out, no extra charge

 

I used a 9+3 in my 64 Mercury and loved it: well made and easy to install. I ran into one issue with the column wiring and the customer service was awesome. I have already ordered and received a 9+3 for my hot rod project. @REBEL43 installed a 3prong flasher in mine when I ordered, and walked me through the tricks on wiring in an old school 4-wire Yankee turn signal. Maybe this thread is a good place to share that info with the board. (Truth is I can’t find my notes from our call!)


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Not really. Yes, there will be applications that will need a custom harness, but for most cars simply increasing the 'basic circuit' wire sizes will address the problem. Personally, I wouldn't use anything smaller than #14 for any circuit, and I'd bump every other size up one from what you show. The wire price difference should be minimal, plus it would reduce your inventory and tool requirements.

Just for an example, I used your wire sizes on my 'typical' car spreadsheet that I did in my Wiring 101 post. While some circuits are fine at your wire sizes, I get drops in excess of 3% on multiple circuits, most are over 4%. While that's under the 5% I shoot for, it doesn't include the drops in the fuse panel feed wires. With only #10 wire feeding the panels, these are going to be fairly large also, so seeing how drops are additive, the total drop in some circuits are going to be well over 5%.

I'm not trying to bust your balls, just pointing out that while your harnesses are adequate for pre-war up to about '56 MY cars as long as you don't get carried away with electrical goodies, for a lot of late '50s/60s cars they're not unless you start adding 'fixes' to them. As I'm a firm believer in the KISS principle, the simpler you can make it, the more reliable it will be... And few vendors go broke by offering a better product. Once everything is in the pipeline, I can't imagine that this upgrade would add more than $20-30 to the average harness cost, although you know better than I do just how much of what is in each harness. The current price difference at Cerro wire between #18 and #14 wire is only 7 cents per foot, and between #14 and #12 only 10 cents. #14 wire has considerably better mechanical strength compared to #16/18 too, which is another reason I don't care for the small wire.

Anyway, that's my input, maybe one of you guys will address this and save me (and others) from having to build a harness from scratch.

I do hope you go ahead and show 'typical' circuit diagrams, and you'll probably get comments from me on those too... LOL!

 

I hope I didn't scare him off....

 

...very good info here,...thanks

 

I’m thinking that Crazy Steve should go into business because he has the knowledge to offer a superior product.

 

If I were 20 years younger and had the cash to start the business, I would. But I'm retired, happy with the money coming in so I don't need more, and don't need any additional headaches; old age furnishes enough of those, thank you very much... LOL

Again, it shouldn't be that costly to do the upgrade. Using the prices I posted above, if the wire lengths furnished are say 20', upgrading each lead from 18 to 14 would cost $1.40 more. 16 to 14 would only be $.60. 14 to 12 would be $2.00. I for one would be more than willing to pay the difference to get the harness that requires fewer or no 'band-aids' to make it work right.

 

I remember that, if it’s the one I’m thinking of: yankee turn signal switch with dual filament rear bulbs and a converter to sort out brake from turn signals? I’ll post some turn signal switch info. If it’s not on my phone it’s at the shop.

 

Far from it, we’re just not the guys to build what you want. I’m sure someone will eventually see the need and build it. Clearly you’re not the “average” car builder and don’t really need any advice or tips on wiring your car. I’m just trying to help the guys that need it. No sales pitch here, there are a lot of harness manufacturers, and Rebel Wire isn’t going to be for everyone. Anyone that I can help, I’m willing to, but you obviously don’t need it.

It reminds me of when I was madly obsessed about my fuel mileage, and why it wasn’t what I thought it should be. One day my odometer quit. It was the best thing that could have happened. But what mileage am I getting? How will I know? Who cares, I still cruise on down the road

 

I'll be 68 the next time I get a birthday cake, and never understood things electrical, has anyone produced a book that explains just what is going on inside the wires and how the fires start? Bob

 

One other dumb question, is there an upgrade for the coil feed from 14ga to 12ga as I'm using an HEI distributor? IIRC that is a 12ga wire but I could be wrong.

Thank you for your earlier response also.

 

Never had an electrical fire before, but think it might have something to do with all those hot headed electricians arguing over who’s right and who’s wrong...let’s just wire some cars

 

That is one of the reasons I'll never wire anything, as soon as both ends of a wire are connected you'll get corrected. I'm too old to learn by fire, but I do read the electrical threads up to the point I don't understand things, made it through the first paragraph once. Bob

 

You’re welcome. All we use for the coil wire is 14ga, never had a problem. We’ve had a ton of HEI setups used with our kits. I’ve seen where some instructions call for a 12ga, but we don’t use it or stock it. We could put you in a 12ga red no label wire in place of it. I’m sure some other guys can chime in on what they’ve used for an HEI distributor, probably the most popular setup out there. Something I have seen is the starter robbing voltage from the ignition system and needing to run a bypass from a relay or solenoid to send 12v to the coil when cranking. But the voltage is low at the switch, before it ever comes through the coil wire. Even the stock systems used that setup

 

Rebel...
I've been wiring cars (from scratch) since 1957, recently installed 2 kits by 'Painless' and a Ron Francis kit back in '75.
Both kits I 'retroed', for certain reasons, but of late I ordered one of yours. (for my own truck, a '55 F100). Everything as I would do it, easily within the lines of my 'UGLY' book!
Of the 100+ hot rods, street rods, gassers, customs, etc. that I have wired, no complaints ever. (Oh, there was one: I inadvertently wired an alternator exciter wire to the 'run' terminal instead of the 'acc' in Rick Stees's Early Times '30 Phaeton.
I made a quick 'house call' to fix it...Rick was stranded outside Al's Grog & Sirloin with an engine that just 'wouldn't quit'! Fix was simple, just an 'oversight'.)
The only thing I have to change in your magnificent kit is the Chevrolet outrigger at the mast jacket, simply a design preference.
For the life of me, I can't see how you could possibly be critiqued for 'inadequate wire cross section' (gauge)

If 16-18 gauge is 'just not mechanically strong enough', I suggest stronger bracketing on secured objects, lest they go 'swinging'...LOL

You may not be the guy for everyone...but I'm 'stoked' with my Rebel kit.
I recommend it.

 

Virtually every electrical fire starts because there's too much current (amps) at a given point. Now, how that comes to be can't be explained easily; there's multiple causes it could be, every case will be at least slightly different.

 

Thanks for that. We use and stand behind our wiring. The SXL wire has spoiled me on anything else. It’s crazy sometimes going against a cheaply made kit with a huge advertising budget, but we love what we do, and intend to keep doing it well

 

This is one of the Yankee 4 wire switch diagrams I had. Not much to it, just a left turn, right turn, load or flasher wire, and pilot, which is the indicator bulb in the switch
If you had this switch and wanted to use dual filament rear bulbs, you could use a trailer light converter box to sort that out. Normally your turn signal switch would do that, but a simple 3-4 wire switch can’t do that. So you would put a converter inline in the rear turn wires and bring the brake light wire into the input side. Then your rear turn wires would work as brake and turn signal
Here’s a diagram showing the converter wired into the rear

 

FWIW, my 36 has one of your 8 circuit kits in it, purchased back in 2014, still goin strong and thankfully no issues.

 

That’s what we like to hear! If you do have any issues just call us and we’ll go over it

 

Already answering questions I didn’t know I had lol.

 

agreed

 

This is a thread that will get referred to a bunch. I've often suggested that people asking what wiring kit go with the one that has a solid reputation for having a good tech line and suggest Rebel Wire as one to check out on a couple of other boards I poke around on.

 

As this thread develops I'm sure it will be a great help to a lot of people. Some people seem to struggle with the wiring side of their cars and a thread like this helps to exchange ideas and solve problems.

Good on you REBEL43 for starting this thread. Also, cool having the 64 Galaxie tail lamps in the turn signal diagram.

 

And I was hoping for a meaningful conversation on the subject... oh well. I can tell when I'm being blown off.

I breathlessly await your display of expertise...

 

As moderator of the 1952-59 Ford Social Group since 2009 the biggest issue that drives my guys nuts is making the " GM friendly" universal harnesses work with the Ford headlight switches,you recently walked a member though that and we saved that to our "Sticky Faq" file thanks for helping out But a 9+3 Ford harness would be nice too hint,hint. Also I want to give you a hat's off salute for your great service after the sale you've given our members over the years having help as close as your phone is a big plus.