Technical Rebel Wire Harness diagrams and wiring info

My Rebel wiring kit has been extraordinary, as has the service I've received.

I have a question about gauges on my '61 Dodge. Will I need to use the gauge power wire, or is, for example, the fuel sender wire and ground wire enough? Or water temp sender and ground wire good enough?

The reason I ask is that these gauges, in their previous wiring, had a lot more going on than the Rebel diagrams show. If the sender and ground are good enough, to which terminals on the fuel gauge would those leads go?

Thank you,

 

This might be some help?
https://www.sweptline.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=40452

 

Gauges operate by grounding out through the sending unit; but need a power input (gauge power wire); either full 12 volt or limited voltage depending on design.

Thing attached to the panel in the first picture looks like a Ford constant voltage regulator; so maybe the voltage is reduced to the gauges. I can see one terminal has a B by it; but can't make out the rest. Any chance your original pictures show where the wires went.

 

Looks like the multiple spades above the fuel gauge is just a separate hot bus to pull hot wires off of. Looks like they brought power into the regulator (12v) and jumped it up to the strip to be able to grab 12v if the needed it...then the factory blue wire comes off the other side, probably a pulsing 5v like a Ford. Then the blue wire just jumped to the fuel and temp gauges to feed them. The amp gauge isn't fed off the regulator. It needs it's own 10ga wires in and out if you want to run it. They used to be problematic on the Mopars, and I wouldn't recommend it if you've upgraded to a higher output alternator.

So the red gauge power wire would be your keyed 12v into the voltage regulator (where the double spade is in the picture). Then jump off the other side and feed the fuel and temp gauges. Any indicator lights get 12v and don't come off the regulator. The sender wires, fuel and temp are really the ground sides, but come off the senders and vary the grounds through the senders to make the needles move.

So on each gauge you'll have the jumper off the regulator and a sender wire. You probably don't even need the bus spades above the fuel gauge, unless you wanted to use it as a ground bus maybe? run a good ground to it and pull the grounds off of it for the dash lights, high beam indicator, turn indicators... Let me know if you need any help with it.

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

This diagram might help a little, but you can tell what was the sender wires and what was the power because the power comes off the regulator in the picture and jumps to both gauges. The other side would be the sender. The ammeter is separate hot wires. The fed the regulator and then fed the multiple spades to use as a hot bus... you can usually figure out what's going on just by how the wires were ran and once you get a couple figured out you can rule out the others. The fun part is tracing out printed circuit boards on late 60's and 70's stuff.

 

Thank you Jeremy, I'll try these suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

I think these are slick.

 

The junction block can be handy.
Red would indicate positive, so it can be important to try to cover some of the exposed area, to prevent inadvertent shorts, when working nearby.
Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/MGI-SpeedWar...77-96e8-54d1eda06d96&pd_rd_i=B07ZBLP24V&psc=1

 

One question to save me some frustration in searching...the connectors on the fuel and temp gauges...the ones that press on to the bolts, what are they called?

 

While the proper sized terminals probably exist somewhere; "female bullet connectors" can be squeezed down to sorta fit the gauge studs; but using regular ring terminals and nuts is a better idea.

 

I agree, if you can find a nut to fit the gauge studs, I'd use ring terminals for best, trouble-free connection.

 

I found some 90 degree insulated terminals with a short wire attached at McFadden hardware, used it for my mustang style brake light switch.

 

Couple of radio wiring questions
-green "illumination" wire...what does that connect to?
-orange brake wire...brake switch?

 

Green is the dash lights. I've not seen orange wire before but my take is it's a warning that the parking brake is on. If you don't have a sensor or switch on the parking brake, I see no need for it.

 

3g alternators. If you use the factory Ford charging harness do I still need the mega fuse?

 

Alternator question, @REBEL43 .

 

How do I go about ordering one of your kits? I tried rebelwire.com but it keeps kicking back on me.

 

@sidevalve8ba I got kicked out when I tried to access their web site also, they evidently have a connectivity problem I'd give it a few hours and try again.

 

@sidevalve8ba , you should be able to order here:
https://watsons-streetworks.com/product/rebel-wire-9-3-wiring-harness/

 

Last time I read about the 2g and 3g alternators, they fused them because they were prone to failures. I think the 2g was worse than the 3g. The fusible link in the harness is protection for the bus bars inside the fuse panel. You could do a mega fuse or fusible link on the alternator if you wanted some extra protection. It wouldn't hurt anything.

 

The company that hosts the website was having problems last week and looks like they're having problems again.
We've had some bad weather last night and today that could be affecting it as well. You can always call the shop at 423-263-5399 to order by phone, order with one of our dealers on ebay, Chris at Shoebox Central in OK (405) 259-9222, Kramer at Watson's Streetworks in NH (603) 943-7923, both usually have harnesses in stock. No matter where it comes from we build them all and I do tech support on them if you need it. Let me know if you guys need anything.
Thanks,
Jeremy

 

I'm wiring my '29 RPU with an 8 circuit Rebel Wire harness. My second one, so some experience. No OEM switch gear is being used. Universal aftermarket stuff, ignition switch with no "acc." position. The brown "acc" wire in the ignition switch bundle is not hooked to anything. Off, on, start positions only. Put power on the fuse block today and checked the fuses. The bottom row of 4 illuminate a test light on either blade, the top row of 4 (just below flashers and horn relay) show no power on either blade with switch on or off. What I have working: headlights high and low beam, power to the coil, solenoid with switch in the start position, power to ignition coil/ballast resistor, pink constant power cell charger/radio wire, horn. I have not confirmed power to tail/brake lights or TS functions yet.

With switch in either on or off position, I have no power at the blue radio wire, the blue wiper wire, and the red gauge power wire. Why no power on the top 4 fuses?

 

Bob, can you check for continuity between the brown acc wire and the fuses that are missing power? I'm thinking that acc wire needs to be hooked to the 'on'.

 

This would be the problem. The ACC position is powered both during the ON and ACC positions of the switch. Without an ACC position, this wire should be tied into the ON position as well. Tail lights should be powered from the headlight switch, turn signals and stop lights should be powered from a fuse(s) through the flasher and brake switch possibly also off the brown wire.

 

The kit has 2 power sources, battery power and ignition power. The dead row is most likely switched power from the ignition switch. The great thing about the Rebel kits is that you can modify them to suit your needs, I switched circuits around, eliminated the turn signal/hazard set up all together and added things to the empty spaces.

 

Thanks for the help, guys! I've locked the shop up for the night but I'll be out there in the morning. Will put power on the brown accessory wire and see what happens.

 

Everyone is telling you right on this. The top row of fuses are powered by the brown accessory wire and needs to be powered by the ignition switch. You can put the brown wire on the ACC position and it will power the 4 dead fuses. The running lights (park, tail,dash) will be powered through the headlight switch and will be a constant hot. You should be good when you get the ACC wire connected to the switch.
Thanks,
Jeremy

 

Thanks for the help, all. In the absence of having an accessory position on my switch, I attached the wire to the ignition terminal and that powered up the 4 top fuses. The "switched power" circuits are now functioning. I'm good to go for now, but I'm sure I'll be back for more help when I hook up the turn signal switch.

 

No thank you for starting the thread and Rebel43 posting an answer. Just ordered a wiring kit from his company to wire my 51.

 

Currently fitting a 9+3 kit into my 1962 Buick special wagon, my ignition has 6 tabs yet the Rebel kit has 5 wires, can anyone advise what goes where please.
Many thanks
Chris