I'm gonna rewire my 41 chevy, of course its going 12v , It is just a shell right now and have the dash out so its the perfect time to rewire it. It has a 216 nothing special , so all I want to know what gauge wire should I use on the rewire. Tail lights, headlights , gas tank ect .... Any feed back would be great.... thanks Ed PS. I know they sell kits but this isn't rocket science , everything is more or less A to B and enjoy doing it myself...
Everything you need to know for figuring wire sizes.... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/wiring-101.843579/
Not rocket science but the kits have all the correct sizes at your finger tips. By the time you by enough different sizes of wire you could pay for the kit. That's just my opinion.
Speedway and Summit have basic kits for a good price. I went with a Kwik Wire 14-circuit for my Ford and it was very good, ran me $275.
So, I guess by now you have read Steve's thread. All you need is the wire, terminals, and the tools. How about taking some pics as you proceed, including wire size per circuit you calculated, then post pics here, so others can benefit. Your confidence (and pics) will help those who are not so confident in tackling a job like this. You might even show how dash comes out. Good luck on your project.
I rewired my 37 Chevy Ute. So little circuits on these old cars you can do it easy without a kit. Just use same gage wires as the factory use, just look in any old service manual. Basically I used 14 gage for headlights and ignition, 16 for taillight (single for mine), and 18 is fine for gas tank. Use 10 or 12 for charge wire. Be sure to use fuses in the system.
I wired my '37 with simple tools and terminals. I used all 14 gauge since thats what I had. I also ran a dedicated ground wire to each light just so down the road I didn't have ground issues. I made a simple "fuse" box under the seat using circuit breakers and a couple of relays for this and that. I ran a couple spare wires to the front for future A/C and fan if needed. One thing I wish I would have done was break the harness at the firewall so I could unhook it and pull the whole front clip as an assembly. Run one big heavy wire under the dash for any future add ons, it will save splicing in down the road.
Yes I read his topic and it got a little out there from time to time and or some of the updated circuits wasn't for my car so I had to thumb threw most of it , not until his example sheet is what more or less the info I needed. I just needed a break down thats all , if I could understand everything I would be a electrician and not plaster.. On my build everything on the wiring should be basic since I'm not using nothing out of the ordinary , not even a heater. I already pre rewired the dash
that was the same info on wiring sizes I got but wanted to reconfirm the info plus needed to know fuse sizes too. Im not the first owner on my car and the wiring had been messed with over the years but it looks to have only one fuse in the system at the headlights switch. But if there is room for improvement there when its rewired..
Yes any accessories and future ones will be wired too so not to effect the rest of the harness and fuse box. thank for the feed back.
Maybe, maybe not. All the kits I've seen tend to use 'average' wire sizes that may be adequate for some harnesses, but not for others; you really need to calculate each circuit to be sure. Again, the OEMs and aftermarket vendors like to use smaller wire to keep costs down, but when you're dealing with electrical, small is bad, big is good....
I agree, I made my own wiring for my 39 Deluxe Ford Coupe, but bought a Ron Francis kit for the convertible. I will put a Francis kit in the 42 Chevy. Yes it is not hard to make your own harness, but the cost and time factor of making one just doesn't justify that. Buy a kit.
Ok guys here's a UPDATE after looking into the wiring manufactures that was posted I checked on EBay too. I looked at a basic universal wiring kit for my year of car. They started from around $125 on up, I was looking at a Keep it Clean kit Johnny Law sells and it was $135. not bad at all. But then as I scrolled down the page Ebay other matches of what you looking at, and I seen another seller selling a similar kit for $68. NO way.... I clicked on it and yes $68 and free shipping, he was having something like a 50 % off sale, and had 4 available. So I saved it and shot the link to some friends of mine for their thoughts. They are like dam that's a hell of a price. And I'm thinking too good to be true or you get what you pay for. The item was going to end the next day and I hadn't decided to take the chance. So I said the heck with it and went for it , it came in the mail yesterday and all I got to say is OMG this is a full kit with all the wires I need and more. All the fuses, fuse box , blinker and relay, butts connectors and harness plugs and even one for the alternator. I'm not an auto electrician but I can tell the wire is not cheesy and it has what it goes to printed up and down the outer cover. It not all cover and less wire by no way. I don't know if some screwed up or what but this kit was a steal of a deal and if you could see it you would say no way for $68.....
Steve, Please explain what is wrong with using the same (proper over rated) wire throughout the car? We're not GM trying to cut corners with tiny wires to make the corporite bottom line look better at the end of the year by saving a few spools of wire. Bob
Bob, I was noting that the 'universal' kits that nearly all vendors sell generally use wire sizes that are ok for 'average' circuit loads. The trouble with doing this is not all vehicles will be 'average'; some will have higher loads, some will have lower loads. Now, if your vehicle is average or towards the lower side of average, the kits will work fine. But if yours is above average, you'll start seeing excessive voltage drops. That will produce dim lights, maybe other issues depending on the circuit and/or load. There's multiple variables that will affect this besides just wire size; is the wire sized big enough for the load? How long is the wire length? A wire that's adequate at a 10' length could be too small at 15'. Are you connecting to vintage parts or all-new stuff? The internal connections in vintage parts can degrade over time and have increased resistance, couple that with too-small wire and you can have issues. One complaint that comes up fairly regularly here is dim taillights. Now again, there's multiple reasons they can be dim and you'll get multiple 'solutions' for fixing them. One common 'fix' is installing LED lamps in place of the incandescent lamps but that really is only masking the basic problem which is too-small wire/low voltage feeding the lamps. If you had bigger wire and full voltage, you shouldn't be able to tell any difference between the two lamp types. These are all things I explained in my 'Wiring 101' thread. The ONLY issue with using 'too big' wire is you may have issues connecting it to some devices if the wire coming out is 2-3 sizes smaller and/or finding suitable connectors if the wire size is larger than #10.
^^^^^^^^^^^ So, the LARGEST wire that will fit on the terminal/device is the safest, or is there some electrical rule that won't allow that?
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