Technical Rebel Wire Harness diagrams and wiring info

After looking at this I think I may have the 1 & 2 wires out of the alternator crisscrossed, would that cause the battery to drain ???

Edit : see my post on previous page 24

 

Add a light bulb to your thin red wire would recreate an idiot light, what would the result be?

 

I recently replaced the blinker switch on my 65 C10. Prior to that everything worked fine now when I turn the key on the rear lights blink like hazards. Of you turn the right blinker on it blinks like normal with no left but if you push the left on or leave it neutral both blink. I've double checked the wiring and the hazard circuit isn't hooked up. Any ideas what to look for?


I have the Rebel 9+3 harness in the truck

 

You have rechecked your wiring. No splices touching anywhere. Double checked the terminals in place where the long plastic terminals join.

 

@raidmagic ,
Are you using the GM turn signal switch that is built into the original column?

When you say blinker switch, do you mean the flasher? Typically they come with two blade connectors, or three blade connectors.

Is your new flasher the same model number (550, 552, etc.) as the old one?

 

I would say the problem is in the new switch since it worked fine before that. Sounds like the purple flasher wire has a path to the brake lights when the turn signals switch is off. I would probably try this to test it: unhook the switch from the harness. Turn the key on, you should have no lights since it's all dead. Jump the purple flasher wire to each turn signal wire (light blue left front, dark blue right front, yellow left rear, and green right rear) you should get a flashing signal at each corner when you jump it to the purple flasher wire...(if you have regular 1157 bulbs in)...you're drawing a load on the flasher and sending the power to the bulbs. You'd be simulating the switch working left and right. If that all checks out it more confirms that it's something internal in the new switch.

The brake circuit in the turn signal switch has continuity with the rear wires, so if the purple was making contact with the brake inside the switch, it would blink the 2 rears whenever you turn the key on. The fronts aren't tied to the brake circuit, and the hazard circuit is a constant hot (so it would do it all the time), and the hazard catches the brake (both rears) and the 2 front turns as well. I would bench test that switch.

 

It won't cause any issues to splice the power wires, just make sure you have good connections and wire. You really only have to splice the power wires to move the fuse panel. Take the headlight switch for example. In that 21 circuit only 2 wires are actually power for the switch: the yellow headlight switch power and the green HL switch TL power. The other wires: park, tail light, dash light, and dimmer switch power, bypass the fuse panel and just run from the switch out to the lights. I would separate the fuse panel from the other wires, move the other wires up under the dash, and then only splice the power wires from the panel as needed. Here's a list of wires and which ones are actually coming from the fuse panel as power wires.

 

Normally you might see a ground wire at say the right front park light, headlight, and turn signal, then it may actualy run over to the driver side and catch those lights, then get grounded to the core support. Or right side might ground on the right side of the body, left side lights ground on the left side...or they might all run back to somewhere under the dash. Your grounds just work their way back to the battery ground. You need a ground cable coming off the battery and running to the body, chassis, and engine. When the body is a good ground you should be able to come off of almost any good metal surface with a ground wire and ground things like the dash lights, tail lights, headlights, park lights, radio, wiper... I'd say the old wiring did the same thing, they may have just junctioned somewhere different, but any good clean metal surface should be fine. They all have to make their way back to that one battery ground post in the end. Most things are gonna use a body ground. If you have doubts about the body, you can use terminal blocks. Run a good ground to the block and then ground multiple things to the other terminals on the block. There's a bunch of different ways to do it and achieve the same results. It's mostly going to come down to personal preference and opinion on something like ground wires.

 

Looks like the white exciter and the voltage sense wire are swapped around at the terminals. On another note, I was recently messaging with Skratch and he was working on an old Chevy and the diode had gone bad and it wouldn't turn off. He had an old article that showed moving the battery wire to the F or 2 terminal with no exciter to make it a one wire. That worked, alternator still charges with no backfeed problem (this car had an on-off switch and push button so all the coil, exciter, and ignition wires are tied together).

 

There is no provision in the stock piece for hazard and the hazard wire in the harness isn't connected to anything.

 

Still, just disregard the hazard part...the rest is still good. Sounds like the switch to me. I'd bench test the switch and the wiring. With the switch unhooked from the harness put 12v or you could do continuity, and with the turn signal switch off, you shouldn't have continuity between the flasher wire and anything else on the column.

Depending on the switch, the color codes could be different. Does your new switch have a pink wire on it? if it does the flasher wire on that switch should be yellow, Right front is still dark blue, left front is still light blue, left rear should be pink, right rear should be purple.

If you run into anything let me know what colors you have and we can see how to test it. Either way, I'd unhook it and bench test the switch. It's all just power in and power out and since it was working before, I'd concentrate on the switch.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'll pull it back out and go through it and report back.

 

You could leave it in the column for a quick test. Then if it looks suspicious pull it out, or at least that's what I'd do. Start with the easy stuff

 

Thank for all your help with this. I had to pull it all apart, the only way to see the inner pins are through the back, not a big deal. The pins appeared to be touching even when neutral and I did some reading about these aftermarket parts and it seems that it's a quality control issue. I ended up pulling the pins from my stock unit and putting them in the aftermarket unit and everything is right now. Blinkers work properly, brake lights are good.
Thanks again.

 

I’m having an issue with my harness ( I think it’s a 9+3) that I installed in 2012. It has worked as it should for many years until recently I started having a no crank condition when turning the key switch to the start position. Does the purple wire leave the ignition switch then run through a relay before the purple wire comes out to the engine compartment? I can run a jumper wire to the purple wire at the firewall and the starter will crank? I assumed it must have been the ignition switch itself but after replacing it it didn’t correct the issue? Everything else works as it should, just the purple starter wire going to the starter solenoid (GM starter) goes dead somewhere between the ign. Switch and where the purple wire comes out of the firewall with the rest of the harness that runs to the engine compartment. I’m thinking if it runs through a relay then there must be something going on in that part of the circuit.Thanks

 

The purple starter wire does not run thru a relay, but it should run thru a neutral safety switch. Either the neutral safety switch needs adjusting or it needs to be replaced. This switch may be located on the lower end of the steering column it you have a column shift or on the floor shifter located on the transmission.
The purple wire leaves the ignition switch and goes thru the neutral safety switch and then to the starter solenoid. Since you can bypass the purple wire to the starter seems to indicate that the problem is with the neutral safety switch.
The neutral safety switch should let you start in both the Park and neutral shifter positions, if it won't start in the park position, try the neutral position. This may tell you if it needs adjusting or is completely not working.

 

The purple wire goes from the ignition switch to the neutral safety switch then to the small lug on the starter solenoid.
I'd bet the NSS has gotten out of adjustment and is no longer closed when the car is in park. Sometimes wiggling the shift lever while turning the key to start will work temporarily.
It's possible, but less likely, the NSS has failed.
Keep us posted.

 

There is no neutral safety switch to adjust, it’s a standard shift car with a hydraulic clutch. When I built the car I put a normally open pressure switch (typical Ford/Harley Davidson style brake light pressure switch) in line of the purple wire, when the clutch is depressed, there is pressure in slave line, pressure switch closes, and starter cranks. But to eliminate the switch as the problem, the safety switch is by-passed with a jumper. If I use a jumper wire and energize the purple wire at that point where the switch connects in the purple wire the starter cranks as it should.
It appears the purple wire goes from the ignition switch in the dash, runs about 18” and runs into a large grouping of wires that run into the fuseblock, then the purple wire comes out of the fuse block and is about 3-4 inches out of the fuse block through the firewall to the point that the pressure switch connects to it. As near as I can tell it has lost continuity at or in the fuse block then.

 

I don't follow exactly, but the Harley switch sounds like it failed.
If you pull the wires off the pressure switch and connect them together, then car starts ok?

 

I don't see a reason for the purple wire to go to the fuse block.

 

No, that’s the problem the purple wire is dead before it gets to the pressure switch.

 

I don’t either, but I didn’t make the harness. It’s a Rebel harness and it’s worked flawlessly for 12 years and about 60K miles. I’ve used about 5 or 6 or these harnesses and this is the only issue I’ve ever had, Until recently it would randomly not crank but if you tried 2 or 3 times then it would. It finally quit all together. I’m limited to what I can see of the wiring tooThe purple wire may not actually go into the fuse block, but it goes into the large bundle that runs into the fuse block. It comes out the other side and is dead. I know I can just run a new wire from the start lug on the key switch to the safety switch on the firewall and it will work but I’d like to understand why it quit. I don’t want to risk burning the car down if something in the main harness is compromised.
I can hear a relay trip when I turn the key to start and it seems to cut power to everything else while the momentary switch is activated but it’s not energizing the purple after it comes out of the grommet at the firewall. That’s why I’m inquiring about the relay I know there are a few relays in the car 1 would be a horn relay And at least 1 more for the Heat/AC and I think there is 1 or 2 more up under the dash as well.

 

Pretty sure the purple wire just passes by the fuse panel in the harness.

Any chance the wire broke internally from vibration either where it passed thru the firewall or there abouts.

 

I guess it’s possible, but it’s all bundled together nicely doesn’t move, and runs through a grommet.

 

Do you have a points ignition?
If so, the relay would bypass the ballast resistor, to provide full 12 volts to the coil while cranking.
Then with engine running, the coil would receive reduced voltage they the ballast resistor, to cause less deterioration of the points due to voltage arching.
But it seems the relay should be between the pressure switch and the coil, so I still don't understand the purple wire going through the fuse box.
The relay you hear during cranking, is it located on the fuse box?

 

No the only relay that is on the fuse box is the horn relay, there is no resistance by pass circuit on this one. It has a points to electronic conversion kit installed and the resistor by pass is not in play. I do run a ballast resistor but it’s in use all the time.
Tired of messing with it, I actually still had a piece of purple wire labeled Neutral safety switch I cut and saved from an old build. I fished it though the grommet and ran a new purple from the key switch out to the clutch safety switch and fixed the issue like I knew it would, but I don’t like not knowing or finding a bad spot or cut wire anywhere in the old circuit. There doesn’t seem to be any burnt or hot spots visible anywhere. I’m not sure how much amperage draw runs through that circuit while cranking but I’ve not had any problems with any of the others I’ve had like that. I don’t guess it has fuse protection in that circuit, I did over the years have to replace the pressure switch a couple times but I don’t know if that’s from drawing too much amperage through the switch or just the switch failing from use. Thanks for the replies, I guess it will remain a mystery until I can pull the carpeting and insulation up to cut into the big bundle of wires and see if there is a broken or burnt spot in that original purple wire.

 

Glad you got it fixed! I run into new parts with issues all the time over the last couple of years. Used to you could say well that's a new part so it's not the problem, but it's just not the case anymore. Just replaced a Jeep computer for a guy that spent $900 on it, and I went to a junkyard and got a used one and changed the vin to match. $100 stock part was better than the $900 rebuilt.

 

The purple wire is just a 14ga wire, 12ft long end to end. One end connects to the ignition switch and the other to the solenoid. Are you running it through a Neutral safety switch anywhere? That could kill the signal if so.

 

The only relay on the fuse panel is the horn relay. On some switches the accessory post drops off power when you're cranking, so you might be hearing your ac relay or something else disengaging when you move to crank position, but it's not in the fuse panel. The purple start wire is just a piece of wire (just like the coil wire) it runs from the ignition switch to the solenoid, but in your case it runs from the ignition switch to the clutch pressure switch, and clutch pressure switch to the solenoid. Before it was cut down, that purple wire came out about 30'' to the ignition switch bundle, and the rest of the 12' ran out into the engine compartment for the solenoid. It bypasses the fuse panel. Only power wires to feed switches come from the fuse panel. So the Red ignition switch power wire comes from the panel to feed the ignition switch, the orange and brown come from the switch to feed the panel (fuses), and the pink coil and purple start wires come directly from the switch to hot the starter and coil. It's got to be something from the ignition switch to the pressure switch if it's dead at the pressure switch when cranking and hot at the ignition switch end. You could ohm it out but one strand of wire would show continuity, and may not carry a load...I haven't seen any of these wires break, but something is going on. Just needs more investigating to see what's going on, trace the wire from the ignition switch to the pressure switch.

 

Thanks for the reply. With the new start/Safety switch wire installed it’s all fine again. I’m relieved to know that that purple wire doesn’t actually run into the fuse box. My main concern was it causing something else to fail too in the fuse box. So it must just be grouped into that large bundle at the box but not actually running into the box like the fuse protected circuits.
Thanks again for your reply and keep making those harnesses. I’ve had good luck with them for many years. I just installed another one a few months back for a friend on a 36 Chevy truck.