Spent the day ripping out the mangled mess that was someone's excuse for a wiring job in my wife's '66 chevy c10, going to start wiring it back up tomorrow with the rebel 9+3 kit that I bought (huge thanks to glenn33 and tugmaster). The instructions look good and the harness looks great, but I wouldn't mind some additional guidance. Anybody got any advice for the first timer? Maybe a build thread in particular that had the install of a new harness detailed in it? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. Chris (and feel free to buy my '51 Buick off me).
Chris, Sorry no photos but I can give you a few ideas. First off figure out where you want to mount the fuse block. You want it out of the way but still want to have access to it. Get it mounted. Next, I like to take all the wires and divide them up by where they are going ie, rear of the car, eng compartment, dash, front lights ect. This way instead of a big pile of wire you have 3 or 4 smaller piles. Run them to where they are going to go. Then just start hooking them up. Not hard, just one wire at a time. Make sure you have good grounds. I ground the motor to the frame and body in two places (usually both sides of the motor via the bellhousing bolts). Let me know if you need any more help. Todd
should be at this point with my Model A soon.. at this point it seems pretty straight forward..I will try to take some pitctures as i go , if i dont get to wrapped up in it...literally
What Tug said. Make sure your grounds are solid. Run extra grounds if in doubt of body grounds (rusty dash, body, fenders, light socket mounts, firewall...) Before I loom my wiring together, I always add a couple black 14ga wires in the loom to each corner for lights, etc... Better to have it than regret it later. Also- dome lights. Sometimes confusing. Wire marked "dome" is a positive+ to the light. You have to add the ground- to the circuit which goes to your headlight switch and door pin switches. This means you need to buy a roll of black and a roll of white 14ga wire. I also add wires that I may or may not need later, like 3rd brake light, ac, etc... Just in case.
Just to re-emphesize the importants of gounds. Make sure the spot where the bolt goes through has bare shiny metal. Don't count on just the bolt threads to give you a good ground. Also I like to cover my grounds with a little dab of dielectric grease. You can get it in smalls tubes at most auto parts stores. Todd
Got the engine wired, about to start on the interior. Question about the key though - I've got: (clockwise, starting at 12 o'clock) sol, acc, grd, ign, bat. For wires I've got power, start, acc, coil, acc, (I'll run a ground) I assume the following (in conjunction with the excellent diagram) Power goes to bat, start goes to sol, coil and acc go to ign, acc to acc?
All of the advice so far is good, the vehicle you are wiring has a very simple and basic electrical system, much better to install a good quality aftermarket kit and rewire the whole thing than to try to sort out a 45 year old system that has wire that the insulation has become brittle on and no telling how much stuff spliced and taped up over the years. You'll have to be crimping some terminals and connectors--do yourself a favor and invest in a really good crimping tool. Channel-loc makes the best one I've seen--I think it cost around $25 from Summit but well worth it, I've never had a problem with any connection I made with that crimping tool. For your ground connections, use those star washers with the teeth that bite into the metal.
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