Features Homemade Wiring

Never saw wires connected to a battery, it isn't "simple" Bob

 

You got me! I was trying to keep it simple! I knew somebody was going to say “ what no fuse? No ground? “! The hamb never lets me down! lol






Bones

 

Hey, Bob, yeah the wires actually on cars originate usually from the starter relay, but then the relay is connected to the battery!
It seems simple to me, because I’ve dealt with this stuff for 33 years , professionally.
I understand the overwhelming appearance of a wiring diagram. But if you break it down to one circuit at a time, it is more easily understood.






Bones

 

And don't forget wire gauge and fuse amperage calculations...

 

I'm the clueless one but this looks like crap. Bob

 

You are correct, it looks like crap because it is crap.

 

Merry Crapness.

 

Boneyard has nailed a main point. It is just a bunch of individual circuits that individually light a light or activate a starter motor or turn on a ignition.

Go to the web sites of suppliers like Rebel, Autowire, Painless etc and they have instructions on using their products as well as diagrams. Each take a different approach but all achieve the same end result. There is also a book available, " How To Wire Your Streetrod - Start To Finish" that takes a very educational presentation of the process, good reading for not a lot of money. Maybe one of your friends has a copy. Also another good source is the HAMB starting with a search for specific information or reading thru a excellent post by CrazySteve, https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/wiring-101.843579/ . It can be fun and end up giving you a better understanding of a car electrical system and electrical in general as well as the confidence that if you have a problem on the road you can repair it. Not to mention if you are cheap like me, it beats paying someone else to do it and can be as cheap as a salvaged wiring harness out of a scrapped vehicle like a loaded chevy suburban.

As far as the schematic I posted, it really is simple as well. Disregard the black background, that is just for ease of using on the computer, it prints out with a white background. The drawing was done on Cad and consists of numerous layers that can be viewed individually or in groups, So a drawing of the main circuit board, another layered on top of it of the ignition system, another layered on top of that of the charging system, another of the lighting system, etc. You could do the same by drawing it by hand using layers of tissue paper, one layer for each circuit on top of each other. I used Cad at work before I retired and have a open source copy of Cad on my computer at home now. Handy for planning numerous projects, not easy to learn by yourself.

 

Have two people ever come up with the same answer on a wiring question? If so let us know.


Bob

 

My electrical Kung Fu is not strong. When I rewired my '55 Chevy pickup truck, the wiring harness I ordered came with a 8-1/2 x 11 wiring diagram that didn't make much sense to me. I started doing continuity checks of each wire on the harness and drawing my own diagram in AutoCAD. It's more of a layman's diagram depicting pictures, not symbols, and at full scale. The full diagram looks busy in places but I put the individual circuits like charging system, ignition system, etc. on separate CAD layers that can be turned on and off. When the day arrived to rewire the truck, I did it in a day and a half. Had the fire extinguisher handy when I connected the battery and started the engine for the first time but it wasn't necessary. No smoke escaped. The link is a PDF of the full diagram.

http://www.laroke.com/larryk4674/2007/bbwiring1.PDF

 

Nicely done Laroke. Only suggestion I could make is the use of a colour other than Yellow for Yellow wires. Know it doesn't sound logical, but they would show up better on print outs or on a white screen. I think I used #40 or around there.

 

That is crap! I almost always take my power from the starter relay. Usually a foot or two from the battery. That way you avoid the battery acid and corrosion.

Also very poor crimping on some of the terminals.




Bones

 

That’s not nearly as intimidating as the other diagram on this post. Like I said it’s simple, your diagram is easy to follow! Good job!








Bones