Rewiring, got connectors, now planning attack?

[Zorm]

roger that!

[basketcase0302]

"Zorm"]Got bed off for some work, rear half of frame sealed, front sheet metal off to be replaced, engine out to clean up and replace freeze plugs and clean up/paint firewall.

Not using the factory spots where the engine harness goes through the firewall, upper left and right sides, gonna seal those with solid grommets. I want to run all that tucked up in the wheel wells in its own conduit, not that plastic wire loom stuff either. Trying to see if I can get the heater and A/C lines in there too.

Since this is a camper special, its has the tool box on the side of the bed, that is where the battery, starting sol, grounding bar and maybe a few relays are gonna live, well that's the plan. I have some real good water tight bulkhead electrical pass through's that I will be using. Plan on making the "power box and battery" on a slide out shelf, have been saving a few old file cabinet sliding drawer assemblies just in case, heavy duty too.

You might want to go one size bigger on your positive battery cable just to be safe, (especially if the distance to the tool box is further away as I think it might be)? Kool idea, can't wait to see the completed project!

[Zorm]

question, the gauge voltage regulator is over on the right side of the cab right, tucked up under the dash. Well, I have another black thing there maybe about twice the size of the regulator, what is that? You can see the regulator on the left and the other thing right of it

[sargentrs]

The location appears to be where the turn signal flasher may be. http://www.fordification.com/tech/image ... l_7072.jpg
With that said, it doesn't look like a standard flasher. However, the wire terminal going to it appears to be a fresh one, soldered and heat shrink'd. Maybe a PO added/retrofit it? Does it click or "tink" with the blinkers/hazards?

[Zorm]

I’ll reconnect the battery and find out. Thanks

[Zorm]

I know some folks might say its sacrilege, but I have made half my bed side tool box my power center. I will have 5 watertight bulkhead connectors, two for the smaller wires (all my grounds, power, and relay in / return) and three for the larger wires, engine ground, starter power, alternator power, see pics and examples below. I'm still looking for a good relay box with bus bars, the one in the pics is from a Jeep 4.0 harness for space ideas.

high view, bed is off the truck. Yes, I plan on having the starter SOL in here as well


The "drawer" in its home position, I need to trim some of the hardware. You can also see what I'm going to use for my ground bus bar, left side of the tray. It does look like the bottom of the tray rubs on the bottom of the box but just barley, even with the battery. The small piece that hangs down for the box door latch does stop the battery but a slight push down of the tray, the battery clears if I need to slide it out that far.


I can slide it out about another 1-2" from this point. The battery is from AutoZone, one of their gell cells that can be mounted however you want, like the Optima batteries but now that Optima is made in China, they are cheep, AZ is a better quality. AZ has found out that these batteries act kinda like a marine deep cycle battery so another cool thing.


this is what I'm using for the 3 larger wires, all about that size to, engine ground, starter power out, and alt power in. I have about 1/2 a spool (small spool) of that wire size, we use it when installing heart cath labs for for 460VAC 3 phase incoming power.


and here is the connector for the smaller wires, might use two of these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BK ... UTF8&psc=1

I plan on having all the wiring run on the outside of the frame by the bed box but then move to inside the frame up to the starter, the engine ground, which will be connected at the longer bolt of Tyler's Sanden A/C bracket between it and the bracket, the alternator out power. For the smaller wires, mostly from the new wire harness and the head light harness with two relays, those I want to run, in some type of conduit to the cab and enter either the lower fire wall outside the inner fenders, or come into the cab right in front of the stock brights switch at the floor and up to the new fuse panel.

[sargentrs]

I like it!

[The Bandit]

I like the idea of not having on that wiring on the right side under the hood. That will clean up the underhood wiring a lot!

[Zorm]

I'm running all my wiring for the engine bay, except start pwr, alt pwr and engine ground, on the outside of the inner fenders, drivers side. Also will have my heater hoses and A/C lines outside the inner fenders, passengers side. I don't have a nice huge power house motor to show off, but like a clean engine compartment.

[basketcase0302]

"Zorm"question, the gauge voltage regulator is over on the right side of the cab right, tucked up under the dash. Well, I have another black thing there maybe about twice the size of the regulator, what is that? You can see the regulator on the left and the other thing right of it

Do you mean the IPVR (instrument panel voltage regulator)? If so, the IPVR is on the back on the instrument panel.
If this is the passenger side inside of the cab, (which it looks like to me) then that would be the relay and circuit breaker for the cab lights:



Really...love what you've done with the tool box! Also the use of the relays with the fuses like I'd added, (five of them) to BC #16-and can't stress enough to the younger guys about fusing the circuits like you have! Excellent work!

[Zorm]

Basketcase302, so if that black thing is the turn signal relay, I can remove it, new harness has that and flasher relay. As far as the dash voltage regulator, I’m going to install a f600 gauge cluster that maybe null and void right? or could I get a new voltage regulator for the 600 gauges, just to have one?

[sargentrs]

I'm no expert but if you're going to be using the OEM style gauges in the F600 cluster, I believe you will need the IPVR. The original gauges were not designed to operate on a full 12V system.

[basketcase0302]

like Randy said about the IPVR as it drops the voltage from 12 volts to 5 volts, (you'll need it for the gas gauge to work at least):
http://www.fordification.com/tech/fuel- ... -units.htm

You're kind of in "uncharted waters" for me to help much with the rest of the "grafting" of your new harness as I'd never replaced one.
It's how I got my Basketcase username, (from the severly butchered wiring harness of my duraspark 76' Early Bronco). It was frying ignition boxes, (everytime you hit a really hard bump)! I had to pull the entire harness/unravel every single inch of electrical tape to find where the PO had pierced the harness causing two wires to short together. Learned a lot...during those 3 long months of South Florida summer Ford repair 101 LOL!

[Zorm]

Ok folks, this project is on pause. Cleaning up and repairing my boat to sell it, sodding a backyard and doing DIY shiplap to keep wife happy. Then back to truck. I'll post any updates.

[Zorm]

Alrighty, yard sodded, ship-lap done, house rewired, back to truck, well kinda. We plan on moving within the next 6 months so truck, jeep, boat projects moving fwd, and clean up/throw out/pack up stuff as I go. Priority right now is get the James Duff traction bars mounted on the rear end and run the new harness wires to back of truck. This harness has a power wire for a trunk light, that is going to light LED strips in the bed.... yea baby!