Technical Wiring from scratch: opinions/guidance welcome

I recently completed the Wiring on my new Build, and I decided to learn as much as I could before I started, so I did the academic way (I bought some Books!)-if you would like some really good information (including custom wiring), I would suggest you consider buying this: http://www.ceautoelectricsupply.com/awes.html

Then, if you would like to learn some advanced wiring techniques, read this one: http://www.ceautoelectricsupply.com/aepp.html

There are answers to all of the questions you asked in there (and, a LOT more)-the Author lives in Phoenix and is a hotrodder, so he likes to help-he also started an electrical supply company (I am not affiliated), and offers some of the best quality supplies around: http://www.ceautoelectricsupply.com/components.html

He ships fast (and cheap!), and, is willing to help (you can call or email him)-

As for your question regarding Maxi Fuses, I started to use them, and then went for these (in 200 AMP):

 

heh...we use a similar circuit breaker on the high school robots



yours looks to have safer terminals.

 

Actually, (and I know that it's not really traditional), but we hotrodders kind of miss out not using the vast amount of high AMP stuff out there from the Audio crowd-Rockford Fosgate, Lightning Audio, SoundQuest, JL Audio and the like all make some really nice high Amperage stuff (and it's made for Cars!)-hide it (where it can't be seen), and your Car can safely handle all of the Amps you can throw at it-

 

Wiring the ugly part of the car. With a kit you are stuck with what comes in the kit, if you wire it yourself you get to deside what parts look good to you. Good luck with the project. Bob

 

I bought a lot of wiring stuff from The Wiring Depot. They sell relatively short lengths of wire, all sorts of sockets and so on. Fast shipping, worth a look for sure.
http://www.wiringdepot.com/

 

Quick question as far as crimps. A guy I work with offer to let me use a couple of hydraulic crimpers of his. Only thing is that they form hex crimps. One tool is for battery size lugs and the other for 8 to 22 AWG.

I'm used to pliers style standard noninsulated crimpers. Is his tool appropriate for this.

 

That hydraulic will be overkill on the small wire, but there's no reason it shouldn't work with quality terminations....

 

Don't forget the shrink wrap!!

 

squirrel.......GM taillight wiring is light brown or tan
black is ground but not in the interior lighting, it is white..

 

yeah, I figured I made a mistake or two, it's been over a year since I wired something, and my memory isn't what it used to be! plus they changed colors for some of the light wiring some time in the early sixties, and I mix them up.

 

I got a tool from Advance Auto Parts that does the insulated crimps very nicely. Hex crimps go more with the M22520 style military tool for thin-walled ferrules that have to be an exact size.

The non-insulated tool I have is made by Waldron.

 

Harbor Freight has this nice shrink sleeve assortment, with adhesive inside it. The shrink ratio is more than the standard 2:1. Nice stuff.

 

I like this from Coach Controls, it has a little more than I need but I like the built in relays. I plan on running my door openers through the power window relays, It can handle 100 AMP's over most that are only 40 AMP's.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just went to their website and ordered a wiring diagram for my Roadster ! FINALLY a company I never knew existed comes out with GOOD LOOKING wiring, and prints a diagram that an idiot can understand. I owe you one, Merry Christmas! Bob

 

When I built my 39 Deluxe Coupe in the early 70's I made my own harness. Never again. I will always use Ron Francis wiring kits. They have one designed for T-buckets and basic cars, not nearly the amount of circuits. Check it out.

 

I appreciate all the feedback and guidance. I gave the protection of the power distribution some more thought and checked up on some of the advice that had been given and decided on the below diagram. As much as I would like to use a fusible link for power feed protection, I'm not going to do so inside the interior of the car. I checked up on slow blow MIDI fuses and compared their % of overcurrent to time to break the circuit to that of fusible links and found them to be very close. I also added a battery cut off switch as well.

 

Below is the entire wiring diagram for this build. It is a pain to look over on a computer and would love to hear of a decent program to put it into for easier review but paper an pencil still seem to work. I don't do this for a living so its not a perfect illustration but I'm looking for accuracy over pretty as long as its is useful.

Feel free to look it over. Ask questions please. There are 6 diagrams.

 

Question about your Master Power Switch, why on the positive side? Most all heavy earth moving equipment use a similar master disconnect switch, but the usual location is on the negative side.

 

Question for those who have or are running an external coil vertex mag. I'm running the mag kill switch as vertex calls for Coil+ to Engine ground. I would like for the battery master cutoff switch in diagram #2 to cutoff the mag along with the the rest of the batt power.

Question: If I run a 4 pole cutoff switch instead of the 2 pole, I can use it to break connection between Mag + and Coil + to kill the mag and batt power in the same switch. Is breaking connection at this point viable?

 

I drew it up that way because the install instructions had it that way. Are both methods correct or are the instructions wrong?

Thanks for taking the time to look it over.

 

These are the instructions I was referring to.

 

I Have wired about 5 cars, three from scratch I feel your making it more difficult than it is . The T-bucket I built in 2005 used a rebel wire harness . Quick and simple. I think it was 8 circuts

 

Disconnect should be on the hot side.

 

Does anyone use a program that they would mind telling me about that would allow me to scan in or re-draw the wiring diagrams with. Would be nice for adding wire colors as well as being more clearly drawn than by hand.

 

tinycad

http://sourceforge.net/projects/tinycad/

but you probably have to start over again, you won't be able to just scan it in.

There are some others around, too. I expect the learning curve might be high enough to make you want to just leave it as a pencil drawing? that's how it works for me.

 

It's more fun to use your brain than follow a diagram in a kit.
Used big a ford starter solenoid is the way to go keeps power load off ign switch. Using solenoid to work the acc fuse panel is a good idea.
I have a solenoid on my light switch and it puts full power to the dimmer switch.
A 60's Chev C-10 brake light switch is on my brake pedal, also one on my clutch petal serves as a safety switch.
Doing it your way is better than just stringing wires.
I use about ten colors and use only one of a color in each circuit. Never had any problems tracing a wire.
When I'm done there is not one extra wire everything serves a purpose.

 

Explain the safety switch setup/pictures?

 

I wouldn't say the instructions are wrong, I was just wondering why it was on the hot side. Having worked on hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of heavy earth moving equipment, I'm just used to seeing them on the ground side and wondered why you had it on the hot side. Seems like the RV/Trailer industry puts the master disconnect on the ground side too.

I've drawn up dozens of schematics for vacuum tube guitar amps, not quite the same as a hot rod, but it's still a schematic. I just use Microsoft Paint that comes with Windows. I've created the most common electrical symbols used in those schematics and save them in a file, so when I draw up a schematic it's just a process of grabbing the symbols and placing them on the screen, then connecting them with lines. You could easily do your schematics that way no problem.

 

I've seen people redraw complicated schematics in Adobe Illustrator. Results are nice. Visio would do a good job of it.

Ive heard good things about yed, but haven't used it yet myself. Price is right, though.
https://www.yworks.com/products/yed

 

One suggestion I'll make about wiring diagrams.... Most try to do a single diagram with everything on it. If your harness is much more than a very 'basic' harness, these can be very hard to read and even harder to draw. What I find that works better in most cases is do a diagram that shows all the components and the harness (not the individual wires) representing more-or-less actual location of components and route of the harness in the vehicle. Then draw up individual circuit diagrams for the various sub systems (lights, gauges, etc, etc), the more detail the better. The individual diagrams will much easier to follow, and the 'main' drawing will tell you where to look for the circuit.

The OP is on the right track by using multiple diagrams, but separating them into circuits would help.