Was really quite easy used an EZ-wire 12circuit mini fuse harness for the chassis, engine and trans are controlled by our LS engine harness. Spent more time wrapping the individual branches of the harness with electrical tape than anything else. Sent from my XT1585 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I'll probably run a harness kit and I've done basic wiring, stereo, engines, tachs, etc but I will buy and read a couple books and learn more about head lights, stop/turn signal circuits etc. Sure it's easy to basically "plug and play" a harness but I'd rather have an understanding of what I'm doing and why. No offense but that's a lot of problems with kids, so called professionals now days, they can do the plug and play thing but have no understanding why or how things actually work. Like cashiers they can give you your change back from a 20 but can't tell you that amount without first reading the readout to tell them.
I build the engine harness for the LS engines, I have fully wired cars, but see no point in doing $500.00 worth of work when I can buy one done for 1/4 that. Sent from my XT1585 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I have honestly just picked it up along the way, but then again I have fully rewired 15 cars and trucks this year alone. Sent from my XT1585 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I'll be 67 in two months, and would like to understand what goes on inside all the electrical crap. Totally amazes me that some people can look at a wire and know it is live or which direction the electricity is going, never mind knowing what it does. Bob
Having never wired a car before, I bought this little gem and from it drew a wiring diagram for my truck. Being cheap, I acquired a shit load of black wire in different gauges from our maintenance dumpster at work and having some knowledge of industrial machines proceeded to code my diagram as if it were a machine, then I got out my wire code stickers that anyone can buy at a building center and started stringing wire, using the stickers at each end and at every plug connection. After I got everything wired and working I had to make a few updates to the diagram but never had a problem tracing wires. The yokel I sold the truck to couldn't understand the diagram, so he burned it. (so he told me) I pity the poor bastard he sold the truck to, if there were ever any electrical problems. This time around I will use an EZ wire harness, going to have to figure out how to wire in the Allison 1000 automatic. (electric shift)
That's why you have Plumbers, Surgeons, Cooks, Shooters, and Whores some Folks are just good @ different Things.
I built up enough courage to read the first two pages of the book, never knew I shared the same feelings with Tex Smith. "Electricity is magic, Black magic. An alien life form. Something that wizards practice in the depths of gloomy castles. That is why I wanted this book. I love to build cars. All kinds of cars. Hot rods, racers, customs. kit cars, anything that rolls. I hate wiring cars." LeRoi Tex Smith Publisher
No, reality is more like it. If Tex couldn't or didn't like wiring a vehicle there isn't much chance I will. I'd really like to make things easy for the next guy, and have all the routes for the wires in place so things won't have to be redone, you know like a 8 inch hole in a 2x10 floor joist. How many wires will be in that bundle will always be a mystery. Bob
I feel much better throwing in the towel knowing Tex Smith hated wiring long before I did. Getting bodies in finish primer is job one now, and I have enough to take me to the end. Bob
Great book, the author is very well done, tried. He recalled the style of many tasks on the site https://studyhippo.com/essays-on/american-dream/ which helps students write material for study. The book is a real American dream of any person who wants to visit as if in other worlds
37k; If you actually finish reading the book(actually, an easy, enjoyable, worthwhile read), you'll find it isn't scary. & will further your understanding of what, why, n where for wiring. Skip did a good job. Marcus...
I have that little book, at some time it looked like this and I gave up and listed the '29 Steelback project. Bob
We had similar LARGE prints like this at the BMW dealer I was with for years. When they changed over to Microfische and computers, I absconded with one that was 30" X 40", framed it and hung it in my shop. Folks marvelled... In 1956, a bud and I built him a channeled '30 Coupe, 21 stud flathead, '36 box. We were 15. Did everything, according to Hot Rod magazine...but then, the question of wiring reared its ugly head. I decided it was up to me, so I found a library book on automobile electricity. Read a few pages, then looked ahead 20 pages or so, found some diagrams...simple, except NO mention was made of wire gauge. I dove into the job, starting with ignition switch...(there were markings for which studs (posts) were for what, so the solenoid, starter, and coil on distributor got wired first. After a day of crimping terminals from the parts house, with PLIERS!, I was astonished when I connected the battery cables to the battery: No dead-short spark!) The starter cranked when the button was pushed. I presumed the coil was hot when I turned the key 'on'. I was ready for gas. Yep. It started, and ran. I learned about a 'ballast resistor' later, after the car was on the road for months...the 'diving bell' coil overheated and puked out some oil ('tar') and the car slowly ran out of spark. Old Harry at Automotive Industrial Supply advised me as why that coil burned, and sold me a ballast resister, it went on the coil stud in series with the wire. Live and learn. I read some more, learned about different systems...No internet, so info was where you found it. By the time I was 18, (3 years later) I had completely wired no less than 20 cars: Mostly T's, A's, hot rods...Couple of '40s, both with Cads/Oldses, and on from there. It was my 'thing'. Years later, my genius wife asked if she could help me wire Von Zipper's nice '54 Ford F100. (351 Cleveland engine, Painless kit...) It was a breeze, that kit. The manual was simple, and wife Joey completely wired the under dash/gauges/switches/headlamps. She seemed to be a natural, never wired before. But her technique was: "Lay them out, let them flow...it's artistic, so make it pretty as well as functional." One day, maybe 5 hours. The owner dropped by, was surprised to see Joey sitting at the bench with the dash cluster in front of her, 12 wires or so getting soldered to terminals, then shrink tubed... I said "A few wires, not a jungle..." He responded: (Yeah...they ALL have to go somewhere...)
It's wiring diagrams like these that intimidate most guys. I don't like them either, and I know how to read one. Get one that isn't color-coded and it's a prescription to put your eyes out trying to read it unless it's on a blueprint-sized sheet, and even that doesn't always help. And I can't tell you how many 'full vehicle' diagrams I've seen with errors... The better service/how-to manuals will have 'unit repair' diagrams, limited to individual systems or circuits like lighting, charging system, etc. These are far easier to read, the trick is to realize that the connections probably won't be in a line as shown but scattered about the vehicle, so you need to visualize wire routing to understand harness construction.
Like Henry Ford said “ I you think you can or can’t, you are right” ! Or something like that. But if you think you can’t, you probably won’t! On anything! Bones
I love to wire cars, I don't allow anyone in the shop, the radio is on oldies, even if I forget what I'm doing, I find it peaceful and relaxing.
The Jalopy Journal
