Re: re-wiring


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Posted by Dave Speed on July 20, 1999 at 16:12:36:

In Reply to: re-wiring posted by Drew on July 18, 1999 at 23:21:27:

I agree that buying a wiring harness is overkill unless you are looking for the show circuit.

In my case, I was not duplicating factory wiring on my B-4 PW but replacing a rats nest of dangerous cotton covered wire with a lot of misc add-ons instead of adding a few more lines and waiting for disaster.

I used the factory manual wiring diagram and used stock wire gauges even tho I went to 12 volts (yes, I know its overkill). I didn't pay extra to get the original look-and-feel colors, but went with a good grade of automotive wire. And I put in extra wires for lights and accessories [air horn, electric wipers, glovebox light, cigarette lighter, ham radio power, spare power, etc..] as needed, then bundled them all up with the black non-sticky tape from Eastwoods. Of course, I added a fuse block to all this . For good measure, I rebuilt the sockets on the remaining lighting system so I didn't have to deal with splices and problems down-the-road. Came out pretty well, but did take awhile.

My starter was 12 V with a solenoid and I had a good 12 V generator so these were not changed. I got a gauge conversion kit from an ad in Hemmings Motor News for the fuel aguge and it seems to work well. Its basically a Zener diode, fwiw. The biggest challenge was for the 6 VDC fan motor in the heater I installed. VPW had a replacement motor, but at > $100 (if I remember right) it was more than I wanted to spend at the moment. I ended up with a big nichome air-cooled wire resistor from NAPA auto parts. It got pretty hot in testing (safely mounted in the engine compartment...), but then I don't run the heater on warm days.

And I think it pays in the long run to draw up a diagram and make a list of the color codings.

Give me a holler if you have any questions.


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