I'm plugging away at my newly acquired 1955 (later half, newer model) 6400. It's got a 235 out of a 1959 truck in it. It's been converted to a 12v system with a 12v starter and a 12v generator. Unsure of the coil, but it's got the two terminal white gizmo that makes the power to the coil safe (resistor I think?).
In practice every old vehicle I have ever worked on, I just rip out the "harness" (most of the things I work can hardly be considered to have a wiring harness) and start from scratch. I find it's better to start from a known place of "nothing works and nothing is connected" than it is to be working with a combination of old rotten wires, mixed groundings, and redneck engineering (but don't get it twisted, I'll likely be re-redneckerizing it to my own tastes). So, out with the old.
What I'm puzzling through is that it seems to me that I need exactly two wires to run the engine. I need a one from the terminal to the starter stud (foot start) and I need a hot wire to the coil. Everything else is superfluous. Is this roughly accurate? I can't find anything else that even needs wiring in the engine bay other than the horn and the generator. The rest of the truck seems to by run on vacuum tubes and dumb luck.
Eventually it'd be nice to not be alligatorin' my coil to the battery of course, so we'll need an upgrade to the ignition system to add a switch. I found a switch with both an accessory and an on, hard to come by I reckon, but I found one without the momentary start switch. My plan is to run most everything on the accessory switch and then just run the important stuff on the on (coil, dials, heater). I reckon each position gets its own fuse box to keep things simple and tidy. I can't figure out how the "on" position would ever need more than say four fuses, so I'm thinking a six fuse box for the "on" is plenty, might be handy to put an electric fuel pump on here at some point, in my experience mechanical fuel pumps are horrible to prime. I could see a point in running a 12 fuse box for the on as well, might be worth it to run my dials on separate fuses, especially since I think I'll be using some of these mechanical to electric systems and use more modern gauges.
Then probably run a 12 fuse box for the accessories, which means an 18 or 24 fuse system in total, probably overkill for something from the 50s! On the accessories box I'm figuring I'll need lights (lotta fuses here, but we'll just call 'em "lights" for now), horn, cabin fan, and maybe a radio at some point. My truck does not have a cigarette lighter or a radio installed at present.
I'd like to run a second battery under the bed of the truck for heavy duty applications, mostly a winch. Figure a diode would let the battery charge off the engine but not feed back into it. But this would probably either not get a fuse box at all or would get it's own fuse box, and it's a bit of a down-the-road thing for when I've got a truck worth investing a winch in.
Few things I'm wondering about, does anyone have an accessory disconnect setup to that accessory power is killed when the starter is running? I've also heard tell of some way of connecting to coil directly to the battery during start-up. For a generator I don't suspect it matters, but with alternators (well some of 'em) you gotta provide initial power to it, how's that work with the starter system if I decide to "upgrade" to an alternator?
Lastly, got two things I'm puzzling over. First, I am fairly confident my start switch (aka the poorly named "solenoid" switch) is shot. I pulled out the starter and pulled that switch apart and there's more copper splattered around the inside of that switch than there is on the copper bar that connects the terminal to the starter stud. But luckily it seems the stud is in fine order. However, I can't fathom how the start pedal linkage is ever going to actuate that button. I'm attaching a picture I took so you can see. Looks like the linkage needs a few inches of "bump" and someone took "stomp switch" too literally and beat that linkage into submission.
Second puzzle, what the heck is this doodad on my steering column? I perused the owner's manual for this year and there's no indication that anything other than a three-on-the-tree would live on the column, and I have no such thing in my truck. Can't tell if this is just a broken OEM part or some sort of after market monster. Either way it's butchered good. Maybe a turn signal switch?
