Red58,

And of course you are RIGHT about the "poor job of putting the wires on 1 terminal"!

I just tried it with a jumper wire pulling one off the resister and jumpering to the other one and it also died in the ON state. Then I tried with both in place on the resister (on separate ends, normal) and it worked. Then I jumpered accross the resister and it worked. Now wait that should have failed like the first test? Then I pulled one end off again and jumpered from it to the other wire (cutting out the resister and it worked! (Just like you and Pertronix said it should!)

What do you expect from 52 year old wiring and a 54 year old wirer? ;-)

So I spliced them together, well I screwed them all to one terminal of the resister. And I cut a yellow wire out of the mix which is a cheapo arfter market lights ON detecter (for when the lights are on and the key is OFF). I cut that out and put on the other end of the resister. Seems to work better there as now it does not give a false positive when it is idling and the generator is low on power. Before it would faintly beep in that case. So I will try it like that for a while. Maybe I will get even better performance with the resister out of the ignition circuit.


So the old wiring got me. It is a bit dirty and stiff and very old. Have been hoping it would not short out and catch fire. I carry a fire extinguisher with me.

But that is next on my list, well very close to the top, to put in a new wiring harness. I want the old style so I think I am going with this one from ClassicParts : Wiring Harness-Generator 55-59

Is that a good one for an original V8 with deluxe cab and heater or does it not matter?

I think I will get a new ignition switch too as I tried to replace it once from them and it would not fit my old wiring. Mine is more like the 5000 series switch. Maybe cause it shows a V8 like mine. The 3000 4000 Series wiring diagram in the Assembly manual only shows 6 cyclinders since the V8 was a future at that time when it was made.

I also need to find out if that wiring harness has the headlight, tail lights, turnsignals and heater harness and optional original stylt fuse box harness betweeen the ignition, fuse box and lightswitch.

And I need to get the firewall gromets and probably some other things I am forgetting....