Hi Guys (and Gals)
I am stumped. I am doing a complete frame off restoration. 1953 3100 I put in a complete new wire harness, it has a newer starter (foot start) and I had the generator rebuilt a few weeks ago (Yes I polarized it). I am using the old voltage regulator that I put a fresh coat of paint on it worked when I took the truck off the road to do the restore.
OK, when I put the battery cables on the posts I get a spark like there is a direct short and it is drawing already before anything is turned on. I am not finished with all the wiring as the head and tail lights are not wired yet but everything else is. When the motor runs (it pops right off on half a turn and runs and sounds great and I am happy to get to this point more than you know) the battery gauge discharges a little, when I rev her up it discharges a lot more almost to the end of the gauge. When I put a pull on the electrical system (I turn the parking lights on and that puts the gauge lights and speedometer lights on and I switch the inside cab light on it does the opposite I would expect, the gauge moves to the center almost to the charging or + position. That is counter intuitive. It should put more of a draw on the system and pull it more towards discharge from what I know about auto electric. It is almost like if I swapped the wires on the battery gauge backwards it would show charge and solve the problem but that is not what the wiring diagram shows and I am hesitant to try that and fry everything. I did use the small cardboard piece with the gauge rebuilt kit to insulate the battery gauge.
I am stumped. I went through the wiring diagram and checked and doubled checked 3 times my connections with the paperwork sent with the wiring harness taking endless hours to try to find a mistake. It actually was an easy job and I took one thing at a time and checked wire color and chase color if it had any. I am very confident the proper wire is on the proper connection according to the diagram they sent with the harness.
The only thing I did was retain my horn relay by pulling the horn power wire up to the fire wall and cut the horn wire and ran one side to the top of the relay (horn), power to the middle and the other side of the mid way horn wire cut to the bottom just as things were with the truck before I started the resto. That was the only thing I found that wasn’t exact to my old truck and the new wiring harness. The horn hums when I push the horn button but the horn does not blow. I bought it online eBay so I am not sure it really works. I am stumped. I disconnected all 3 horn wires and take the horn out of the equation. And no change. Does anyone (if you have read this far) have any ideas for me? Where do I go from here? I don’t want to just start buying parts and throwing them at the truck if someone else has any other ideas. Thanks John
