The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Wire sources and gauges

Hi all,

Beginning to source wire for my 42 Chevy truck. Since this old military truck has a unique harness, I am begrudgingly going to make wire it myself (yeah, yeah; cheap and dumb). It is going to run a 12 volt system but I want to wire it for 6 volt just in case I wanted to go back original. So here are some super general questions:

1) What type of wire should I be looking for? There seems to be a myriad of different markings on wire.

2) What vendors have you all used? Any that sell USA made wire?

3) Cloth covered vs pvc...how to decide? I realize this is much more a cost issue. In most cases a wire loom will hide any evidence of "new" style wire.

4) Where did you source asphalt (or other period looking) wire loom material?

5) What is the original 6 volt wire gauge for the wire that runs from the starter to the Amp gauge?

Thanks,

Paul

for all my automotive wiring, I buy from Del City wire and use their "primary wire". I have been buying from them for probably 25 years or more.
https://www.delcity.net/store/Primary-Wire/p_360

I also source my wire from "Del City". But I use their SXL type of insulated wire. Check out their catalog and decide for yourself.
The new cloth covered wire has modern insulation under the woven cloth cover. If you want it, all you have to do is pay for it and it ain't cheap.
Be aware....6 volt wiring is bigger or larger than 12 volt due to the amp load due to being 1/2 the voltage of a 12 volt system. Meaning more bucks.
There is not a wire from one side of the ampmeter to the starter.
"Del City" also has the asphalt or tar impregnated cloth sleeving in different sizes, again check the catalog.

I used road island wire. Modern thermoplastic insulation with a cloth overlay. You can get it in almost any overbraid color combination. They also sell a cloth tube with tar like outside. Look at their web site but call them. They were very pleasant to work with.

Hey Paul WNC.

I think I can cover this one. Here is a pic of the ammeter etc. http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b585/Milibolt/Electrical%20systems/IMG_1612_zpswdx5gppt.jpg from the dash of my spare cab. It apparently has the original harness and while somewhat brittle, is quite complete. The wire you see coiled up and marked "filter rt. side" or similar is the wire you are referring to. I marked it and perhaps it was connected to the filter when I got it, but it's over 4 feet long and has a 3/8 inch ring which I would think surely would connect to the starter (bat) lug which is shown on our schematic for these rigs.

It's a fatty. I measured it with my venereal calipers as follows. .270 around the insulation, .145 around the conductor itself (I didn't want to peel off more insulation so I measured it in a small area near the ring connector. The ring as mentioned before is 3/8 in.

Hope that sheds some light on that one question anyway.

BTW is it just my computer or is "photobucket" extremely slow these days. Man ! Just chunks along. Probably my machine.

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the input so far. After a little cyber shopping, it looks like the cloth covered wire is approximately 2-3 times the price of standard automotive wire. Put in perspective, the material price is nominal compared to the labor. Decisions, decisions...

Thanks Tony, that is the wire I was referencing. I will try to figure out the wire guage size from your measurements. Is your "sample" harness in good enough condition to be used as a template? Do you know the exact year model it came from? As you know, harnesses on the G506 military trucks changed at least 3 times in the trucks 5 year production run.

Paul

Paul,

The harness is all there. A PO must have clipped only one or two original connections it seems.

The data plate shows the truck (cargo) was delivered 9/42.

Tony

Tony, I need a little help here if you don't mind. Why does that big 'old wire run from the ampmeter to a filter? He said it was military and they do strange things, I know as I spent 20 years doing them. Thanks

Sure. It's all about "radio suppression". In the manual I have it speaks of the "early production system" where there were 7 suppressors, 6 filters, two condensers. Suppressors were used on all the high tension spark plug leads and also from the dist. to the coil. Of the filters, 4 were used in the generator circuit and 2 in the ignition circuit.

I had marked that wire when I removed the dashboard and I noted that it came off of the ignition coil filter. But that defies the electrical schematic, so I'm not totally sure why it was connected there. It might have just been holding the wire, because when I bought the "1942 Chevy Cab", it was just that. No frame, starter, etc.

BTW, the "hot" that comes from the generator to the ammeter goes through the (no surprise) ammeter filter.

Tony

Here's more. I should have mentioned this above.
It had to do with the possibility of vehicles possibly radiating interference that could be picked up by the enemy using short wave listening devices, according to the manual.
Here is a picture of the firewall of my spare cab. http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums...0systems/20140403_181036_zpslckzy0ry.jpg
The ammeter filter (just above the VR) and the ignition filter (like the ammeter filter but left of center on firewall) can be seen. Also, this picture clearly shows (to me) that I must have made a mistake marking the wire that Paul was asking about. The wire from the ammeter to the area of what would be the starter motor is quite apparent.

Tony