The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Stop/Tail Light Connections?

My new wiring harness has bare wires that end short of the rear of the truck. They will need to be extended and terminated. I had in mind some sort of connection at the end that would allow the wires to be unplugged easily for removal should service be required sometime down the road.

There will be 4 tail light wires to join to the harness and 3 STOP light wires. Are there connectors that will allow 4 or 3 individual wires to plug in easily?

I just reread what I had typed out and might not have been as clear as I should have been. I had in mind some sort of ganged connector that would take the single tail or STOP light wire from the harness extension and expand it into a block that would take the individual plugs. There is plastic connector somewhat the same connecting the main harness to the STOP/Tail/Turn extension but that one is 4 into 4 altogether rather into 4 individual leads. Something like that but made to take the separate plug in leads from lights would be ideal.

I'm sorry for the lack of clarity or proper wording. I may be old but I have never spent much time messing with wires and this is pretty much a new frontier for me.

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Thanks Jorb, those are close to what I was looking for or perhaps I just didn't understand what was there. I was looking for a female connector that would take a single wire from the harness and have 3 (STOP) or 4 (tail) sockets in which to plug the individual male leads from the lights. I need to keep the tail light & STOP light leads separate should service be needed at some point down the road. Individual leads with the connectors would need to be able to snake back through the rubber chassis grommets to allow the entire light unit with wire to be removed from the truck.

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If you put in connectors it will be a place for possible intermittency. Loss of signal. Corrosion. You don't need to worry so much about service being required for wires. A straight run is best. Don't know what you think needs serviced but you are wasting time and money. If the components/lights at the ends of the wires fail, you replace the component/lamp/etc. If you have to replace a whole wire, wire is cheap. There are no maintenance issues that require extra connectors on an old non-electronic truck.

If your wires are too short, you should notify the harness supplier and get the correct harness. This is a Red Flag to me that you are using the wrong wires, harnesses are extra long, like 12 feet long from the fuse box..

Otherwise, if you add length, it should be done by intertwining/twisting the strands together, soldering and cover with shrink sleeving and liquid tape over that.

I would like to know where you got a harness that needs extended so I don't buy one from that company. The harness I have used are designed for long bed trucks. Jeggs and others say "extra long" on their harnesses. Speedway says "Taillight leads measure 17' long".

Taillight wires are generally; one wire for running lights to driver rear. Then chain to other side. Same for stop. Two seperate wires going back for left and right turn sigs.

When chaining, or tapping into a wire, or when connecting two ends together, you can use soldering/sleeving, a solder splice or any number of crimp connectors. These solder or crimp splices should also have heat shrink sleeve over them. Any of these methods are used by us all and are plenty adequate for auto wiring. It ain't no rocket. Wire routing, up and under, away from splash and well clamped, wire tied, loomed ....are good ways to complete a good looking and long lasting job. Whatever you decide is up to you. I recommend you study up on the method you choose. The internet wiring sites/how-to's are 50% good info and 50% wrong. Just like any other issue you look up, read a whole bunch to get the real feel for what is accurate.

Thanks Jorb, I'll look over this site and see if I can find what I need. I'll bet this is pretty common stuff.

Bartamos is right, harness seems wrong. Why the desire to add connections? solder additional wire and shrink wrap the connection so you don't have issues later.

Bartamos - You raised several interesting issues. First, I would like to be able to take everything apart to remove bits later when more work is done. This truck is no restored trail queen. Its being fixed & returned to service. I will haul stuff for my business and when I move. At some point down the line I (or some other owner) may wish to restore it. In that case, the lights & bed parts will need to come off. Why not build the electrical system to make this sort of thing easy? Surely there are good weatherproof long lasting disconnectable connectors available?

I read on Deve's very useful page about rewiring his '53 that the wires were too short. I have the same harness but for the '50.I bought it ten years ago. I assumed mine would also be too short as my project is a 3600 with a longer bed. After reading your post I got my tail light harness out and laid it out along side the truck. It would certainly fit a 3100, it MIGHT fit the 3600 and it certainly would NOT fit a 3800. I will only know for certain when the main harness is installed and I see how far back the connector is.

I'm not a wiring type at all and am trying to sort this all out ahead of time. This project has snailed along for 20 years so far and I would like the truck finally in use this Spring before it gets too hot to work outdoors.

To each his own. You have both methods now. The forum has done it's job. Enjoy your truck. It looks really nice. I think you have stop and turn lighting covered.

Original harnesses had round, black, 2 piece crimp-on connectors (commonly known as bullet connectors) for the tail light wires. The tail light came with a pigtail long enough to reach through the frame to where the harness wires terminated. Some of the vendors sell a deluxe tail light which has this pigtail with bullet terminals on the wires.

I'm familiar with this sort of bullet connectors from working on various British cars over the years. When properly made & assembled these worked well. I have seen on aircraft some very nice removable connectors and can see no reason why something like this wouldn't work well on a truck that will probably be around as long as gasolene is still available. These trucks have survived their junker days and are are going to be prized, maintained and driven until that awful day.

Weather sealed, modern connectors, do work well on aircraft, spacecraft and modern electronic automobiles using signals to operate. They are used because many of the aforementioned entities are built in sub assemblies, in various parts of the world. They need to be pre tested. They need to connect together at final assembly quickly without soldering. Many use technically advanced connectors way beyond our needs or ability to acquire. These various vehicles do not use any more connectors or connections that are necessary. They go out of their way to eliminate all wire.

Wiring protocol, experience and logic says: the less wires and the less connections, the better. A bunch of connectors are not necessary to wire up the lights in the area you mention. Not desirable for assembly, maintenance or reliability. A future owner will not find it a pain to redo a few simple wires on an incredibly simple old truck's rear wiring. The original bullet connections may have been to facilitate mating the harness to rear light assemblies on the assembly line. Not for maintenance. Assembly line speed/cost savings were the goal. Keep in mind, you are not on an assembly line and straight wiring has less reliability issues. Your desire to use connectorization is OK, but your reasoning for it is not factual. You may end up with many more solder joints or crimp joints. It's your choice and it's right for you. You don't have to convince anyone. My opinions are just opinions, sometimes based on experience with building old trucks and what field of work I came from. You have said you are a novice to electrical. ("this is pretty much a new frontier for me".)
I advise to K.I.S.(s.)