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I believe I have a short because I have no electrical working. I have a 1939 and the majority of the wires are frayed and need replacement so I am assuming I have a short somewhere. The question is, since there are no fuses to replace, how do I repair the short???

Either replace the frayed wires one at a time. or buy a replacement wire harness, which is what I had to do to the 39 I owned. I added a fuse block and a few relays too.

By no electrical do you mean no starter power either? If so the problem is more basic. It is pretty risky to play around with frayed wires. If I were just trying to run motor I would hook up a separate coil and bypass all the wiring.

By the way I think you should have one fuse, probably on the back of the ammeter.

You basically answered your own question. Frayed wires to me means original 1939 wiring. For safety sake and piece of mind replace every wire in the truck. New wiring harness no worries.

Also, because of the presence of salt air, inspect and secure all grounds.

Ed

You've got an open circuit- - - -or more than one, most likely. Shorts burn wires and/or blow fuses.
Jerry

Unhook the battery before a mouse or a grasshopper sneezes and causes a fire. Time for a new harness.

A short would be smokin' hot, as said. Burn thru a wire maybe. By the time you dig out all the wire looking for a broken wire, you are half way to replacement. Forget the short scenario. Re wire the truck. No fuses is a NO-NO. They omitted them back then because they didn't know anything about automobile electrical safety..... As T-Nix says: Only one fuse shown on 1939 Wiring Diagram, at headlight switch. (37-38, one fuse on back of ammeter)

There are VERY FEW wires on an old truck. You don't even need a harness sometimes. FLAPS sell 20' spools of all colors of primary wire for $7. Get a fuse panel from anywhere. Very simple. As RustyRod said, one at a time. Make "improvements"/upgrades if you want. We can help further if needed. Lots of pre-AD guys in here. Wiring is pretty much the same for all era's.

A, so called, "harness" for 1936-1939 is $230. So many different "kinds" of harnesses. If they don't have the connectors for headlights and any other places with connectors, then it's just a bunch of wire hanging off a small fuse box. Connectors are the male and female shells with contacts that snap into the shells. I.E. Ignition switch, tail light, stop switch connectors. Probably not too many, if any, used in 1939? Probbly most components are "hard wired." Just take a look, draw a diagram of all wires, and where they go, and study to see how easy it looks. If the only "connector" needed is a headlight socket, they are available for $5.

AJsdad;

Don't feel too bad. I stepped on the "I've got a short" landmine in my first electrical post too. 😁 Words have meaning and we can be stickers about it.

Right now you're just polishing a turd with that harness. Make or buy a replacement. It really isn't that hard once you start doing the work. It all starts to make sense.

Good luck!

When I bought my old '63 C10, the harness was a rats nest of old and new wires, cobbled together by what had to have been a Meth Addict. It would periodically kill the truck for no apparent reason and leave me on the side of the road. I knew enough to be able to sort it out and get going again, but it was annoying.

I took a 3 day weekend and ripped every wire out of the truck and built a new harness from scratch. Best thing I ever did. I never had any electrical issues with that truck again.

I highly recommend you take the advice offered and either buy new, or build your own harness. You'll be glad you did.