General inquiry: Advance Design Chevys, when you rewire the truck (custom, not stock), do you prefer to wire headlights directly in harness or via the original way, with the terminal boards on the inner fenders? I'm having this debate because my 51 originally had three-connector terminal boards, holes are there (and rivets for that matter) but if I want to run high-beam, low beam, parking lights and turn signals I would need the 4-terminal board. Not sure that I even need to bother.
I binned the terminal boards and wired it directly. Those terminal boards are just another potential loose/corroded connection, IMO. IF I ever have to take the front clip off again, I might have to snip the wires, but it doesn't matter as heat shrink tubing is readily available.
I wired with the boards. I’ve got highs and lows and turnsignals. The turn signals run past the blocks and wire direct to the signal indicator.
Useing the boards made rewiring much easier. I did mine in stages and never lost any driving time. I use closed and open loom covers. The weave type not the corrugated plastic ones. Very little cost in the good ones.
Last edited by Don huffer; 08/28/20184:07 AM.
Can’t begin to tell you how much I hate the name Stovebolt.
I just got done replacing the 3 wire boards with 4 wire boards. I am replacing wires as I go along and this will make a good connection for a heavier gauge wire to the turn signals. I used the original holes for the three wire, built a small plate to mount the 4 wire. If you do this, just drill new holes for the 4 wire. I had to get creative with bolts and washers to avoid drilling more holes.
Okay, another dumb question along the same lines. I assume to get the wires to the passenger headlight I either have to crossover at the radiator or back at the firewall. Due to the wiring kit I have it doesn't seem logical to cross at the firewall, but I'm guessing that that was how the factory wiring was done. Reason being, it doesn't seem to make much sense to have the board on the passenger fender unless the wiring is coming from the firewall. Someone please tell me the best way to run the wires in/around the radiator and front fenders. I decided not to do the four wire boards, went with direct wire. Also, has anyone gone with headlight relays? They seem to make sense, especially for a regular car with the battery up front. My battery is in the stock location under the passenger floor. I understand the relay helps with the large current draw for the headlights, but I'm running aftermarket LEDs which should pull a lot less power.
You said custom, so that means you are not hard over on originality. Good idea to eliminate boards. Chevy eliminated them too.
Generally speaking, Chevy began this method: Your new fuse panel is usually placed on the upper left floor board or under driver seat. Your front harness goes thru firewall, over to and across left inner fender, to left headlight. Then crossover on rad support, in a safe manner, to right headlight. You splice at left light to run the right light wires. Also as your harness goes thru firewall, the rear light branch usually goes back under cab and down inside left frame to rear. Use this general scenario to plan what makes sense. As said, the least amount of terminations is best. Every circuit/every wire must be fused.
If your fuse panel is on the right side, then it's the opposite routing. Hopefully you have a modern harness with a nice fuse box for every circuit.
Many folks use a relay. What voltage are you using? 6V or 12V? What harness kit did you buy?
Shouldn't need relays. As you pointed out, LEDs don't draw much power. Bench test your dimmer switch before wiring it in to make sure it works OK. Do the LEDs you plan to use have daytime running lights?
Dave, The relay might help a little. With you using LEDs in your headlights they aren't needed near as much. The relay is used to protect your light switch from all the current that incandescent lamps produce. I'd wire it up conventionally and check the voltage drop between the Battery and the Positive side of the lamps while they are ON.
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not going with relays, but if I find I need them I can add them later. Plan to cross over to the passenger headlight at the front of the radiator. The wiring harness is a Keep It Clean KIC15PRO. More modern style, mounted it on driver's side kick panel near/above parking brake. Wires are already run to rear, have tail lights, brake lights should happen once I pick up new brake switch tomorrow and install. The headlights have LEDs on the sides that I am wiring for turn signals and parking lights. The truck also has the parking lights in the grille, I will wire those in once I put the grille back in (currently the hood needs adjustment, I had to remove the grille when I closed the hood and couldn't get it back open again). This system is all 12v. I have wired in a cutoff switch into the floor/lower seat frame that is on the ground, or negative side of the circuit. This will help with cutting power when doing wiring work, then also help as a potential theft deterrent down the road. I'll share pictures likely tomorrow.
One way to approach using relays is this way, use the headlight switch,or any other switch, to turn on the relay. The load goes from the battery thru the relay to the lights. The oem way is battery, switch,to the light. For several years now,all car manufactures have gone to the relays method in their wiring. In many cases,depending on what circuit is being used, the switch on the dash is used to switch ground to activate the relay,not power. The advantage to both is to eliminate the amount of heavy draw wiring in behind the dash,esp in vehicles with a ton on wiring. In the case of my 54 3100, i used a relay for my back up lights.The trans switch switches ground and key turns on power to relay. This eliminates power having to go thru trans switch. I probably wouldn't do it this way for headlights, just light switch to activate relay. Not necessary but fun, if a person likes wiring ,the sky is the limit in what can be done.
So the headlights are wired. Not working yet, I suspect it's because I haven't wired the hi/lo floor switch yet. I pulled it out, cleaned it up, not I can't find one of the two screws! Today I had everything out of the dash, gave it a quick sanding and a basic rattle can spray. Looks pretty good (remember, not a show truck). Yesterday the horn relay arrived in the mail, so I mounted it on the firewall. Horn is mounted on the inner fender. Relay has S, B, and H, so I was assuming Switch, Battery, and Horn. I cut the wire going to the horn, connected the link going to the horn to H, connected the other end going into the cab to S, and ran a standalone red wire from my battery positive to the B position. I went into the cab and shorted the horn wire to ground, to close the circuit. I heard the relay click but no sound from the horn. Suspected a ground issue, ran a wire from a screw post on the horn to a ground, still, click but no horn. Attempted reversing the H and S but again, just a click (and just to be sure, horn to B made the horn blare away) so I'm not sure what's going on here.
Also today, finished wiring the headlights. Yesterday I had run the wires from the driver's side through a hole I drilled in the inner fender and the radiator support, on both sides. These holes are about 6 inches down from the top, where I crossed over on the underside of the hood latch lower assembly. I used four clamps on the underside. I really like the end result, the wires are almost completely hidden, or will be once I get the grille back in. Also have to wire the parking lights in the grille once I get it back in there.
While messing with the horn, I was moving the headlight switch, which I have already wired. The area around the head lamps wire on the switch was hot. This doesn't seem good. I might have a short somewhere, I'll need to investigate.
Here are some photos. I have rear parking lights, but no brake lights yet. In the first photo you can see the parking lights working, hadn't hooked up the turn signals yet, so wires are still not cleaned up. Once I got the wire loom from the tail/brake lights looking how I wanted, I got the tail and brake lights hooked up, though I don't have brake lights after hooking up a brand new stop light switch at the firewall (hmmm...) To get the wire loom right, I took 3" aluminum and cut and drilled a backing plate for each tail light. Also, the original brackets came from the front side of the stake pocket, so I used those holes and a 90-degree bend in aluminum piece for a loom entry into the underside of the bed. I think it looks really clean. There's a photo of the 327 v-8, wires are sorta messy still. I had it originally hooked up basic, just to battery, starter, ignition and HEI so I could start the engine and yard move the truck. Last photo is of a battery kill switch (negative terminal) I installed in the seat floor base.
Couple more photos, shows front end. Taken last year, August, got fenders painted green, mounted them, then grille and hood, discovered I couldn't open the hood (that's my son Ryan making a laughable attempt). Now, the headlights are in, grille is out, hood is back on but darn, needs aligned bad, as it is worse than before. Photo of the interior, brown dash, steering from an Impala, steering wheel has now been removed I have a nice aftermarket wheel now. I wanted to use the old dash gauges but oil/temp are questionable and I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with 12volt-6volt conversion (though I did buy a converter) so I just bought Classic Instruments gauge/speedo package and I'm super excited to install. The gauges have a tan face with red dials. Tan/Brown/Red theme inside with green/yellow exterior I think will look cool..
Was able to direct-wire the headlights and everything is working. There were a couple wires in the headlight switch, along with the high/low foot switch that needed to be right before everything checked out ok. I got rear brake lights working as well, however it shares wiring with left and right turn signals so I need to make a change in my wiring, starting with getting a new steering-column mounted turn signal switch.
