The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts threading clearance light wire

Hello all, and I'm again asking for your help and experience: What successful methods have you used to thread wire to cab clearance lights? The mice got up there, but I can't . There are four lights.....2 appear to be original and 2 were added years ago. The truck is a 58 Spartan 80....thanks!!

If the old wire is still in place you can tie a new one on and pull. Next option I would try would be an electricians fish tape.

Thanks for the tips! The wire is gone....it had been severed by mice, so I will try the fish tape idea. I think I would be able to get it pulled through from one end to the other, but not so sure that I would be able to fish it up through the hole at each light location in order to splice in the individual feed wires.

The wire should go up the drivers side post. Take the interior sun visor off and push a stiff piece of #12 solid electrical copper wire (with the insulation as it slides easier) with a very small hook bent on the end up from the bottom. It helps to put a piece of tape about 2' from the hook as a reference so you know when you have it up to the top of the door. Then take a small piece of bailing wire about 12" long with a small hook bent on it and fish the copper wire out through the visor hole. It sometimes works better with a helper...one of you wiggling the copper up and down slowly while the other feels for it with the fishing hook...it takes a little fineness and luck, but it can be done. It might also help to remove the seat as well so your're more comfortable. You want to follow the dome light wire if that's still in place. Once you get the new wire to the sun visor hole it's easy to fish the lights over to it. An electrical fish is way to stiff...been there tried that.

I pulled left and right speaker wires (4-wires) and a new dome light, plus a nylon string for future (just in case) up in my 1956 3100 by my self with the seat out.

Happy fishing!

Mike B

Thanks Mike (again)! I've already got a start on your plan (the easy part, I removed the sun visor)....hopefully I can catch some fish over the next couple of days

I've used an old speedometer cable as a fish tool frequently. It's round, very flexible, but stiff enough to push its way past obstructions. Once you thread the tool up the driver's side A pillar, twist and push until the cable finds its way to the right location. Once its at the top of the pillar, use a piece of stiff wire with a hook bent into it through the sun visor hole to snag the end of the cable. Have fun!
Jerry

Thanks Jerry! I was able today to get it snaked up to the visor opening.....not the most fun job, mainly because you can't see a darn thing and have no idea what it's hitting when progress stops. In the next couple of days I'm going to try to fish my way across the top of the cab. Today, I made a first attempt, using a fiberglass (or the like) sectioned snake rod purchased at Harbor Freight. It's quite a handy thing and very reasonably priced, but has its drawbacks like everything. The problem is that it jams against something hard when it gets about 80-90% across, no matter how I fiddle with it. I'm putting it in at the far marker light on the passenger side cab roof, and it will snake across to a point near the visor opening, but not close enough to see it or snag it. A very stiff wire stops at the same point....anything flimsier just coils up inside the cavity. I wish I had a camera, but on the other hand, the snake has pulled out many tufts of mouse nest, and I'm not sure how much a camera would see. This truck sat outside for 30 or more years before I purchased it and the mice had a heyday filling the cavity with nests. They chewed completely through the wiring....and that is the reason for the current challenge. If anyone said "do you really need to get the clearance lights working?", I would say no......BUT!!

Mouse nests can be a problem, but the other stuff they leave (poop and urine) absolutely MUST be removed. They're a big health hazard, and the urine is highly corrosive. Even if you have to cut coupon-sized access holes inside the cab structure and patch them later, don't leave that stuff in there!
Jerry

Thanks for the warning.....the good news is that it's very old stuff (I've kept moth balls in the cab for several years and the mice have vacated)....but I will figure out a way to get in there and sanitize it....I may make a nice clean rectangular cut about where the interior mirror is, with a screw-on cover plate....actually such opening would help me tremendously in fishing wire to the clearance lights.

Also, what I'll probably do is get away from what originally appeared to be series wiring and go to individual light wiring....it will be easier for future troubleshooting (probably will use a diff color wire for each marker light, all connected to the main feed wire at the visor opening).....unless someone can tell me why not to do that

IF your going to cut a hole use the accessory radio speaker housing as a template, it will give you a large hole that the speaker cone normally needs to recess into and will make a great junction point. Then mount the speaker housing and it will look 100% stock.

I have L & R tweeters in my housing.

https://www.classicparts.com/1955-59-Radio-Speaker-Cover-Chrome/productinfo/69-546/

Mike B

It's very unlikely the clearance lights would be wired in series. Each bulb would have to be rated for about 4 volts, if there are 3 lights in the center of the cab, or of there are 5 lights like the 18 wheelers run, each bulb would have to work on about 2 1/2 volts each. Also, one burned out bulb in a series circuit would kill all the lights. You can run one wire all the way across, and splice individual lights into the single supply wire. It will still be a parallel circuit, since each light will have its own ground to the cab metal.
Jerry

Mike, thanks for the speaker opening idea....that's something I definitely wouldn't have thought of.....Jerry, my mistake, yes they were originally wired as you describe. My use of 'series' was not electrically correct.