The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Wiring Woes

I have a 1950 3100(1300) with a brand new wiring harness. Everything was converted to 12 volts. All new gauges. Previous owner installed it all. When I hooked up battery for the first time the wire from the ignition switch to the gas gauge melted. Now this harness has red, black, blue, green, orange, brown and white wires. Does anyone know of a wiring diagram for this harness, original diagram doesn't have all these colors. Any ideas or help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Do you have any idea if the harness was purchased, or was possibly "home-built"? If you don't know the brand of the harness, it seems to me your best (only) option will be to trace all the wires and create your own "as-is" wiring diagram. I believe there are a number of different makers of wiring harnesses for these trucks and I seriously doubt they all use the same wiring colors.

There are some questionable “new” wiring harnesses being sold. My 1940 1.5 ton came with a new replacement harness in a box and I thought it was an added bonus... but when I started to try and sort it out, it was apparent that it’s not what I consider a good option, it had no fuses at all, and no connections other than the factory type circa 1940 connections... super high potential for electrical shorts and whatnot. I ended up ordering a 12 circuit harness with fuseblock.

The wire I had smoking itself was the coil wire from the ignition switch. I installed a completely new ignition switch and coil wire

As Greg said there are probably 25 or more makers of wiring harnesses for these trucks. You are going to have to treat this as a make it yourself harness. Get your handy dandy VOM out and trace each wire and draw out your own diagram. Sounds like the gas gauge was incorrectly wired. If so you probably fried the gauge too. I know this is not what you were hoping to hear but we can help you work through it. Member bartamos is very good on wiring and I’m sure he will tag in soon. Good luck.🛠

Posi, I PMed you. Check your messages if you want help. You have a bunch of issues to sort. It will take a lot of back and forth and will be a long post. So email me to get started. Lots of questions for me to begin to help sort out. I see in your other post you were angry at receiving no help and said this was the worst sight you have seen. Martin advised that you were hijacking another post and to start your own. I do understand your frustration and I see you have reconsidered. No hard feelings for a person who changes their approach (with an apology). Very good man. We will now see how "fast" you are at responding.

PM= Private Message....click on flashing envelope at top right of this page.

Also read our "Tech Tips" Section and become familiar with what should have been done for a 12V conversion. This is just one of the issues I mentioned.

The colors of most kit's wiring will be very close to the same.
I hope the harness is a "Pre Wired Fuse Panel" type.
Take off the negative battery cable off of battery post and leave it off for safety. If you are not experienced with wiring/electrical, don't start redoing on your own. Leave it all alone for now. We will get you fixed up. No problem. Stay calm.

Hello Posi, FYI, I did modify several posts and deleted a couple as well that did not add to the thread.

Another note: EVERY new members first 5 posts are moderated and must be approved by a moderator, sometimes we don't see that the post needs attention.

I'm confidant that you will get the answers you need here.
As to the wire "melting", I 'd just guess that it is shorted out somewhere. Bartamos will walk you through it, I am sure.

Received email from Posi. Working on it. Kind of a mess. Improper 12V conversion and lots of miswires to sort. Email is faster and getting lots of pics.