The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Ignition Harness help

Gents,

I need to get a baseline for the start of electrical wiring on the ignition/power harness. I dont seem to have a Positive cable in the engine bay near the battery so looking for some tips/pics of what your wiring looks like. Im just trying to see what is working and what is missing as I probably will end up rewiring most of the engine bay judging by the looks of some of the wires. I just bought the truck and this is my first real resto, so Im not trying to rush anything, but I am trying to see what is there. I ordered the factory manuals and should be here next week, but if I can do some tinkering this weekend and get a heads start that would be great. Any tips would be greatly appreciated as well as photos of your current setups. Anyone have a diagram to share?

What year truck/ engine?

That positive battery cable should run from battery + to the top lug on the starter solenoid. Engine is a small block Chevy, but I doubt it is original to your '58. I agree that pulling all the under hood wiring and starting over would be a good thing to do. Under dash is probably as ugly. These things aren't that complicated to do yourself.

Rovertech,

Going by your signature line, guessing you are asking about your '58 1/2 ton (I think I recall you saying elsewhere it had a 283???).

Check out this PDF file (link below) that shows the '55 2nd Series (Task Force) wiring diagram from the '55 Shop manual. This applies to your truck as the following years 56-59 only had "Supplements" published for shop manual changes. A look at those "Supplements" showed no changes to this wiring diagram.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/electrical/wiring/pdf/55truck.pdf

You can save the file and print as many copies as you need to help you get started on your wiring.

I agree with Bouymaker that getting it safe and driveable is a good place to start. Once it is on the road, you can take it out of commission to do limited projects (such as recovering the seat) and get back to driving it. Getting to drive and enjoy it for a few weeks between projects goes a long way towards helping keep your motivation up.

It can be very disheartening to pull a bunch of things apart to fix all of them at the same time and get overwhelmed.

That said, good wiring falls into the category of "safe and driveable" to me. You don't necessarily need to yank it all out and start over, but I highly recommend looking through it to make sure there are no imminent fire hazards lurking under the hood or dash. If the wiring is a mess, it can often be cheaper/easier to replace the whole shebang with a new harness.

There has been a lot of discussion on the pros and cons of the different ways to do that, but I would recommend thoroughly inspecting *all* of your vehicle systems before diving into anything.

The factory manuals are invaluable for that inspection. It is good to hear that you have a set on order, they will serve you well.

Going back to your original question: you don't want a picture of my 58 wiring unless you want an example of what needs to be replaced. I am stripping it out completely and starting over.

Twisted wires, scotch-locs, random cuts and splices... It's a mess.

Rovertech: one thing to keep in mind while debating whether to repair or replace your wiring is you long term plan.

If your intention is to keep it basically stock, then the original wiring is probably fine (assuming it is in good condition). If you are planning to do upgrades that will need more (or thicker) wires, then doing a full rewire with modern fuses and more circuits might make more sense.

I am planning to add some modern amenities (upgraded hvac, radio, auto-dimming mirror, backup lights, etc) so that pushes me more toward a full wiring replacement.

Your tolerance for sketchy wiring goes down a lot after your first dash fire...

Fibonachu Well said on dash fires,when you can't see to drive for smoke !!