The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay New wiring harness

I just installed a complete new wiring harness from EZ2Wire in my '49. The truck is all modified with a steering column ignition switch. My problem is everything that should be hot all the time is only hot with the key on, and what should be hot only when the key is on is hot all the time. I talked to the guy I got the harness from and he said the switch is backwards. The connectors for the ignition switch come pre-wired and only hook mup 1 way. Just wondering if any one has any ideas of what I might have done wrong. Thanks.

I installed his system a couple of years ago in my '57. The directions were less than helpful.

It sounds like the harness may have been assembled incorrectly (imagine that) and b1 (10ga brown wire - power out from the ignition switch to the switched side of the fuse block) and b2 (12ga red wire - power into the switch from the fuse block) may have been reversed in the connector.

Run a continuity check on the column connector to isolate the "ACC" (switched) output. (It should be dead when the switch is off and hot when the switch is on or in the acc position. If it's always hot you've got a bad switch.) This should mate up to the brown (b1 10ga wire) on the new harness which provides power to the fuses (a1-a6/d1-d6 on my diagram). The red 12ga wire (b2) provides power into the ign switch and is always hot. Then run a continuity check from the harness connector at the ign switch end (b1) to one of the fuses (a1-a6 or d1-d6) to see if that's connected to the block in the switched half. If it shows continuity to the "hot" half of the fuse block (a7-a10/d7-d10) then the brown wire (b1) at the fuse block is coming from the wrong half of the fuse block.

Also make sure your 8ga wire (also b2 on the diagram) is the wire that goes directly from the fuse block to the battery.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ChrisAurit/ItSChrisGreenTruck#5361634834935462482
http://picasaweb.google.com/ChrisAurit/ItSChrisGreenTruck#5361620418671560194
http://picasaweb.google.com/ChrisAurit/ItSChrisGreenTruck#5361620130387432194

Desert Buick,
That's exactly what happened. Started tracing wires and found a #10 brown coming from the switch and a #8 red coming from the batery (both going to fuse block) were reversed. There was a square connecter in the line and they had put it together backwards so the red went to the brown and the brown went to the red. Thanks for the info.

Glad to help. I like a happy ending.