The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay bare wire exposed.

while trouble shooting my feuel guage i found a bare stripped out wire from the backside of my ignition switch.it's black w/a white stripe solid core any body know where it goes to?

Don't know what year your truck is but I looked at the wiring diagram for my 56 half-ton and there are eight wires going to the ignition switch and none of them are black with a white stripe. Can you see which terminal on the switch it goes to? There's a 16-gauge wire that goes to the cigarette lighter. Maybe someone disconnected that.

I don't believe GM used any solid core wires, just stranded - you should find all the wire colors labeled on the wiring diagram in your shop manual

Bill

I would surely suspect a previous owner used a solid wire to run some sort of accessory. I would remove the wire and see if anything quits working. An unused wire is inviting trouble.

what shop manual? that would be nice. good tip though concerning the solid core wire.i'll terminate it's existence w/ extreme prejudice.

the 63 shop manual w/ the 66 supplement, like here

great source squeeze! however the plot thickens.just as i'm about to go cutting wires w/ my trusty side cutters i notice it's not a black wire w/ a white stripe but dark brn w/ a white stripe that travels deep into the factory electrical wrap way up into the dash. so..it's getting late i'm not ion the mood to R&R all that tape tonight.so i pull the black holster off the back of the ignition switch to find six terminal one red ,one pink.one green,one w/ a portion of a brn wire w/ a wire stripe and the other port empty. so w/ a needle nose i extract the broken brn wire and find that a solid core wire is in fact crimped two times on to the brass connector.this is clearly a factory crimp that involved a propaine torch to heat uo red hot to remove that tiny section of solid core wire.again this crimp was to clean and to uniform to suggest that some hack job w/ a crimping tool/pliers could have done this that clean. tomorrow time permitting i'll remove as much of the factory electrical tape as i can follow this brn/w.stripe solid core wire as far back as i can to see where it goes. i'm of the opinion that gm did in fact use a solid core wire,but for what purpose,why is solid core wire used anyway? household or other wise? heavy current? this brn/w. wire looks to 18-20ga.

solid vs stranded wire = primarily flexibility, but when electricity flows through a wire, it flows on the surface, not through the "core", so a wire of a given size made up of many smaller strands can carry more power than a solid wire, because the many strands have more surface area - the reason why battery cables and welding cables are stranded wire - it allows them to carry more power with less of that power being dissipated as heat, virtually all wire used with DC voltage is stranded

I'm surprised any solid wire is used there, but I suppose there was a reason - an ohm meter should work to track it in the bundle, especially if you have the wiring diagram to get an idea where it should go

Bill

thanks again squeeze! great info,stranded vs solid core. i just cant imagine a previous owner running a solid core and then re-wrapping a large portion of the electrical system w/ electrical tape.the whole wrapping job is old dusty brittle and looks as factory as i've ever seen.but we'll find out later today.thanks again squeeze!p.s. sending unit pulled and inside rheostat housing we found broken copper wires. later.

Brown w/white stripe runs to terminal 4 on the voltage regulator.

I Googled "1966 Chevrolet truck wiring diagram" and came up with a couple to look at.

Check the wire going from the Ign 1 position on the ignition switch to the (+) terminal on the coil. It's a solid core nickel/chrome resistance wire and I believe it's got brown/white trace insulation. The Ign 2 wire bypasses it with a non-resistor wire when the switch is in the "start" position.
Jerry