The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Where do you start???

Got the brakes done on my '50 1/2 ton, now on to the wiring harness. For those of you who have done this, where do you recommend I start on this? I have the diagram but wondered with all the experience on this forum, if there was a better method or just lay it out and start randomly.

Cougs,

Do you have a kit from Painless, a new stock harness or are you stringing it yourself?

Chevy Duty sells an almost "Idiot Proof" harness for abot $100. I installed it with few problems and the job looks neat when it's done. The aftermarket turn signals were tricky though. If you install them and are still using 6V juice, it may be a good option to wire in new lights just for that purpose. Thick 1 guage battery cables are a good idea as well.

I have the ChevyDuty harness and it is replacing the original cloth covered with plastic covered. It also has the 6v system that with stay that way.

This is how I would do it....but I've never done it.....I have torn out an old harness and then wondered why....

I would start by laying out the new harness...compare it to the old one and try to identify where everything belongs when I am done...Then, label the old connections and remove the harness from the truck in sections (like the dash, etc.) I would remove the old harness with out totally destoying it,if possible, and install the new using the diagram and old harness as a pattern.... Masking tape and a sharpie fine point work well to label the old harness....

Does the Chevy duty have the destination printed on each wire?

Cougs, I did the Chevy Duty harness on mine and it was pretty easy. I started by snaking it through to the dash from the engine side of the firewall, then did the part that goes down to the brake switch and under the cab, then the headlight and engine bay stuff, followed by the little harness that goes from the distributor to the ignition switch. The Chevy duty harness is pretty well labeled but you do have to cut your own wires for the tail lights. It does come with turn signal wires already in.

Here's a detailed account of my EZ-Wire install:
Click Here

I installed a harness from Brothers a few years back. I left the old harness on and started with the thickest part up the firewall and would unhook old connections and hook new up one place at a time. There was points I felt like the whole mess got braided but it left me with a reference as to how it was to be routed and after awhile, most of the old was wadded up in a ball and out of the way.

One think you should do, if you haven't already,
and thats pull your gauges out of the dash.
Trying to wire under the dash with the gauges
in is a killer. Cecil........

Most things originate from under the dash, as previously mentioned push under dash wires thru from engine compartment, route toward each component. Cutting the old wires with 6-12 inch left makes routing and finding easier. I started with a bare cab using Centech harness/fuse panel, they print on their wire the destination, I'm sure others would also, makes for easy quick job. I found the Chevy gauges were easier to wire in place. Zeke