The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Rewiring question for 40 chevy pickup

Could someone please tell me or if you have a picture which wire goes where for hooking the headlights and parking lamps back to the fuse terminal on the inner fender. I don't mind admitting that in my haste to get started working on my truck two years ago I failed to mark them. The main harness is already attached to the fuse block, just need to know about the headlights and parking lamps. Also, I installed new taillights and they don't work. Any ideas as to what to check? When I pull the headlight switch on, at least the dash lights work.

thanks, stupid me!!!

Ken Roberson
Pace, Fl
40 Chevy 3/4 ton
41 International
35 Dodge 1st series 1 ton pickup express

Ken is the wiring color coded ?

On my '40 , the wiring at the fender connection is : all reds together , all greens together and all greys together (for headlamps )plus an earth ,screwed onto the inner fender.

The park lamp wires should be in an extention loom to clamp up under the fenders (you still have the clamp , right ?)

Take special care to have very good earth points . Or run a seperate wire just for the earth .

Yes, make sure you have good grounds(earths)

a very important part of electrical connections!

Dusty...yes I still have the clamps for the parking lamps. My wiring is original...no color codes like yours. I think I might have figured out where the 2 wires with u-shaped ends go, but where does the one with a closed end hook to? also, where does the parking lamp wire which has a closed end hook to? and do the fuses on the terminal block have to be 6 volt or 12 volt or does it matter as long as the amp is the same?

thanks, Ken

Ken, You can figure this out with a little experimentation. If the wires are coming from the headlight switch side, get a test light or a meter and move the switch to different positions to see what wire lights up and when.

If the wire is coming from the bulb side, run a jumper wire ( a long wire with an alligator clip on each end ) from the hot side of the battery and hook it to one wire at a time. If the parking light lights up obviously you have found the parking light wire. If nothing lights up you may have a bad bulb or a bad ground in the fixture. Wiring diagrams are nice but a little patience and experimentation works as well. I hope this helps out.

First of all, thanks everyone, I got the headlights working. Now, one more question. Since the parking lamps only have one wire which comes through the inner fender panel and connects to the terminal, I am assuming that the lamp gets it's ground from the fender itself, right or wrong? I replaced my fenders with fiberglass ones so if it does get the ground from the metal fenders, I guess I need to run a seperate ground wire from the inner fender panel to the parking lamp itself, right?

thanks, ken

darn right, you need a ground. My 46 had the same problem. The 46 has a metal headlight bucket with the parking light on top. I was able to get the ground connection at the rear of the parking light shroud. Hope this helps.