Before firing the engine yesterday, the final tasks were wiring up the reverse switch on the transmission, connecting the speed generator to the speedometer, and taking care of the rear lighting. Here’s the reverse switch on the Hurst shifter:
I then moved on to the speed generator. Previously it had a cruise control pulse generator attached to the through-drive. It was very clunky and looked like this (looking down through the open floor pan:
Here’s what it looks like now for comparison with the cruise portion gone:
I cheated on the rear wiring. I’ve been on this project for 2 ½ weeks with subfreezing temperatures during the entire period. Right now it’s 8 degrees outside. I have a Harbor Freight propane heater that warms the garage up to 65 or so. The temps are tolerable in the garage, but the side benefit is an all-day headache from the combustion fumes. Long story short I just got tired of working on it and contemplated what I could put off until later. The rear lighting qualified.
Since everything in the back of the truck is in perfect condition and marked identically to the new kit, I simply spliced the entire new harness to the existing wires right about the side step on the driver’s side. All the butt connectors are weather proof boat pieces. I rolled up and bagged all of the new wires and spliced the very ends to the old harness. I tied the bundle on top of the frame, so come the spring and some decent weather I can pull it out, cut the splices and run the rest of the new uncut harness to the rear and complete the job when I can leave the garage door open and enjoy the warm sunlight:
The rest of yesterday and today were both marathons again, sorting out the last couple of bugs. Even though the engine fired up and all the lights came on, I discovered two minor and one significant problem.
The biggest one was in the ignition switch/starting system. The engine fired right up and ran fine, but when the key was switched off the starter drive was thrown into the flywheel causing the kind of loud noise expected. I knew immediately what it was, but not what was causing the problem. I spent about 6 hours going through every single wire multiple times and couldn’t find anything incorrect. So I gave up worrying about it and went to bed. I figured Ron Francis tech support should have an answer.
The call first thing this morning was politely and professionally answered by Kyle. He put me in the queue for a call back. Scott called back about an hour later and after a brief description of the problem he suggested it was most likely my ignition switch doing something weird internally. I pulled the ignition switch out of the dash and checked everything externally, finding nothing suspicious. Another run attempt confirmed the problem still existed.
The 2nd recommendation was to start the engine and then disconnect terminal 4 and see if the problem went away. Terminals 3 & 4 are for a neutral safety switch and must be connected for the engine to crank. I did as suggested and that cured the problem. Rather than spending another $30-$40 on a new ignition switch, I simply put toggle switch #3 under the red safety cover back into service as a momentary “crank to start” switch. The fix works perfect and adds another layer of theft protection as it now takes two hands to start the engine:
I’ll probably order a new safety cover for it titled “crank” or “start”.
With that solved I addressed the two smaller issues. The easiest was the left hand door switch for the courtesy/dome lights. I simply forgot to hook it in the circuit. The other one was more of a pain and involved access to the headlight switch, so I pulled the steering wheel and instrument panel again.
One of the benefits I enjoyed with my old Ron Francis kit, was installing the new headlight switch, which automatically caused the parking lights to stay on with the headlights. It’s been working that way since 1992 with no attention on my part. So when swapping to the new switch/kit I expected the same operation. I guess it pays to read every little detail because I missed a disclaimer found in the instructions that would have saved me a couple more hours of work. Here’s a condensed version:
NOTE: The head light switch will turn the parking lights off when the head lights are on. To keep the parking lights on splice the park light wires into the tail light feed wires.
I was more than annoyed. Who wants their brand new wiring system to kill the parking lights like the industry standard back in 1960?! Since I can’t crimp 4 wires together like they can, I had to make a Y adapter to hook the two pairs of wires into the headlight switch:
It certainly would have been easier if they shipped the kit in this configuration to begin with like they did in the past. I’m going to be writing them a letter along with a critique of the kit. They’ve incorporated the same downgrade on the indicator light wire connections as well, instructing these should be spliced in, instead of being provided with factory crimps to begin with (like they did before).
Enough ranting, and the truth is on a 1-10 scale, my upset over this is about a 1 (being the least). I still love the Ron Francis wiring kit. There just isn’t anything else on the market that allows me to wire up a car the way I want to.
So I finished those two repairs, reinstalled the panel and the steering wheel, cleaned everything up and went to reconnect the negative battery cable. I was surprised to see a tiny spark, as if something was turned on. I had the doors closed so the interior lights were off. I went ahead and connected the cable, and found all the brake lights were blazing away!
I hit the books again and couldn’t figure out anything having to do with the headlight switch or dome light grounds that could have caused the problem. Assuming maybe I pinched a wire or something, I pulled the wheel and panel yet again! Nothing, I couldn’t find anything wrong. So the debugging began again, when I stopped and thought for a moment and wondered if the brake light switch could be out of alignment.
It was just coincidental timing, that’s all that was wrong. It had nothing to do with any of the other work. With all the other activity the brake switch simply wiggled itself out of alignment enough that the plunger slipped off the brake pedal arm! After an hour of trying to adjust the darn thing, I decided to simply install a rubber block between the cage and the switch, trapping it in exact alignment. Another permanent, no cost fix.
Now all the bugs are gone and everything is working perfectly. The layout is neat and easy to follow or fix in the future. My last task before trying to document all this in a separate thread is to go through and change out the fuses to the correct rating for each assigned circuit. I’m also going to see about having permanent laminated labels made for the panel itself, that indicate what I actually used them for, rather than some of the factory assignments like “spare battery”, A/C, ACC H, Power Windows, etc. I’m also going to identify which fuse feeds which terminal on the white plastic strips that snap on over the terminals. Then I’ll be done with the rewire project. The mascot in the glove box is my guardian angel that was a gift from my wife’s sister and always keeps me company:
This has been the hardest physical task I’ve challenged since the MIP floor mat. I’m really pleased with the result, and thankful I am still capable of getting away with it. It has also established a new electrical modification policy. If a gauge or something needs replacing no problem, but there won’t be any more interior improvements that require wiring changes. If I can’t leave it alone and need to change anything else it will have to be something easy like a gear shift knob!
And my new diamond stitched seat covers arrived yesterday. Pictures tomorrow. I also dropped off the GMC glove box emblem today for chroming. I might have it back in 3-4 weeks.