48 chevy truck

[kb426]

Quite a bit of time thinking caused O&S to not make much progress. All of the rear lights are connected and tested. I put 5 gallons in the tank and tested the fuel pump. No leaks. The fuel gauge wiring is run to the firewall. all of the wiring except for the pump is loomed and run on the left side. I started on the headlights and front turn signals before I quit.

[idrivejunk]

Looky at all that pretty blue 

[kb426]

O&S plodded along again. All of the exterior wiring is installed and tested. The leads to the fuse panel are not cut to length yet. I need to connect the back up light switch and the speed sensor before I put the trans cover in. I'm planning on running all of the wires down the right side of the tunnel on the inside of the cab. I have to make 2 cover plates for the frame horns to seal off the access holes and make wire restraints for the front lights. I mounted the headlight relays on the left side kick panel up high. I have been purchasing relays on ebay for years. They all have the same color of wires. I don't use the normally closed so I remove that wire. I connect everything and there's no headlights. The last bunch I purchased had the blue and yellow wires swapped in position. I didn't bother to look. LOL.

[WZ JUNK]

Looks good from here.  I just checked your weather forecast, and you need to plan on being done by Thursday. 

[jaybee]

Looks really nice, it's coming together.

[kb426]

O&S is still plodding. The back up lights and speed sensor wiring was run under the trans tunnel. I changed out the shifter for a new Ford t5 unit. The cheap unit I purchased didn't come with a boot and there wasn't anything close in size that I found. The Ford unit came with a boot. I installed the trans tunnel and went to put the console in and found that the corner of the AC bracket on the dash was in the way. Little bit of work and that was resolved. I cut all of the circuits to length and connected to the fuse panel. I found a plug for the ac compressor in my left over crown vic wiring. That's one less item to search for. The alternator wiring has been run. I moved on to the ignition switch. The hole in the dash was too small. I have an 1.25" drill bit so in a few minutes that was taken care off. I need to make a spacer to make up the distance on the switch from the dash to the switch body. The wiring from the switch is run to the fuse area. The starter wire is ready to be run the firewall and connected. And one more day has passed.

[kb426]

O&S got started by spending an hour on a fifteen minute job on the spacer for the ignition switch. I spent some time refreshing my memory on what I did on the ecu wiring about 5 or 6 months ago. The 4 relays on the firewall are for the ecu, o2 sensors, ignition coils and the fuel pump. The fuel pump is controlled by the ecu. I installed a diode in the power to the ecu relay. That is the black shrink wrapped object under the relay bank. The control circuit on 3 of the relays is controlled by the ignition switch. The power feed for the relays in 12 gauge running back to the battery. I didn't want to find out if the cables next to the muffler could stand the heat so I moved them outside of the frame. That took care of the neat installation. I installed the inertia switch and completed that circuit. The hole in the bed appears to be pretty snug so tomorrow I'll remove the battery and see if I need to enlarge the hole. Quite a few hours, not much accomplished. Must be normal.

[kb426]

O&S got in a few hours this afternoon. I mounted the obd2 port under the driver's seat. The 12v connector on it is also the keep alive for the ecu. I spliced into that wire and ran it to the bat side of the fuse panel. I connected all 6 of the computer grounds and ran a dedicated line to the ground terminal on the fuse panel. That ground goes directly to the battery. I removed the battery and fabbed some 90 degree brackets to attach the cables to. I didn't like the angles they would be if they were directly on the post. I pulled the cables back out of the bed and used my hole punch and enlarged the hole to 1.375". I had a piece of 1.25" 058 wall 4130 that I ran all of the cables through. That is in place where it passes through the bed floor. The wires are snug but I'm going to put some kind of restraint on it so it can't fall down out of the floor.

[kb426]

O&S put in some hours yesterday and most of today. I've had enough close detail work for a bit. The only thing left on the front of the truck is the ground wire on the ac clutch. The binary switch is connected, the cooling fan is completed, the starter is completed, all of the gauges are connected. The gauge controller is completed except for the dimmer wire. I didn't connect that on the last one but I ran a pig tail from the controller for it. The lights on the ac controller aren't connected yet, the 3rd brake light is left, dome light and the power windows are left. I'm going to put a brace from the pedal hanger to the dash brace before I install the gauges. The nuts holding the gauges in will be interesting. Might require a mirror. I have 4 speakers to install as soon as I arrive at a good solution for mounting. Speedway Motors had black fabric wire loom on sale so I purchased some. I sure like the look of that better than the plastic conduit. Not cheap but pretty nice.

[jaybee]

Agreed that the woven loom looks tons better than the corrugated plastic stuff. It looks better than wires hanging loose, but only just. Tape-wrapped loom looks pretty good when done well, but it takes forever.

Years ago, one of the early figures of the Street Rod revival hung out here, Skip Readio. He obtained an old school machine that braided right over the top of the wiring harness. He was marketing custom braided harnesses when traditional rods were really exploding.

[enjenjo]

There are a couple places that will do that on your custom harness. Rhode Island Wire is one of them.

[kb426]

O&S would like to tell you it started instantly but that wouldn't be correct. I crank it over and nothing happens. I bring it up on tdc and leak it to verify that it's on firing. Still nothing. I change to my spare computer. It blubbers a couple of times and that's it. I check the schrader valve on the fuel rail and there's fuel but not what I expect. I hot wire the pump and I have pressure. I unhook the battery connection on my hot wire and it fires up and dies. Then I 'm checking wiring to the fuel pump relay and the little light goes off. I check the inertia switch and it needed reset. I know that I reset it before I connected the battery. Anyway, it fired right up. Having fuel does make engines run better. LOL. More of the no memory syndrome. The pic is of the shiny stainless headers that instantly turned gold. {https://youtu.be/zJgLd1y51Pk}

[kb426]

O&S worked on an assortment of items today. The bed floor is back in. I had to cut 2 4" squares out where the top tail lights are. I think I'll make some alum covers for that. The bed cover is back on. The pic shows where I weighted areas for the silicone to dry. The parking brake cables are mounted to the floor. All of the stereo equipment is connected. I'm waiting for the idea god to help me with speaker mounts. I did clean up a bit. I feel good about having less boxes around.

[jaybee]

I didn't pick up previously that the back of the truck is in the contrasting blue. Really nice.

[kb426]

Jaybee, camera failure to show the correct color. All of the outside panels are the metallic color. :)Possibly the operators fault.