The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
OK, so back on the horse for a bit here, taking advantage of this ridiculous, unseasonably warm weather. Been out in the garage chipping away at the Duster trying to get the car ready for the season.
So I am essentially re-wiring my entire car AGAIN. I hate to say it kind of needed to be done but I will admit that some of the stuff I did a few years ago was lookin' kind of hacked. Every time I get to a point where I need to tie in some component, I uncover something else that looked like a fire waiting to happen. So, out it comes to re-done or replaced.
Basically the very last vestige of the old version of my car was the battery cable and old Moroso battery box. It's all gone now. The main cable itself was OK I suppose but I noticed a few gouges in the insulation and I never liked how it laid across the trunk out in the open - it was really too short.
This is how it all has looked for the last few years. Could be worse I suppose. Note continuous duty solenoid in the alternator charge line on the left, "Ford" starter solenoid on the right.
So I went down to SK Speed and picked up a new Taylor aluminum battery box, 20ft of new cable, screw on terminal ends and a bunch of heavy duty plastic adhesive lined shrink tubing for the other terminals.
Here's basically what it looks like now. Not totally finished yet but you get the idea.
Though it looks similar, things came out a little more sanitary and concise since I am starting from scratch and not re-doing existing wiring. BTW, Taylor makes nice stuff. I have liked pretty much everything I have from them including plug wires, my cutoff switch and now the battery box.
Just a shot of how the new terminal ends look. If you use shrink tubing here, it gets chewed up pretty much instantly, AMHIK. You really need this thick stuff on larger wire terminals. The shrink tubing here was just another measure of abrasion protection since this end of the wire goes to the B+lug on the starter. Note the heat shielding for where the wire comes out of the firewall and snakes around the headers to the starter.
Previously, the battery cable was run up the driver's side in the trough along the sill. One issue with the cable was that it was short and ran diagonally across the tire well in the trunk to where the battery was on the other side. I never liked that. Besides looking half-assed, it was not secured down very well.
I left the new cable longer so I could route it along the front of the trunk pan to the other side. From there, it goes to the box instead of hanging out in the middle o the trunk. There were some clips for the rear defroster wiring that were still in place under the package tray so I used those to secure the wire. They were the right size and work great. Nice and neat now. Blue wire is the fuel level sender.
The small lengths of shrink tube you see were used to help guard against abrasion. It also helps to keep the main fuse box power wire tight to the battery cable since that also needs to go back to the cutoff switch. Running that wire all the way back to the switch provides the ability to kill all the dash/ignition stuff up front.
So I had to move the fuse box from the middle of the firewall to the left side. When I started laying out the wiring from the column to the fuse box, there was too much in the way. The connectors from the column essentially feed everything out towards the left so all the wiring would have had to first go towards the firewall and then over the column and associated parts. Some of it would have inevitably ended up by the pedals which I definitely did not want.
I looked at it for a bit trying to see where it might fit best with a minimum of hassle. Right then I realized I had used the driver's side fresh air box maybe one time since I've had the car so that was removed and the cowl vent was covered up to make room for the fuse box. Now it's a straight shot to the box with shorter wiring. All good!
Man, I hope to finish up this wiring soon.
More to come.
OK, so back on the horse for a bit here, taking advantage of this ridiculous, unseasonably warm weather. Been out in the garage chipping away at the Duster trying to get the car ready for the season.
So I am essentially re-wiring my entire car AGAIN. I hate to say it kind of needed to be done but I will admit that some of the stuff I did a few years ago was lookin' kind of hacked. Every time I get to a point where I need to tie in some component, I uncover something else that looked like a fire waiting to happen. So, out it comes to re-done or replaced.
Basically the very last vestige of the old version of my car was the battery cable and old Moroso battery box. It's all gone now. The main cable itself was OK I suppose but I noticed a few gouges in the insulation and I never liked how it laid across the trunk out in the open - it was really too short.
This is how it all has looked for the last few years. Could be worse I suppose. Note continuous duty solenoid in the alternator charge line on the left, "Ford" starter solenoid on the right.
So I went down to SK Speed and picked up a new Taylor aluminum battery box, 20ft of new cable, screw on terminal ends and a bunch of heavy duty plastic adhesive lined shrink tubing for the other terminals.
Here's basically what it looks like now. Not totally finished yet but you get the idea.
Though it looks similar, things came out a little more sanitary and concise since I am starting from scratch and not re-doing existing wiring. BTW, Taylor makes nice stuff. I have liked pretty much everything I have from them including plug wires, my cutoff switch and now the battery box.
Just a shot of how the new terminal ends look. If you use shrink tubing here, it gets chewed up pretty much instantly, AMHIK. You really need this thick stuff on larger wire terminals. The shrink tubing here was just another measure of abrasion protection since this end of the wire goes to the B+lug on the starter. Note the heat shielding for where the wire comes out of the firewall and snakes around the headers to the starter.
Previously, the battery cable was run up the driver's side in the trough along the sill. One issue with the cable was that it was short and ran diagonally across the tire well in the trunk to where the battery was on the other side. I never liked that. Besides looking half-assed, it was not secured down very well.
I left the new cable longer so I could route it along the front of the trunk pan to the other side. From there, it goes to the box instead of hanging out in the middle o the trunk. There were some clips for the rear defroster wiring that were still in place under the package tray so I used those to secure the wire. They were the right size and work great. Nice and neat now. Blue wire is the fuel level sender.
The small lengths of shrink tube you see were used to help guard against abrasion. It also helps to keep the main fuse box power wire tight to the battery cable since that also needs to go back to the cutoff switch. Running that wire all the way back to the switch provides the ability to kill all the dash/ignition stuff up front.
So I had to move the fuse box from the middle of the firewall to the left side. When I started laying out the wiring from the column to the fuse box, there was too much in the way. The connectors from the column essentially feed everything out towards the left so all the wiring would have had to first go towards the firewall and then over the column and associated parts. Some of it would have inevitably ended up by the pedals which I definitely did not want.
I looked at it for a bit trying to see where it might fit best with a minimum of hassle. Right then I realized I had used the driver's side fresh air box maybe one time since I've had the car so that was removed and the cowl vent was covered up to make room for the fuse box. Now it's a straight shot to the box with shorter wiring. All good!
Man, I hope to finish up this wiring soon.
More to come.
