I will be replacing the factory fuse block with the Painless Products 12 circuit fuse panel and doing my own headlight relay modification. Last Saturday I started with the headlight mod, I'll do the fuse block next weekend. I had to start by moving my AUX battery solenoid closer to the firewall along the drivers side inner fender and extending the AUX battery cable to the battery. I also replaced the aftermarket battery try with a real Ford AUX battery tray thanks to HIO Silver for finding this one!

I ordered the Painless fuse block and some small wire loom, I dug up the wire from our spare wire box and the hardware I already have in stock.





First I had to figure out where my headlight B+ leads are in the factory wiring harness. I also had to set a baseline voltage to determine if I'm really doing any good with this project so I installed a power supply on my MAIN battery and set the system voltage to 12.5 VDC. I measured the voltage at the drivers side headlight at 10 VDC.



I pulled the connector off on the drivers side and identified the headlight lead.



I pulled a piece of 12 Gauge wire thruogh the radiator support and protected it with wire loom. This will supply B+ to the passenger side headlight.



The new location of my battery isolation solenoid.



2 relays for the headlight and the third relay will be used for ether High beams or marker lights. I'll have to review the factory wiring schematic to determine the path. I also installed a fuse block to protect the new circuit.



After wiring everything in place the is my voltage going to the drivers side headlight.





I wired up the other side and now my headlights are nice and bright. Next week I will start the Painless fuse block install. That should also help clean up some mess under the hood so I can neaten up everything with wire loom and make it all look pretty.

 

That is VERY clean; nice work!

 

X2. Nice to see somebody puting thought into how to layout a project .
Nice job Steve.

 

For anyone interested in building your own harness, or adding some circuits to an existing harness that you want to look professionally done:

A few weeks ago I searched the Internet exhaustively for different colored wire. Solid color stuff is easy to find in what I'll call the the standard colors, but other than standard solid colors, and wires with "tracers" (either straight or spiral) was tough, and often one had to buy substantially more of a particular color than called for by the project.

For example you can buy various colors of Painless Performance wire through Summit Racing but the pricing is beyond outrageous.

For a huge selection of wire in different gauges, different colors, different color "tracers" (spiral and straight available) ("tracers" are essentially different colored stripes) I highly recommend a company called Rhode Island Wiring Service (Rhode Island Wiring Service Inc.). There minimum length is only 10 feet, and their pricing and customer service are both excellent.

If you're looking for standard color wiring in 50 foot lengths I recommend Spectro Wire and Cable (Spectro Wire and Cable). Their pricing is excellent.

Here's an example: Painless Wiring p/n 70866 is $19.95 from Summit. That item is 50' of 18 gauge solid black wire. Spectro's price is $4.20.

 

good job Steve,clean

 

Thanks for the links Blackfoot. Been looking for striped wire in short lengths for awhile.

 

Nice job. I did something similar+ with a '90s Taurus power distribution box.

 

in school i was told if your junking a car, always pull the wire harness. there either worth money as a part or you can repair other cars and have stock colered wires that are imposible to find or $$$

 

Nice work and a good idea GOVTMOD.

I finished the Painless fuse block installation but I posted it on the Official Candy Cane Project Thread.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ct-thread.html

Enjoy!

 

I've used Rhode Island Wiring in the past and you are right on, they have good pricing and the lady I talked to on the phone was very helpful.
There is another company in Rhode Island that does wiring harness work, they actually have some dentside harnesses listed in their Ford/Mercury catalog. There might be a family association with Rhode Island Wiring.
The company is Narragansett Reproductions. They also have parts, terminals and wire w/ color tracers. Narragansett Reproductions - Wiring Harnesses and antique car / automobile restoration supplies

 

Thanks. I've always admired your truck and the work you've done on it. Here's my install info, although you can see I didn't quite end up wiring it as intended. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...tall-help.html

Oldstyle used the same box but wired it a bit differently.

 

sub'bd to retain links, thanks for info


ps found this in "Similar Threads" box at bottom of page of NBC-Steve's Candy Cane thread, useful to look at that every once in a while

 

I'm always amazed by you guys that understand circuits and alike.
Really nice work Steve.
That is becoming one hell of a truck.

 

I know what you mean. For whatever reason, electrical has never made sense to me. I'll ask how to do something and people will be like, "Oh, that's easy! Just do X, Y, and Z and you're done!" then I'm sitting there still confused. It's just something that's never really clicked for me, which makes me feel at a huge disadvantage.

 

I saw your electrical thread and followed it to the official page. Love the color. And like the plates says, Its definitely a Ringer. How did the painless wiring instal go?