Some of you have seen that I am in the middle of some wiring issues. I have a 1977 F250 4x4 purchased from the original owner. It has the 460 swap and it still has the C6 and a dual battery set-up.
Here is what I was up against:
A LOT of interesting wiring. There was a circa 80 +/- Kenwood stereo/amp/crossover and "Truck Speakers"
There was a same era Kenwood security system. This system seemed to be like a virus. It had it's poisonous tentacles into most of the ignition wiring. It's hard to describe this alarm but I'll try. There were bypass switches, extra door switches, a hood pressure sensor, a valet switch, red (pre LED) blinky lights, and a full-sized antennae running lengthwise underneath the dash itself. The antennae was for the remote which is nearly the size of a modern day garage door opener and had a belt clip.
The radar detector (Hard mounted between the sun visors) had a sensor up front near the grille and the head unit was the size of a modern day car CD player.


Now, I had the bright idea of taking my entire dash out to replace a blown heater core. Then during the reassembly, I started finding more and more hacked in issues.


And now, the point of my thread.


I purchased the American Autowire Classic Update Series 73-79 Ford Truck & 78-79 Bronco Kit | American Autowire wiring harness for the 73-79 F Series Truck. The kit was $699 at LMC. I have seen them for $600 on Ebay but you need to wait for assembly and shipping. The kit looks amazing. I have read the instructions twice now and it is very straight forward.


I will attempt to document the progress of my installation for anyone that is considering this upgrade or repair. So far the upside to this kit is: 1. It comes with all necessary switches including lights. wipers and even the high-beam foot switch. It has new door trigger switches and glove box switch. 2. The wires are all identified as to their purpose with painted on labeling every 4" or so. 3. The new fuse panel kicks butt and uses the old mounting holes but has newer style fuses and the flasher relays are incorporated. 4. It comes with new grommets for the firewall. 5. Toll-Free Tech Support and they call you back. There may be more but I haven't dug into it yet.
So far, the downside is: 1. the price. 700 bones is a lot for a bunch of labeled copper. 2. It WILL NOT support our ignition system. 3. It will not support the duraspark distributor. 4. It will not support a 3 wire alternator. 5. I will be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future.


So now, I am $1056 into this upgrade.
I bought:
Harness= $699
Flamethrower Dist.= $220
Flamethrower Coil= $31
GM style but Ford cased 1 wire Alternator= $106


I will keep you all posted and try to take as many pictures as I can. I hope this helps other members who are thinking about a wiring harness.

 

Thanks Beedub, it'll be interesting to watch the progress. Post pictures and add your comments too.

 

Hang in there buddy, hopefully fmc400 with chime in with help on the downside issues # 2,3,4.

As far as #5...at least she can not complain about working on your truck all night and then getting bed smelling like motor oil and a waking her up.

Couch bonus fact: You want a snack at 3am you are half way to the fridge.

#1 issue...some overtime paychecks will heal that hurt.

 

Isnt the flamethrower dizzy and coil deemed useless and even counter productive in a 73-79 Ford? May want to ask about it.

 

1. $700s a lot cheaper than a truck on fire.

2/3 The old Durasparks were OK in there time. I would replace it . Maybe in your case am HEI aftermarket ( Davis Unified Ignition might be simple). Or an HEI Dizzy with the coil on top. Only one hot wire needed.

4. A three wire alternator should only need a full time hot (battery) and a key on hot to energize it. the other connection would be for a red warning light. That could be wired in.

Anyway it sounds like a very interesting project. Keep us posted please.


Oh! The couch. Women don't realize we actually like sleeping there. It's like camping out!

 

Adding the Duraspark ignition is not that big of a deal should you decide to go that way.

 

Here is what I had to begin with. The old wiring pretty hacked in.




Here was the engine bay a couple weeks ago, still chasing ghosts in the old wiring.




Passenger side solenoid for second battery. just an example of the wiring behind it.




Don't know why these post upside down but here was the wiring in the dash, full of ghosts.

 

Upside down again but, this is the original wiring to the left of the steering wheel.




Solenoid looked like it got in a fight with a bowl of noodles and it lost.




Last of the old wiring.




This stuff is up for grabs if anyone needs it.

 

first run, passenger side




New fuse block. Love it! All the relays are centralized there.




Organized spaghetti

 

New single post Alternator. All they had was chrome ones and it was the same price. I don't like chrome.




The new electric set-up.




New wires in looms.




Battery cables are still loose but you get the idea.

 

Looks good so far!

Try turning your computer upside down and re-load the pictures.



lol...just kidding

 

Hot dang! that is some spaghetti! You must be living in AUSTRALIA with those upside down pics


Do the instructions come with a schematic?

 

The instructions are very thorough. Plus, they have full-time tech support if you need it. The colors on the instructions help and having the wires factory labeled really helps.
One example, the instructions showed that Ford had different colored wires coming out of the Neutral Safety Switch than I had. I just called the tech line and he was very helpful, he said "Oh, you have these colored wires? Ok, this goes to this, and that goes to that." They have their hands full trying to figure out Ford wire coloring but seems like they have a handle on it.


Don't know why my pictures come out upside down sometimes.

 

Yes, but they're upside down.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jklnhyd

Isnt the flamethrower dizzy and coil deemed useless and even counter productive in a 73-79 Ford? May want to ask about it.

Way to ***** on my frosted flakes BTW. I don't see why it would not be beneficial. Maybe it doesn't work with the Duraspark system, but I don't have that anymore. This dist. is full HEI internally. The coil is matched at .06 ohm low resistance. The way I see it, I can open the gap up a bit on the plugs and still run cleaner and hotter.