Woot woot! :-)

 

SO that's why I heard the Angels singing in Heaven!
Glad to hear it Steve. I think it's Way Cool.
Note, too bad you and Hio are so far apart. The two of you cruising together down Route 66 with your finished rigs would be a sight. And fun I am sure.

 

I heard that too... mustabeen Steve in the shower. But he couldda picked a different tune than "It's raining men".

 

 

Hey, don't hate on me when you're the one that said it was YOUR favorite song.

 

I like Jeff's idea, and it would be great to see it, even if only in a video... There are 3 old bumps in my little town in Baja, and probably more out on farms, behind the barn. With a total population of only about 300 families, that's a pretty high percentage, of still working, old trucks. Most people in Mexico, can't afford to give-up on an old truck easily. Point in fact, I just purchased a complete wiring harness, from EZ wiring, for $170 + shipping. I love the fact that each wire has its intended use printed on the wire, every 5 inches... ie, left turn..... left turn..... and on. Makes wiring sooooo simple. I plan to keep the instrument plug, but use waterproof marine connections for all the rest. With 21 circuits, I will have the wiring installed if I ever fine an A/C unit to install... just dreaming...

Baja

 

I got the truck out a little bit ago and drove all the way across town to the alignment shop ....only to find they evidently closed up shop early today! All I could do was turn around and come back home.

On a positive note though, the truck's first maiden voyage back on the streets, since I took the truck off the road back in October, was good (even with the front not being aligned).

The truck rode good and for the first time I didn't have to saw the steering wheel back and forth, just to make the truck go in a straight line and the front end didn't dart around.

The power steering was pretty much effortless in the ability to turn the front wheels, and with the front sway bar (rear bar isn't installed yet), the truck didn't wollow like a boat in the curves and it no longer feels like the door handles are going to scrape the pavement, while going around a curve.

While it's irratating that the alignment shop closed up early today, it was nice to go for a drive in the old (more improved) truck again, even if it was a short drive (about an 8 mile round trip).

As soon as I got back to my shop, from my short trip, I popped the hood to make sure there were no fluid leaks from anything I had recently installed (check).



Getting ready to put the green machine back inside my shop. --pollen has been rampant around here, starting yesterday. Don't want the truck covered in it, since I just washed the accumulation of five months worth of dust off of it yesterday.

 

I discovered an unwanted situation with my modded cargo/3rd brake light. Evidently in all my installing/testing of the light, I never pulled the light switch out to the 'park' or 'lights on' position.

With the light switch off, the 3rd brake light works like I intended --only lights up red when I step on the brake pedal and goes off when I get off the pedal.

However, if I pull the light switch **** out, the tail light circuit backfeeds the wire to the cargo light and it illuminates red, along with the tail lights. If I was driving like this at night, the person behind me would think the doofus in front of them (me) was riding around with their foot on the brake. DOH!

I'll have to look at the wiring schematics again and trace the circuit out. I don't know yet if I can install an electrical check valve (a diode) in the circuit to stop the backfeed or, whether I'll have to move the wire from the brake light switch to the circuit coming from the brake lights (?).

It's not a deal breaker and I'm sure it'll be easy enough to fix but, I blame it on HIO. I think his bad juju of late with his truck has jumped over onto mine!

 

LOL. Welcome to my world where sometimes the best made plans to poo-poo. That's OK though because "We Shall Overcome".

Makes me think of a song...

"Humidity's rising, barometer's gettin' low
According to all sources the street's the place to go
Tonight for the first time just about half past ten
For the first time in history it's gonna start raining _ _ _" LOL.

 

Either you looked up the lyrics to that song or, even scarier, you knew the words to it off the top of your head. Ha ha.

 

I hope to solve 'Tricklicy' problems once and for all time, with the purchase of an EZ wiring loom, with 21 circuits & new fuse block. Things got a bit confused on my old truck, with a '67 cab, on a '72 chassis, and '67 steering column, & a '70 bed... Ford changed some of the connections, wire routing, and fuses.. The EZ wiring loom has each wire labeled, every 5 inches, like RT tail light....... RT tail light.... and so on. No doubt which wire goes where. I'm thinking that I may only use 12 of the 21, unless I decide to add A/C later... or is that only in my dreams?? The color coding also helps a little... Now, if I ever decide to add that 3rd tail light (my cab does not have it), at least I will have a free circuit to wire in... I will be watching for your cure Ultra...

Baja

 

I will be doing the same one of these days with the 21 circuit fuse block myself.
I had a shortest out brake warning lite wire cooked some of my dash loom.

Boy was this ever fords big screw up wiring that to a 20 amp main fuse and a small gage wire the only melts everything the wire was wraps around in the loom.

I did a a 3amp inline fuse to the brake warning light wire..
After splicing in new wires that all got melted.
Tapped it all back up buck together but, I know it's in there hidden away.

Orich

 

Good job Rich,

I have my brake warning light dis-connected, and it will stay that way until I install the EZ wiring kit. I have no clue as to why Ford did it that way...... perhaps 2 different designers, with 2 different mind sets?? We will never know. I suspect that many corporate decisions are bean-counter influenced, and regretted later by the end user. Hence, the numerous re-calls throughout the industry. Seems that only when 'Legal' has to get involved, are "Dollar decisions" trumped.. Some corporate motto's might be;
"Safety's Nifty, unless it costs you Fifty"
"Safety's fine, but don't drop a Dime"
"Safety's cool, but only a Fool"

Go ahead, take up the chant...

Baja

 

I would like to have the extra circuitry, over the stock fuse block that's in the truck. There weren't many electrical features available on the old trucks compared to what's on today's vehicles so, a small fuse block with a hand full of circuits is all you get.

Fortunately in my truck's case, there was very little butchery of the wiring by previous owners and I have been able to add/modify components to the existing wiring, without cutting up any of the original main wiring harnesses.

 

There are LEDs that will fit most any socket on our old trucks. They're bright, last much longer, give off little heat and they don't have near the amperage draw on the circuitry that an incandescent bulb has.