Posted this series of questions on the electrical/wiring forum, however, most of the wiring questions I saw there were for newer (relatively) vehicles, so I will re-post it here.

1) The truck has a C-4 tranny (unsure of year). There are 4 wires coming off of a switch where the shifter linkage meets the tranny housing. Anyone know which wire is which?

2) The trucks original wiring harness has 3 wires running to the rear taillights; a brown split lamp wire (for headlights on), and a green and yellow wire (right and left blinker respectively). My aftermarket harness has 4 wires running to the rear; brown headlights on wire, right and left turn signals, and a back-up light wire. Does the back-up light wire go to the taillights themselves (only one bulb per) or should it attach to the tranny wiring harness (see above)?

3) Last question : I have a number of unused wires built into the harness for accessories that I would like to think I am going to add in the future. What's the best way to cap these off until I need them (right now the ends are taped over and the extra wires are bundled and zip-tied)?

By the way, a big thanks out to everyone who assisted me with first questions I had, you folks are invaluable.
Thanks

 

 

Well, the truck itself is a '64 (titled as a 65... what's the deal with old trucks getting titled a year later?) F-100 Custom Cab, straight front axle, painted flat back (pin striping and such soon to come), with well painted reverse steelies (Gouge your eyeballs out orange w/ a 1" "trim ring" left unpainted and polished baby moons... Sorry, got carried away there, but, Man it's a bitchin' truck!

As far as the taillights go, there is only 1 bulb w/ two wires going into it. Not sure if I should splice the 3 wires going to each bulb (or even which 2 to splice together), but I'm thinking brake and back-up wires spliced into one joint with headlight power being other wire. Sorry if that's confusing, but I'm still developing a vocabulary.

Thanks.

 

Are you hooking up the bulbs on the truck or a trailer harness?
Jimmy

 

The four wires on the switch are for your backup lights and neutral start. You will need to make a continuity check. Put the transmission in park, you should have continuity on two wires, put the transmission in neutral, you should have continuity on the SAME two wires. These are the neutral start switch. The other wires are for the backup light, put the trans in reverse and you should have continuity on these two wires and not have continuity on these wires with the gear selector in any other position. The ignition start wire should run through this switch before it goes to the solenoid. The backup light should be ignition run position hot and I'd use separate bulbs or an auxiliary light for the backup light. Your 66 did not have a provision for backup lights in the original tail light housing. Later models did I think 67 up! A set of these later housings will fit your fenders (Style Side) or you can just bolt a small auxiliary light on the bumper.

 

Right now I'm just hooking up the bulbs on the truck, it's going to be a while before it is going to see any towing duty.

I think I'll go with an aux lamp on the bumper for now, until I can locate some later model housings that will fit. With any luck, I will wire that up tomorrow and basically be finished with the wiring harness for the time being.

 

As for the backup lights, the tail light assemblies out of a 67 - 72 will fit your 66, giving you a separate bulb for the backup lights.
The only difference you'll see from the outside is a clear square of plastic near the bottom of the lense.