I searched the forum for an answer to my question, but didn't find one.

A litle background . . . . I have put a 302/C4 combo in a 1950 Ford Tudor for a friend. In the process I installed an aftermarket wiring harness.

Because my friend wanted original-looking gauges mounted in the '50 instrument panel (the originals were 6volt, obviously), I took the gauges from a 1986 F150 and modified the plastic gauge housings to fit in place of the old 6-volt gauges.

One of the gauges is an ammeter, and requires a shunt wire between the alternator battery connection and the battery connector on the starter solenoid. Hence my question -

Has anyone ever taken the wiring harness apart on one of these old trucks and measured the length of the large wire (10 ga. - black w/red stripe) that runes from the alternator (Bat.) to the starter solenoid. I need the overall length of the wire and the distance from the ammeter connection (about two/thirds of the way up the wire from the solenoid) to the starter solenoid battery connector. I know that the 10ga. wire is approximately 5 ft. long, but I need the exact length to ensure the ammeter reads accurately.

I have misplaced the old harness I had laying around, so any help will be greatly appreciated; I'd like to get this thing out of my garage soon, so I can return to my '59 F100 w/429/C6 combo.

Thanks,

OldFords
bad attitudes

 

Why didn't you just use a volta-drop on the original gauges?

 

The guy I bought the car from was a dirt track racer and planned to let one of his boys race the car. So he let the two boys bust out all the glass and trash the interior.

After two or three years of rain and/or dust, the gauges were trash.

Since I was installing a 12 volt system I figured the easiest thing to do (and keep the original look) was to use later model Ford gauges.

OldFords
bad attitudes

 

You could connect a 5' wire and run a test. Then shorten and check again. I know the amp gage in my 68 did not move much. Check at 2 point + & - 30amps would be good points to use.