One of the things I've been wanting to do to my 1960 F100 is upgrade the wiring for several reasons: safety, reliability and to have the option of adding additional items such as underhood lighting, a stereo and an electric fan for instance. Problem is, I know practically nothing about wiring. So, I PM'd Julie and asked if she would be willing to help. She agreed and we thought it might be a good idea to document the work here. I'm hoping these posts can become a kind of "Wiring for Dummies" tech thread that others novices like me will be able to refer to for help or ideas. Due to time constraints, I won't be tackling the entire project all at once, so bear with me--and I'm sure I will be asking some very basic, seemimngly stupid questions at times, but chances are there will be some others out there wanting to learn the same thing. Maybe I should call it Everything you always wanted to know about wiring, but were afraid to ask. I don't mind being the sacrfificial dummy, at least I'll learn how to do this right. Anyone is welcomed and encouraged to chime in at any time with ideas, suggestions, comments, etc.



So, on Julie's advice, I visited this website: Tuff Stuff Performance manufactures chrome alternators, chrome water pumps, chrome starters, chrome alternator, chrome water pump, chrome starter, chrome power steering pump, chrome power steering pumps, chrome power brake booster, chrome power brake

I contacted the technical staff there about purchasing an alternator. They were really helpful and referred me to a local vendor and to Summit Racing. Summit had exactly what I was looking for...
Tuff Stuff Performance 7068 - Tuff Stuff One-Wire Alternators - Overview - SummitRacing.com

It's pretty much the exact alternator I have in my truck now--a 1965 unit producing 42 amps--except this is a one-wire, is internally regulated and puts out 100 amps.

I'll also be installing this dash cluster in my truck:
57 58 59 60 FORD TRUCK 5 GAUGE GAUGE CLUSTER WHITE : eBay Motors (item 230313859920 end time May-05-10 14:01:40 PDT)

So enough for now. I'll try to include plenty of photos as we go along.

 

good idea Douglas,man... and a great subject for a tutorial... lots of folks are scared and intimidated by 12 vdc. You have a good mentor in Julie also.

Look forward to your/ ya'lls write up and seeing it in the sticky section... lord knows we need something in the article/tech section besides
'how to rotate tires ' and new Superduty pictures.... now that's some really technical stuff

be waiting for next installment..

later
john

 

Sounds like fun.... I'm in ..

Jump right in , the waters fine,..you'll never know what you don't know until you get your feet wet.. Julie is just the type of partner to buddy with on this task :-X2

Automotive electrics is not that hard to learn, and can be fun and rewarding at the same time..just like riding a bike..you never forget it ..unless you don't ride again for 30 years...LoL!
It's one one those skills you 'build' on..one experience at a time, then gain confidence at it as you get better at it.,.remembering those experiences,..

Maybe it's just me,maybe I'm missing something..but I don't see much of the fridge electrical problems around here , I hope to learn something along the way ..Let the Fun begin

 

Excellent!!!

I think by the time its all said and done you'll be a genius on the subject and your article will be a huge help to a lot of folks

Good luck with it and if I can be of service please let me know.
Bobby

 

Sounds great!t I just purchased a rewire kit,and have started to lay the project out..in my mind..looking for a few free days to get started .I will
follow with much interest
Mark

 

Well, I can see this is going to be a excellent article. Your analogy is perfect--something that we've all done at some point and thefore, can easily relate to.

My only confusion concerns the idea of resistance. In the garden hose analogy, you apply resistance and increase pressure by restricting the opening on the nozzle. Say you started with the nozzle fully open and found you needed more pressure. But instead of going to the smallest, strongest stream of water right away, you experimented with 3 or 4 different sized streams of water. Would these different diameter water streams correspond to wire guage sizes and, if so, is "resistance" in electrical terms opposite to that created by the nozzle on the hose? I understand what provides the resistance in the garden hose scenario--I guess what I'm asking is this: in our truck's electrical system, is it just the wire size that determines the resistance? What is the relationship between wire size and resistance? If the bigger the wire, the less the resistance then, in terms of the water hose analogy, is it OK to think of it like this: the bigger the wire, the faster the electricity can flow (like the smaller, highly-restricted water stream providing more pressure) supplying more voltage to do the required work?

A long-winded question, I know, but I really want to understand the fundamentals of how this stuff works. Thanks.

 

good theory Julie and your analogy is perfect...

j

 

Doug, the wire size will be determined by the load requirement of each individual component,..think of it this way, that jumper cable sized wire going from the battery to your starter motor,..is needed because the " starter" will "draw" much more current,maybe 100-150 amps on start,..the starter is the 'load' in the circuit..high torque,slow turning your cold engine..draws power,or as Julie likes to say,..requires 'Wattage'..the more wattage ..the more heat generated,the larger the wire.

..that little windshield washer spray pump motor in your daily driver..needs only about 5-7amps..approximatly a 20 ga wire. Not a large amout of wattage (low amps),so a smaller wire is needed.

As the current draw goes up,So does the wire size. The wire needs to be large enough to carry and 'dissipate' the load and heat generated by the current running thru it,...in normal operation anyway. LoL! That's where the circuit fuse comes in..when the amperage is 'surpassed',..the fuse should blow,thus protecting the wire from being 'melted'..

Keep working your way around this idea....hope this helps.

 

I've posted this link before but its been a few years. And before anyone flips out...yes, the article is about rewiring a 1954 Chevy truck, but, the principles are the same and its a well written documentary. The owner documents (with pics) the removal of the original harness and the install of a EZ Wiring harness. just look past the Chevy stuff and focus on the technical aspects of the install....its worth it.

1954 Chevy Pickup | Rewire Project - Page 1
1954 Chevy Pickup | Rewiring Checklist

Bobby

 

I have the Rebel wiring kit and plan on starting to redo the wiring this weekend. I will post some pics when I can during the process but I'm sure I'll be on here asking more questions than helpfull but maybe it will be helpfull to someone (besides a good laugh)...lol

 

This is great--I think I'm actually getting it! Thanks to everyone--Mertz, thanks for the post--I got that. I hadn't even considered heat generation and dissipation in regards to wire size, but it makes complete sense--that's how the fuse works...duh.

This is almost like learning a foreign language--volts, amps, ohms, watts--it's still being met with a little resistance on my part, but it's really starting to make sense!

 

Yeah Mertz is one of our "shy experts." I think he's going to add a lot here - at least I hope so.

One of the reasons I am starting with the fundamentals is because, yes, by the time we are done here, what used to be "Greek" to everyone will "click" and become really clear. And I'll bet a lot of you will say to yourselves: "why was I so worried about this wiring thing - this is really pretty straight forward."

Volts amps watts - pressure, volume, work - just think of the garden hose!

 

Especially since the wires are marked every 5 inches....lol

 

Remember wiring from scratch when you are on your back on your truck floor trying to pull that octypus throught the firewall grommet with all it's little flags. Tee hee. Bad word Bad Word. Then you are going to have to cut it and put connectors on the end anyway to get it neat.

I'm hoping, and I would think that when this is all said and done, you will be able to do this EASILY from scratch - without wiring kits or little flags. But objectively: to each their own.

 

Julie,
I appreciate your efforts. I tend not only to read your posts, but to study them. I understand--my alternator needs to put out an amount of electricity (amperage) sufficient to meet the required amount of electricity (amperage) being called for by each appliance, some of which will be running simultaneously. So, at some point I can add up the total amperage required by my appliances and see how that compares to the 100 amps being produced by my new alternator.