So I found the perfect farm/wood truck for winter. After driving it home and bouncing around in the woods with it I am in love. Was wanting to get it street legal but I am not very good with wiring. The problem is I have no brake lights or turn signals but the tail lights work when the headlights are turned on. I checked the fuse panel with a test light and have no power coming to the brake light fuse. Also the PO replaced the Turn signal fuse (15amp) with a 30 amp fuse and when i pulled the flasher the fuse panel had melted underneath it.

 

"fuse panel had melted underneath it"

I believe that's going to be your problem. The brake fuse should have power at all times. You might want to go to the junkyard and find another fuse box/harness.

 

The wiring on a 1980 is one year only.

You are going to have to find a 1980 to get the wiring harness from.

The fuse panels are 1980-1986 though. You can remove the wires from the panel, using a wire terminal/connector removal tool. Just as long as you put them in their proper place. Remove one wire at a time etc...

You also need to check for burned wires with the panel removed from the firewall. If there is wires burned, you will need to replace them either one at a time, or with a whole good harness out of a 1980 truck.

If you have to rebuild your underdash harness, it's easier to remove the whole thing, and unwrap the harness, and replace the wires one at a time in their proper spots.

Again you will need a wire connector removal tool of some kind, to get the individual wires out of the connectors, and some new wire terminals. There are places to get factory grade wire terminals for this type of work as well. Also you will need the proper color wires and sizes and cut them to length. They also make marker pens for marking the proper stripes or hashes to the wires for a factory like repair. A wiring diagram is a must as well.


Also there are two Underdash harness for a 1980. One for a truck with Idiot Lamps, and one for a truck with ammeter/oil pressure gauges. You would have to find a 1980 harness that matches your instument cluster configuration, or change the cluster, altenator wiring etc.

A 1981 / 1982 Underdash Harness would also work in a pinch, but you would have to swap the headlamp switch, the Instrument cluster, among other components that are wired differently. I would only do that if there was no other way. There are also two different harnesses for these as well. One for idiot lamps, and one for ammeter/oil pressure gauges.

A 1983-1986 harness is too different to make it practical.

hope this helps

 

Actually the damage from the melted spot is only on the surface of the fuse panel. When removed there is no visible damage to the underside of panel or to any wires. I replaced the turn-flasher and I now have turn signals but still no power to the brake fuse. Is there a fusible link before the fuse panel, or any harness that I could look to? Thanks alot for the response.

 

There are a few Fuse links, but none of them are burned, as you wouldn't be able to start your truck, operate the headlights, etc...

There should be a yellow wire on the back side of the fuse panel. Do you have power to it? This is the main power feed to the fuse panel for the Emergencey warning flasher and stop lamp fuse. If you do have power, replace the fuse with a known good one and try again. If no power on the yellow wire and the truck will start, then it's got to be inbetween the ignition switch power feed splice and the fuse panel. Yellow wire.

 

OK, I took the fuse panel out and it has become obvious that the previous owner has replaced the fuse panel because all of the wires have been cut and spliced. So who knows which panel I have now. Where I thought the brake light fuse should be there was no yellow wire. There is a green/yellow striped wire and a black/red wire taped together connected to nothing, which would explain no brake lights but where should I go from here?

 

Uh, boy...

Well, that's going to make a easier job, really tough.

What you are going to need is this diagram I'm going to post shortly.

1980 Power distribution wiring diagram.

http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/q...ring81-1-2.jpg

What I would do is using the above diagram. Remove the grafted fuse panel, and hopefully there is enough wires left, to rewire the panel according to the diagram using either new fuse block terminals, or finding a new underdash harness, whichever is easiest for you to do. More info on that in post #3 of this thread.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by 81-F-150-Explorer

Uh, boy...

Bwahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah....

To the OP: Some time ago I grafted a junkyard fuse block into my truck to
replace one that had been melted due to erroneous, overloaded connections by
a PO, it really isn't that hard, just tedious. I solder & shrink-wrap all of my
connections, making it more tedious.

A wiring diagram helps GREATLY in this, a side effect is that you get to learn
what all the colors are for (remembering them years later is a different issue
but I digress). For example:
Lloyds Auto Liturature available for 1980, Fordtruck, Wiring Diagrams

 

There are several directions, some may be impossible, some you may dislike, and some may be too much work.

1. Get a original harness/fuse box from the proper year truck.(may be hard to find).

2. Get a original harness/fuse box/needed switches, and retro fit that into your truck(may be too difficult or too much work)

3. Go to the store and get a aftermarket fuse box and wire that in.(may not like it being not original, possibly too much work and figuring, etc). If I were in your situation, this is the method I would use, but everyone is different.

 

If you are going to splice wires, a friend of mine last weekend showed me some crimp-on
butt connectors he has BUT the plastic ends are elongated and are intended to be heat-
shrunk. Sounds kind cool, would save a lot of time instead of soldering. Not sure if I'd use
'em myself but you might consider 'em.

Something like what's on the following hyperkink (but there are apparently lots of places
that sell similar things):
E. HEAT SHRINK BUTT CONNECTOR by: 3M - Connector Supply - Automotive