I had to pull all the black tape off the wiring that runs to and from the alternator to make sure there wasnt any problems with it. I noticed that there is one thick black wire that has about 2 feet extra than all the rest of the wiring. Is there a reason its that long? can I cut it back to clean up the wiring in this area?

 

Couldn't see why you would need all of I would keep enough slack that you could use a splice in the event of some kind of repair being required but shorter wires mean less resistance meaning more effective wiring so I would chop it out with a new proper length of wire.

 

that extra wire is for the ammeter guage on wire connects near the sel. and the other torwards the alt. its a millivolt guage and needs a certain amount of wire in between the two small wires to the guage.

 

i had a feeling it was required, ive encountered wire length issues with coax for my cb as well so it made me think it was like that for a reason.

 

Alright good to know thank you for clarefying my horrible advice.

 

Ford and other makers are notorious for keeping costs down.

They didn't have certain length wires for no good reason.
They even adopted option/special harnesses to achieve lower build costs vs desogn

IMO,People need to stop questioning the automakers design when it comes to stuff like this.

 

That's because of the frequency and waveband which denotes what length coax to what type of antenna.

Antenna to radio matching is sometimes accomplished by trimming coax by 1/16"

 

you guys are awesome, its forums like these that make me stop cursing my dad for not building his cars and trucks with me when i was a kid lol

 

I know what you mean but my dad was never auto mechanicly inclined so I don't blame him. He can build one hell of a rifle though.