Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

lets put sum lights in it

[Gregski]

not too shabby, let's see it with the big gauges back in it

sorry I kept getting the glare when photoing on the kitchen island (shhh don't tell the wifey)

[Gregski]

let's add that top bolt, ok that's more better

[Gregski]

and with gauges

[Gregski]

and one final look at the finished product, before it goes to paint

[Gregski]

since we still had some daylight I decided to mix up some paint, ha ha

[Gregski]

Happy new year gents

[Gregski]

this is where the magic happens

[Gregski]

so I had to decided which terminals to use to make the connections

first of all some advice, these vinyl plastic insulated ones are total junk, avoid them unless absolutely necessary, that hard plastic does not shrink like the heat shrink tubing you see guys heat up with a cigarette lighter

second we will be using unshielded terminals for the ground wires, and I recommend unshielded for everything if you can find them and then make your own shileding from the shrink to fit tubing

a lot of this wire is super skinny it's basically 22-18 gauge, but finding all the connectors in that size is IMPOSSIBLE I went to four parts stores today, and kept striking out so some are going to be 16-14 gauge

I apologize for the glare in the photos, apparently shooting in my den sucks in terms of lighting and shadows

[Gregski]

with the connections / terminals picked out it was time to pick the right crimping tool, or proper attachments/dies I should say

now I really like this tool, it is of the rachetting variety however having to swap between shielded and non shielded dies is a pain

I do recommend two separate special purpose tools with different color handles to easily distinguish between the two

the key to all this is solid strong connections, if you can pull the terminals off by hand you are wasting your time

TOP TIP: pay no attention to the colored dots, use the snuggest opening no matter what color your terminal, sometimes these colors don't help if you were to use them as recommendations

[Gregski]

the devil lives in the details, I decided to crazy glue the turn signal sliders, we can still remove the light bulbs but the housings are now permanent

I like the single use Super Glue tubes cause who has ever used a dab of super glue and put the cap back on and came back six months later and it wasn't all dried up or you were unable to get the plastic cap off, those glue guys sure have a sick sense of humor, am I right

[Gregski]

remember those pertruding nipples on the back of the big Tach and Speedo gauges, well I had to build things up around them with some 5/16s washers and then use 3//16s on top of them in order to be able to tighten the nuts nice and flush

[Gregski]

decided to use one of the backing brackets as a bus bar for the ground, this way I won't have to run 6 separate ground wires, I'll just run one to one of these posts

genius i tell ha

[Gregski]

we are using the bullet connectors for the individual gauge signals

Green = Tach

Blue = Water Temp (water is blue when we draw anyways so I use a blue wire)

Yellow = Fuel Gauge

Orange = Oil Pressure (O - Orane / O - Oil using a little association there to help me remember)

note there is no separate signal wire for the Volt meter, it just uses the black for the ground like the other gauges and the red for the positive key on, and that's it

TOP TIP: notice how the Orange bullet is mangled a little, the crimping tool did that, so why aren't the others mangled as well, well The Greg stuck them in the female end before crimping those for extra strength in keeping their shape, SMART!

ANOTHER TOP TIP: make the Gauge side Male and the wiring harness side FEMALE, that way when you disconnect a gauge the wire that is left dangling under the dash has lesser of a chance to short itself out, as the female end on it should be Shielded, especially on the positive side of things ie the RED wires

[hatzie]

Female hot is always a good wiring practice... I try to do that even with connectors that shroud the male pins like Deutsch, Metripack, and Weatherpak.

[Gregski]

ok let's turn to the business end of this operation, now if you think this is bad this is after I already wire loomed the three windshield wiper switch wires

so the whole time I am working on this thing I hear the Devil on one shoulder whispering delete all the wires going to the cluster plug - you don't need them

meanwhile the Angel on the other shoulder is saying: just unplug the four yiou need, electric tape the plug and tuck it away you may need some of those wires for power to other gauges later on

[Gregski]

like I said I already wrapped the wiper switch wires in this old 3/8ths conduit, after I did it I ordered some 1/4" on eBay and someday will redo it proper

[Gregski]

I plan on doing the same for this High / Low beam headlight switch, gosh I hate non home runs, ie wires that Y into other wires of different lengths and sometimes even different colors

[Gregski]

OK, so we divorced the Light Blue (left blinker) Dark Blue (right blinker) Green (high beam) and Brown with Black Stripe (brake) wires from the cluster plug and snipped off the OE ends off of them and crimped on some Female spade or blade connectors/terminals, these will slide directly on our four warning lights

easy peasy

[Gregski]

and here is the Green (high beam) warning light wire getting decapitated and re terminated

this will be the blue warning light

[Gregski]

the Brown with Black Stripe (brake) wire is a two headed snake, I honestly don't recall where both ends plugged into, maybe somebody can learn me

also this is one of them (RED) warning lights that I think only comes on when you're going off a cliff, I don't think it comes on upon starting of the vehicle every morning (I think I'm thinkin' of the Alternator red light there) again correct me if I'm wrong

anywho, I snipped both OE ends off and slapped on a blade female recepticle, this will go to the red warning light

[Gregski]

and here they are from left to right: brake, right turn, high beam, left turn signal

I also isolated this strand

[Gregski]

lastly we have the four new wires for our digital gauges, fuel, oil, water, and Tach, these are the mates of those four males we meet earlier

these also are zipped tied together separately, ha ha

[Gregski]

enuff already can we see the finished product Pah Leaze

high RPM? the choke was on, and it's January! ha ha

[Gregski]

so how are the digital gauges? asked no one, lol

well last night I packaged up the broken brand new speedo and shipped it back to Intellitronix, let me just say that their support is awesome, they said that was unacceptable and wanted to make it right, right away, as soon as I provide them with a tracking number of my package they will ship me a brand new unit

and then this morning I was going to drive the truck for the first time since installing them, and this happened to the 4 day's old digital Tach!

(if you can't tell the plastic piece slid down behind the front lens and is blocking the digital display)