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Deuce's new daily - 1970 series2a LWB

Deuce

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Fiddled with horn relay wiring. I wondered what was up with previous setup, but got it mostly there apart from switch. Then I realised that it was wired so the earthing of 'igniter coil' side of relay is run to a single pole button that Earth's through housing.
That makes sense for normal relay wiring, but I've got mine now set up with switching to the positive side of 'igniter coil' half of relay.
It wasn't too hard really, keyed power was very easily available right there and the dash panel already had a 22mm hole in the lower left corner. So I got a $12 momentary button that looks fitting to the rest of the switches etc and all done.
1637379868216.jpg


I still have to fix a shift solenoid wiring issue, and add a kickdown switch. But almost done with wiring.....
 

Deuce

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So maybe I do have more wiring to do.
I was investigating a few little things on the truck, and then stumbled across this:
1637482388391.jpg


Seems I didn't double check wiring was safely out of the way before starting the truck. Oops.

I call it endurance stress testing......
Seems one earth wire sheared in half, one bullet joint popped out, and the high and low beam wires pulled out of their terminals way back at the relay.

Very interesting when you study it really (how it pulled and what held/ didn't hold). But now to repair these issues.
Oh well. Better now than on the road or off-road in the middle of nowhere and I loose half my lights or more...
 

vc commodore

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PFFT, who needs headlights....I thought that was what torches were invented for... :)

Yes, better finding it now rather than later on....That could have got hairy...:)
 

Deuce

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I took a photo, but it was terrible.
So take my word that the wiring incident has now been fixed, and even more wiring tidying has occurred.
Probably almost ready for Fu to book a plane trip over and see it in person so his eye twitch fixes.

Also got some flexi intake ducting and have marked position for airbox location. Next is drill 3 holes and tighten that down.
 

Deuce

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Today was airbox day.
First I made a template and sprayed a shadow so position stays correct.
1637654542468.jpg

Then measured and centre punched for holes
1637654542601.jpg

And then later in the day drilled them out as both kids played in the truck thinking wiper blades are entertaining going up, down, up, down.
I then start painting holes with P.A.10 to protect the bare metal
1637654542656.jpg

When I see a little smoke I look up and see across the engine bay the loom glowing red and smoke everywhere.
FIRE DRILL TIME!
I run around the truck telling kids to turn it off and I pull the negative lead of off the battery (as I knew it wasn't tight) and then send both kids outside to find fresh air.
FIRE DRILL over. :)

Then when the kids are in bed I finished mounting up the air box.
It looks great I reckon.
1637652710261.jpg

1637652710346.jpg


Oh, the fire drill you ask?
Let's just say Fu missed his boat for seeing the tidy wiring.
Sorry mate.

Basically when running grounds last week I bridged the 2 terminals for both grounds on the R/H fender plug (engine bay side) so they would help each other if one earth was a bit questionable in years to come etc. I've done the same on the other side to try and give all grounds as much crossover as possible.
Problem with last week's one though was instead of going bottom right plus one to the left, I went plus one above (which coincidentally was a black wire, but for the park lights.)
DOH, my bad.
And right next to the wiper switch was the park/head switch which the kids obviously used next.
No fault of theirs. If you can't play in dad's 50y/o truck and wiggle the wheel (make tyres fart as my boy says and laugh's) and flick switches, then what can you do??
1637652712951.jpg


Now I need to run a new park light wire from the switch to the joint which is just above the radiator, and back to this plug. Redo some of the ground wires. And check that these hot wires haven't damaged any adjacent wiring - which of course I had just packed all into tight looms, lol.
Then tidy it all up again.

Hurray for educating my kids about fire safety :p
 

Fu Manchu

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Today was airbox day.
First I made a template and sprayed a shadow so position stays correct.
View attachment 229910
Then measured and centre punched for holesView attachment 229911
And then later in the day drilled them out as both kids played in the truck thinking wiper blades are entertaining going up, down, up, down.
I then start painting holes with P.A.10 to protect the bare metalView attachment 229912
When I see a little smoke I look up and see across the engine bay the loom glowing red and smoke everywhere.
FIRE DRILL TIME!
I run around the truck telling kids to turn it off and I pull the negative lead of off the battery (as I knew it wasn't tight) and then send both kids outside to find fresh air.
FIRE DRILL over. :)

Then when the kids are in bed I finished mounting up the air box.
It looks great I reckon.
View attachment 229914
View attachment 229913

Oh, the fire drill you ask?
Let's just say Fu missed his boat for seeing the tidy wiring.
Sorry mate.

Basically when running grounds last week I bridged the 2 terminals for both grounds on the R/H fender plug (engine bay side) so they would help each other if one earth was a bit questionable in years to come etc. I've done the same on the other side to try and give all grounds as much crossover as possible.
Problem with last week's one though was instead of going bottom right plus one to the left, I went plus one above (which coincidentally was a black wire, but for the park lights.)
DOH, my bad.
And right next to the wiper switch was the park/head switch which the kids obviously used next.
No fault of theirs. If you can't play in dad's 50y/o truck and wiggle the wheel (make tyres fart as my boy says and laugh's) and flick switches, then what can you do??
View attachment 229915

Now I need to run a new park light wire from the switch to the joint which is just above the radiator, and back to this plug. Redo some of the ground wires. And check that these hot wires haven't damaged any adjacent wiring - which of course I had just packed all into tight looms, lol.
Then tidy it all up again.

Hurray for educating my kids about fire safety :p
It was a similar thing that started me getting into wiring etc. A bad experience with rip off auto sparky and the other was when I was installing an ARB aftermarket headlight kit into my ‘82 Subi it was quite hard with earthing switches. Dad stepped in to help me. Next minute there was that hissing sound as the headlights were shorted out and the wire to the switch went like a hyper fuse inside the loom.
It was at that point I realised the apprentice was now better than the master. Dad and I never worked on a car together after that. ****. Just realised that. Whoa. (He got me started at 5. I overhauled the mechanical fuel pump on mums Honda at 11.)

Anyway. Looking at that wire there, gave me flash backs. The sound. The smell. The Adrenalin as the battery negative is ripped off to stop a fire.

I did get the piggy back ARB harness working in the end.

Edit:
Far out that’s heavy. Realising that was the last time we worked on cars together. He left us. Never came home one day. He did it when we were younger too. The time I did the fuel pump was because he wasn’t there and mum needed the car working. She trusted me to fix it and I did. Dad’s gone now.

It wasn’t ‘till I had kids that a lot of pennies started dropping about things. It makes me highly resolved to be a better dad for my kids and one of them really needs maximum dad skills. I can only hope we can work on cars together in years to come without any weird ****. Just me and my boy or my girl tinkering.

When you said about the kids in the car. You’re right. Try not to be angry about it if you were. It’s fixable. I spent so many hours in the ‘74 Honda Civic pretending to drive somewhere.

They are lucky to have you as a dad.
 
Last edited:

Deuce

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It was a similar thing that started me getting into wiring etc. A bad experience with rip off auto sparky and the other was when I was installing an ARB aftermarket headlight kit into my ‘82 Subi it was quite hard with earthing switches. Dad stepped in to help me. Next minute there was that hissing sound as the headlights were shorted out and the wire to the switch went like a hyper fuse inside the loom.
It was at that point I realised the apprentice was now better than the master. Dad and I never worked on a car together after that. ****. Just realised that. Whoa. (He got me started at 5. I overhauled the mechanical fuel pump on mums Honda at 11.)

Anyway. Looking at that wire there, gave me flash backs. The sound. The smell. The Adrenalin as the battery negative is ripped off to stop a fire.

I did get the piggy back ARB harness working in the end.

Edit:
Far out that’s heavy. Realising that was the last time we worked on cars together. He left us. Never came home one day. He did it when we were younger too. The time I did the fuel pump was because he wasn’t there and mum needed the car working. She trusted me to fix it and I did. Dad’s gone now.

It wasn’t ‘till I had kids that a lot of pennies started dropping about things. It makes me highly resolved to be a better dad for my kids and one of them really needs maximum dad skills. I can only hope we can work on cars together in years to come without any weird ****. Just me and my boy or my girl tinkering.

When you said about the kids in the car. You’re right. Try not to be angry about it if you were. It’s fixable. I spent so many hours in the ‘74 Honda Civic pretending to drive somewhere.

They are lucky to have you as a dad.
Wow.

Yeah mate, wasn't angry at all. In the end it was my wiring that caused the problem and I knew they couldn't have done anything to cause it.

Thank you for your kind words too.
 

the_boozer

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As it melted wiring in the loom the fuse must be too big. Fuses protect cables if the cable is rated at 20 amp it should be protected by a 20 amp fuse to state the obvious.
Add a small fuse while your rewiring or check its feed off the right side of the fuse in the fuse box .:)
 
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