I'm trying to get all the electrical wiring that runs to the back of the car under the carpeting layed down so I can proceed with getting my interior finished up. At this point I have the tailight functions taken care of..tailight,turn signals, backup, and stop (including wire for 3rd brake light). I am wiring the car's grounds as if it were a fiberglass body, so I've got a ground junction block in the rear, and will run the single ground wire up to the front. The license plate light runs off the tailight. I'll also run an antenae wire to the rear for a rear mount antenae, as well as speaker wires (kept away from power wires). I will not have a hardwired trunklight, and I will not have special audio equiptment, such as disc player and amplifier. I may run an extra, unattached, power supply wire to the back so I can add a remote fuse panel if I decide to add any of those later.
Several questions: what kind of wiring is needed for the fuel sending unit (gauge (size) and number of wires), and if I end up with an internal tank fuel pump..are the wires generally run inside or under the car? If inside..what will I need for wiring?
I've got to be forgetting something...any suggestions?
A trick I've use a number of times to get the wiring to lay flat on the floor is to align the wires side by side to achieve the flattest profile possible than use 6 inch strips of duct tape to hold it down. Once the insulation or sound deadening material is laid down over the wires they're almost impossible to feel. I'm not sure why you want to wire the car as if it were a fiberglass body, this adds more complexity than necessary. Using the body as your ground source is much easier than running addition wires from front to back. If you still want to do this make sure that the ground wire is at least 14 gauge with soldered lugs.
The fuel gauge uses very little current so 16 or 18 gauge can be used. If you run an internal fuel pump run the wires under the car. The best place to run them if possible is on top of the frame, this protects them from road debris. The best but more time consuming way to hold them in place is to use Adel clamps, you will have to drill a mounting holes for each one usually where the wire bundle needs to turn. The wiring for the fuel pump should be at least 14 gauge in this case bigger is better. If you're still going to wire it like a fiberglass body run two 14 gauge wire, if you wire it in a conventional way run one 12v wire and use the frame as ground.
If you run a third brake light it runs directly off of the brake light switch. Hope this helps
Thanks for the input. How many wires are going to be needed for the fuel sending unit?
I've already installed my brake light switch and ran the 3rd brake light wire back.
quote:"I'm not sure why you want to wire the car as if it were a fiberglass body, this adds more complexity than necessary." One statement by Ron Francis caught my attention:"everything we do to restore and protect our cars (sealers, paint, gaskets, etc.)prevents electricity from flowing...for me, a novice at wiring, it was actually easier to establish just a few grounding points and attach everything there. If I have any gounding issues I only have a few places to look. Additionally I'll have a lot fewer sheetmetal screws thru the body panels.
I will be running 10 gage sxl wire to the back grounding terminal.
Thanks again, Rich
For the fuel sending unit there can be one or two depending on the sending unit. These are fuel gauge and ground, if it's a two wire sender no problems, if it's a one wire unit make sure that the tank has a good ground connection. Ron is correct that's why it's important to clean the grounding area until bare metal is showing, a Dremel works well for this. Usually on the tail and stop lights the ground is provided through the housing where it bolts to the fender, the license plate light grounds to the bumper this doesn't leave many things left to ground. When you add a long ground wire you make the path for current much longer which adds a small amount of resistance. When you make the ground wire and it has crimped lugs the crimping can loosen up over time because the wire in the crimp can settle adding even more resistance to the circuit causing annoying issues like dim lights or slow blinkers. Be sure to solder the lugs.
Rich while you are in this stage of the wiring just thing of all that might be needed or wanted down the road. Sender, one wire (16 ga), tail lights/plate, one wire (16 ga)' turn/brakes, one ea left and right, (16 ga), third eye brake brake, one wire, (16 ga), power for trunk light, one wire (16 ga), power for amp/cd/ipod/what ever, one wire (10 ga), your ground wire and speaker wires (pairs) (4 ea). Don't worry about seperating the spearkers from the rest. I use the aluminum tape to lay the wires down. As graybandit says lay them out flat and bundle them parallel to each other.
Ford Blue blood bring up a good point with 16 gauge wire, you can spend more money than necessary and drive yourself nuts trying to come up with different gauge wire and color. I suggest using red for unswitched 12v, orange for switched 12v, black for ground and your own imagination for the rest. Sticking to a color code will make life easier when tracing down wire especially ones that get hidden under carpeting or in a bundle etc.
Thanks guys. fortunatly, the RF kit has all of the wires printed with locations of both ends and it's use. The very few wires I'm adding, I'm adding labels to...I think I only have two with labels under the dash. You can see the two above the panel. After I finish all the wiring, I'll go back and bundle everything, and make sure I've got everything protected from abrasion. I'm using alot of the plastic windlace to go on metal edges that have wires near them...has been working great. I have that looped bundle of wire held up in a cavity with a short rubber bungie-type cord, attached at one end and on a lift-off post on the other end. That gives me a foot or more to drop the panel down if I n\ever need to.
In hindsight, one thing I would not have spent money on is the drop down plate the panel is mounted to. (the reason for the looped wires above the panel)...even if I had to work on this panel, everything is accesible from the front. The wire clips I got from Home Depot or Lowe's and stick like crazy even after 110+ temps in my garage. I initially was using them temporarily with intent on changing them out for the rubber covered metal clamps, but now I'm just going to leave them..if they ever loosen up I can just run a screw thru the base. I would prefer not to have those screws thru the body panels if I can help it.
The wires that get feed to the front end, I am feeding out the side panels rather than the firewall so I can hide the wiring as much as posible in the engine compartment.
TTT
your fuse panel looks just like mine, with that said i would check the fuse rating on some of the fuses, the horn especially blew mine first time i tried it. maybe others.
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