How little I know

[RICH MUISE]

Well, I've watched several videos on basic auto wiring, but I really need to nestle down and read a book I bought a while back that was written for the layman and easy to understand..just gotta do it. Yesterday I mounted my main electrical panel, and was going to run the wires back to the tailights, sending unit, license lamp, and whatever else needs to be back there. Ron Francis strongly recommends that the wiring be done in order, and that way the novice installer will gain a better understanding of the system. Of course they are assuming you are rewiring a complete car, which I'm not at this time (no engine,dash, etc.). Anyway, I'm starting in the middle, and it only took to the first page of instructions to realize I don't know enough to even do the wires I mentioned....they said which wires to run to the tailights for example, but then threw in .."and of course, you have to provide a good ground as well".
I know everything has to have a good ground...but how do you "provide" a good ground for something like a bulb socket..is it just thru the socket to the housing and then into the body...all done automatically by design, or is there a ground wire. I'm using a '63 Galaxie tailight housing with backup lights. I bought bulb sockets at o'reilley's but not sure I got the correct ones. How many wires should the tailight/turn signal/brake light socket have, and how many wires should the backup light have.?

[gasman826]

For your application, your tail light socket should have two wires.  One for the taillight (dimmer) and one for the turnsignal (brighter).  The brake light is also the turnsignal and is controlled through the turnsignal switch.  The ground for your socket is through the socket.  When you snap the socket back into the housing, you complete the circuit via the taillight housing to the body.  If it does not work or works poorly (erratic or dim), then confirm the quality of ground by substituting a better or known ground.  You can get your multimeter out and do a resistance test but for lights it is usually a go or no go situation.  Computers and microprocessors is another story.  The backup light will be a separate wire.  One socked...one wire. 
Hope this gets you started.

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks for the reply...That's what I needed to know. As far as grounds go..I think this is the time I'm getting to that I was dreading...having to scratch off paint and primers where grounds are needed. Am I asking for trouble if I attempt to do grounds, as I assume they would in a fiberglass car, such as putting a ground wire terminal at one of the mounting screws (license light, tailight housing, etc), and running it to a grounding strip.??
Also, anyone see any problems with my chosen location for the main panel? second pic is of the drop down mounting plate Ron Francis sells for their Express kit.

[wv 57s forever]

    I'm in the process of putting in a Ron Francis box also but i went with the cheaper one. i thought about putting mine there but it was so close to the hood release that it wasn't funny, plus there is a brace for the dash in that area also. mine is towards the middle under the drivers side vent.

[tarheel57]

Rich if you will put a Star washer (which works like a lock washer) on each one of your studs that bolts your light bucket to the body, this will help with the grounding.I always use one of the Ron Francis ground strips and mount it under the dash in a easy / dry location this way your ground want get dirty and wet and stop working as it sometimes can just grounded to a scerew underneath.You will only have to pull one extra wire to the rear,to tie each light to but you will have real bright lights.One little trich that I do on tail lights is before I connect my wires I will slide me a small hose clamp over the back side of the light socket,take a wire and strip it back about an inch and slide it under the clamp and twist it around and tighten the clamp down on the socket.Do both sides this way and tie the ground from the lic.plate light and this is the wire that I run to the ground strip under the dash.I have found that this works great for the best ground and only takes about 20 extra minutes of time.I mounted my fuse pannel in about the same location,except a little higher because I didnt like being able to see it in view if someone was squated down outside the car when the door was open.Ron Francis kits are easy if you will take your time and do one item at a time,a lot of people will get 5 or 6 things started wired and have to stop and when they start back that gets a little confussion.The first 2 or 3 cars I wired I found out that if I made notes on my instruction as I went it helped me,exspecially if the next wire to be pulled was to an part that I hadnt installed yet. Good luck ! Tarheel57

[RICH MUISE]

wv: I'll double check, but I should be well below the dash brace, and I deleted my hood catch alltogether, so the hood release won't be a problem...but I was concerned with the brake release, although since the bottom of my dash is about 3" lower than stock, I'm probably going to have to go with a hand lever next to the console.
Tarheel...good idea with the hose clamp on the sockets, but I'm wondering why you're running the ground wire all the way to a front terminal strip.... are you grounding the grounding terminal strip to the engine?
When I get time I'll post some pics of some of the connectors Ron Francis supplied for my Mustang steering column..ignition switch, turn signals, dimmer, ect.
Rich

[gasman826]

I was also concerned about the parking brake interference but you are on that.

I've been shopping harnesses and I liked the Francis concept.  Francis is the only one that offered a variety of factory harness ends.  I have a Lincoln column, T-Bird dash and interior, a little '57 Ford and a lot of aftermarket stuff.  I can choose the factory connectors to make easy installation with my factory connectors.

[tarheel57]

Rich,yes the terminal ground strip comes with a heavy guage wire that is connected to the same place the (-) battery ground is connected.This gives you a true ground.If you have the new Ron france catalog #38 look on page 96 at Tip#105 he has it drawen out.The grounding strip pt. # GW-15 is on p.35 . Gasman826 we keep about 12 dirfferent cars in different stages of build at all times over the years we have tried the different wiring harnesses,the others are ok but they dont match the harnesses that Ron francis sells,plus all of the wire that comes in the RF kit is labled every foot,talking about handy if you were to ever have trouble down the road.RF also has a great tec line if you need help. good luck, Tarheel57

[RICH MUISE]

wow...so much stuff to talk about. Tarheel..I ordered the ground kit you were talking about, and finally got one of their catalogs..before I lost my previous copy, I had briefly skipped thru it...man ther's a ton of good info there.I like their suggestion of each electric item having it's own ground wire where posible. I'll be grounding my rear lights and fuel sender as you suggested. I do have to go with a 2 wire back-up light socket though, as the backup light is mounted in the plastic lens..so no grounding thru the mounting anyways. I haven't been able to locate any of the gxl crosslink wire  they use except in their accesories kits. Anyone got a source for this wire? RF seem a little pricey for just when you want additional wire.
Bill...belive it or not, I was going thru the schematics for the wiper motor for you to look at, and I actually got it allmost figured out, and the motor/control module/multi-function switch harness made and installed....I just need to do further research on 2 of the pin locations to verify what I think is correct. At first I didn't think the wiper control module I had pulled was matching up to the schematics until I realized they had rearranged, but numbered, the connecting pins to make the schematic neater...once I figured that out everything matched up and fell in to place. I was not able to find terminals for the wire ends that plugged into the module connector, so I just used weatherproof butt connectors and added on to the 3" or so I had left on the connector wires when I clipped it from the donor car. Oddly enough, I thought if I could order a connector from Ford parts department, it would come with the terminals I was looking for, and I would be able to plug the wires directly in rather than using the butt connectors. As it turns out, ford supplies the connectors with short wires already attached to the terminals and plugged in, with instructions to use butt connectors for the hook-up...which would have put me where I am right now! go figure.  to be continued...

[RICH MUISE]

contined from above...
For those of you who, along with me, lost tract of what I was trying to accomplish...The wiring connectors that Ron Francis supplied for the '97 Mustang steering column, give me plug ins for my horns,hazards, turn signals,dimmer switch,and ignition, making the column fully functional except the wiper controls. The harness I talked about in the above paragraph are just the completion of the wiring for the connectors that Ron Francis supplied adding the wiper motor control module, and the wiper motor (all '97 Mustang)so that now the column should be fully functional.
Studying the Ford oem shematics for the wiper system brought up a few questions I have not been able to find answers for. The schematic calls for one of the connector wires to be run to the fuse panel to supply power to the wiper motor. The wire is 16 ga., and they show a 30 amp fuse at the supply point. My question..isn't 30 amps high for a wiper motor, and 16 ga wire? I actually mic'd the copper on the oem connector wire from the donor car, and compared it to a new, known 16 ga. wire as I now know the same gage wire can come with different insulation wall thicknesses..so I know the 16 gage is correct.
I just purchased a new book on wiring, and found a chart in it for amperage limits per wire gage, but imho the chart is so far off it couldn't begin to be correct...so does anyone have a simple chart that will show what the maximun safe amperage is for the different gages?...or inversly, what gage wires are required to supply 20 amps, 30 amps. etc.
Rich

[RICH MUISE]

cont'd from above
Told ya I had a lot to talk about. The schematics I mentioned I had downloaded from Alldata.com (Auto Zone's diy tech info).It's been a great help to me not only on my daily driver, but on my oddball stuff for my '57. I also downloaded and printed out all the electronic and engine/tranny stuff from the '94 Lincoln Mark Viii drivetrain I'm planning on using.
They had a few pges of info on how to read the schematics..symbols explanations..etc. There's a few things on it I couldn't figure out though. On each wire where they gave the color identicification, there was also a number (51, 214, 926, etc.) I don't know what those numbers mean..at first I thought they were referencing another schematic page, but the numbers got too high, so I am now guessing the number is an item number on a parts/components list where they would detail the info for that wire..color, gage,type, etc. Is that correct?
The other thing I need clarification on is , on the diagrams for the connectors, they have a column listing the function of each location. A number of them were using the term "common" either as a standalone function description, or added to the end of the description. What does "common" mean?
I'm guessing it means the power is being shared with two or more items, but I don't know for sure.

[RICH MUISE]

Any help?..particularly on a gage vs. allowable amperage chart

[jrw429]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge says 16 gauge solid wire with 90 degreeC plastic insulation will handle 18 amps. Multi-core 16 gauge wire will handle less.

[RICH MUISE]

JRW...Thanks for the chart...although a good quality automotive wire I believe is so substantially different from a solid core wire, I'm not sure how accurate that chart would be. Your posting that got me to thinking I hadn't googled what I was looking for..I had only looked in places I expected to find it. Anyway I found a good site with what I was looking for: http://www.offroaders.com/tech/12-volt-wire-gauge-amps.htm
incidently, their chart confirms that a 16 gage wire will carry 30 amps up to 5 feet..which I am not within including the ground return, so I think I'll bump it up a gauge to be on the safe side.
Thanks again
Bill...I found the missing "link" I was looking for to confirm input info on the last connector pin I was missing. The info was there..but as you had told me the diagrams are so segmented and broken down, it was hard to find.
Rich

[Ford Blue blood]

Rich don't get wrapped up with the wire gauge thing.  If RF says 16 gauge.....it will be good!  Remember the fuse will blow at 30 amps...short circuit...if you have that much current with the motor running it will fail long before the wire over heats.  The 60 Ford wiper motor I used only draws 3.55 amps running and a little over 7 amps starting.  I did not check to see what the fuse size is in the car for it.  That fuse may also be used for other circuits as well.  The star washers are the thing to use, I like to put a little dab of grease on them before snugging, don't interfere with the ground just keeps the thing from rusting over time.  Tighten and loosen a couple of times, the edge on the stars will rub off any paint!  The grounding circuit is over kill in my humble opinion, especially on/in an all steel car.  Won't hurt anything, just extra wires and work.  Just remember to ground the body to the engine and the chassis and run the ground terminal of the battery to the engine.  If your ground strap from the battery to the engine has the 16/14 ga pig tail run that to the body as well.