Saturday, December 13, 2008

Poof!! There goes the wiring the harness!!

I have had the truck for just over two weeks now and I still have not decided how to rebuild it. I can go all original or custom sport truck. The color is also in question. In the meantime I am familiarizing myself with the truck. I could tell that at some point the truck was repainted and new carpet was installed. The carpet is in good condition but I doubt I will keep it. For now I will keep it stored.

On to the drama..I removed the wheel wells knowing that I will pull off the front clip in the near future. This allowed the wiring harness to drop down above the control arm. It did not appear to be a problem. A couple days later I visited a paint shop for an estimate. While trying to pull out I noticed the steering got tight. I pulled a little harder and it got tighter. Stupid me kept turning not knowing the wiring harness had wrapped around the steering shaft. The tension ripped the hot wire off the back of the alternator causing it to ground out turning my front wiring harness into a George Foreman Grill!! I knew something was wrong when a huge puff of smoke came out of the grill.

When I opened the hood to inspect the damage, I found the harness had burned from the battery all the back to the firewall. It looked bad but was nothing I could not fix. My immediate problem was figuring out how to get back home. Without the front harness the truck had no power. I ended up scavanging a length of wire from the burnt harness and ran a hot wire from the battery to the firewall. It was enough to get me home. The next day I rebuilt the harness using lengths of wire purchased at Radio Shack. I then wrapped the harness in friction black tape. Came out great!

On another note, my first order of sheet metal was delivered from Brothers! It included a rear roll pan, rockers, and floor pans.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good thing you didn´t toast the whole truck with the harness burning like it did.

Sean