The down and dirty electrical hack

[Headshot zod]

Saturday morning I was fueling up before the SEEfood event and I went to tuck up a wire under the dash and the truck shut off. No dash lights, radio or anything. The headlights worked however.



So I went into a state of deep thought trying to figure out what I was going to do this time. As the previous owner (an electrican) had some nasty hacks under the dash and under the hood. I had to already bypass the starter. So I was thinking to myself (as I am a better electrician) and being that I had some 12 guage wire with me. That maybe I could backfeed the the whole fandango by plugging the 12 guage wire directly into an empty fuse spot in the fusebox and running the other end right to the hot of the battery. The Optima Bluetop must have had me in mind as there is an extra terminal to hook up wires to. Well it worked fine and I drove home. I had a fuse on this wire though and so should you.



So my problem is with the wires under the dash. Has anybody here replaced the wiring harness from the steering column to the firewall and everything else under there. I have also been considering just rewiring everything with one of those Ron Francis fuse blocks for hot rods. Its a bit pricey at around 250. 00 so I may go to dodge and see what I can find there first.



ANY IDEAS???????

 

[dclassens]

Check out painless wiring. Also, I know Genos has some additional fuse boxes. I know they are not a replacement item, but you could get two or three and place them in strategic areas and have the accessories powered that way. just a thought... .



Dave

 

[Moab4x4]

As you are going to have to rewire everything anyway, and I assume you want all your factory dash stuff to work, I would keep an eye on ebay for a wiring harness or keep an eye out for someone that is buying a wrecked truck as a conversion donor. They would probably not want the dash side of the harness and you might get a deal. I would go with a factory harness. I think it would be cheaper and the FSM electrical diagrams would still work for future diagnosis.

This would also be the ideal time to do a couple of improvements with relays for the headlights, taillights, and maybe trailer connections.

I did a bit of rewiring under my dash for customization purposes (alarm -keyless entry and message center mods) and didn't find the factory harness all that bad. Unfortunately I did hack my spare under dash harness for parts to help with the mods.



Good Luck. I understand the frustration with undocumented electrical hacks. That is why I penciled in all my "improvements" into my copy of the FSM. That way I will be able to tell you tomorrow what I did yesterday.

Ken