Can anyone figure out this wiring mess???

[Wart]

Well I C the old Mark has returned. Look Freak, Ive owned about 9 IIs in the last 10 years.
Jon

So nice to see someone remembers the ******* I can be.

Every once in a while I have to do something others see as bad just to remind myself I'm alive.

About having 9 cars in 10 years? I've always wondered about people who go through so much of anything.

Finally, about the car being hacked up when you got it? I sympathise. A couple places I worked it seems my job turned into picking up after Pro Wrench whose idea of wireing was ScotchLoks and Zip Ties cut long and at angles ... nothing like pulling my arm from behind a dash and getting my arm laid open.

Bitter? Damned straight.

 

[Dano78]

Hi all. I finally got around to wiring the stang, or at least Im trying to figure out the mess. Now, Im in a quandery about the ignition wire. This this has its own wiring to the coil. It is/was wired to a switch, but with the coil, and a big electric fan, its melting these puny lil switches down fast. So, Ive decided to run the coil off of the factory wiring. Hence my problem:

I ran a Tester across every wire I could see (to see which one turns on when I turn the key to "run") The problem is, none of them light up ('cept one) The one that lights up immediately dies if the engine stops. I believe its powering the control for the alternater. If the Engine is running, then the wire is hot, but it doesnt power up while Im cranking the motor.

So, does anyone know what color the wire is that Im supposed to be looking for?? I only assume it should be coming out of the fuse box.....yeah, thats quite a mess too. Or, does anyone know of a link to a wiring diagram?

heres a couple pics to show the mess that Im talking about.

Thank you all for the help.

As far as your switch meltdowns, it's probably the electric fan causing it. Most people just wire through a toggle, however most wire that has to run that kind of a distance (wire from the fans all the way to the switch and back again) cannot support the amp draw bestowed on it. Alot of these fans must be wired through a relay.

As far as the correct ignition wire, if the car orginally has a duraspark wire there is actually 2 wires that provide power out of the main harness. One is the red/green stripe (or red/blue stripe like on my '78) and the other is a white wire. The white should be the one hot when the ignition isin the start position but on my car the red/blue stripe one is aswell, but the white wire goes dead on the 'run' side of the switch when the red/blue stripe stays hot.
The stuff involving the white wire may only be true if the duraspark box is hooked up. Right now I'm running just off the red/blue stripe wire through a Points distributor with a Pertronix and a Mallory Promaster Coil. More or less my whole duraspark harness (and engine harness) is MIA and i just rewired from the main loom at the stock connectors to the components that wasy if and when i do find nice replacement harnesses I can just plug them right on in.

 

[Blue Thunder]

As far as your switch meltdowns, it's probably the electric fan causing it. Most people just wire through a toggle, however most wire that has to run that kind of a distance (wire from the fans all the way to the switch and back again) cannot support the amp draw bestowed on it. Alot of these fans must be wired through a relay.

Especially if you run dual electric fans, as I do. Without a relay, I'd have serious problems unless I used 6ga. or something.

 

[JonDawg]

Yep, Im starting to agree.
I did another bandaid: I wired in a relay to the coil, and Ill do another for the fan.
This ofcourse makes the engine bay look worse. But Im gonna (eventually) cut all the wires and start fresh. I had all the lights working this spring, but now the front markers are out again too, so....

I think Ill actually get a whole setup of relays, and do it totally custom.