Torq's 1991 Eliminator

[Salvagedcircuit]

14 minutes ago, Torq_Shep said:

Found the issue with the brake lights. The Ignition Off Drain (I.O.D) connector was just completely missing on the battery side. I have no idea when this happened or how I had taillights from San Antonio to Salt Lake before they just stopped working completely but whatever...

 

I made a new taillight harness with 18ga GXL wire, pigtails from ACDelco LS253 sockets and Standard S768 sockets. I tinned all of the wires and connected them with brass open face crimps covered with double wall adhesive lined heatshrink. The entire harness is wrapped in Flexon 3/8" solid sheath and I terminated the 6 pin with a deutsch as the 1991-1992 is not a plug I can find new currently. Overkill but I never want to do this harness again on this truck =P

 

 

The parking brake was also not working. I had tried just adjusting the cable and that did not work. This truck has a D44 with disc brake conversion on it so I had a feeling that the parking brake pawls were out of adjustment. Popped the back wheels off and manually adjusted the pawls and now the parking brake works fine. I will eventually convert it back to a foot brake.

 

Last thing I did yesterday was to wash the truck. The paint is way worse than when I parked it 2 years ago but I knew it was going when I bought it. Still looks okay from 10 feet away. 

 

 

Just ordered plates for it so I will likely get it registered in the coming weeks. Washington is surprisingly friendly to registering old vehicles. I will even get to use plates for 1991 instead of modern plates. 

Lookin good! How do you like the flexon? I grabbed a 5 pack of tessa automotive adhesive backed cloth tape and used it to redo my fuel pump wiring harness when I found out it was partially cut. I also used the same thing when soldering up the duct-tape crimps that fill the '88 engine bay.

[Torq_Shep]

28 minutes ago, Salvagedcircuit said:

Lookin good! How do you like the flexon? I grabbed a 5 pack of tessa automotive adhesive backed cloth tape and used it to redo my fuel pump wiring harness when I found out it was partially cut. I also used the same thing when soldering up the duct-tape crimps that fill the '88 engine bay.

Specifically, I used Flexon Techflex F6 PET 3/8" sheath. Its good. Working with non-split loom is a bit of a pain and requires planning not to screw it up. But the quality is great and if you just hit the end with a lighter right after you cut it, it doesn't fray easily. 

Getting the lengths correct is a bit of an art also as if you are any fatter than 3/8" then the length that you cut ends up being short. Where I had the joint going back to the 6 pin I had heat shrink at each end of the Techflex sections and then wrapped the joint itself in Tesa tape. 

I also use Tesa exclusively but try and use it sparingly as unwrapping a tapped harness is super annoying. The sticky vinyl crap from 3M is the absolute worst if you ever have to unwrap it after a few years. The Tesa tape is very difficult to unwrap but it does not leave a residue. It is easy to apply and is very strong. 

 

I am not an expert but I have done a ton of wiring. Connectors should always be as high quality as you can get, tinning the wire seems to be mostly unnecessary unless you are fording water, exposed wire should be in as good of a sealed joint as you can get (double wall adhesive lined heat shrink at a minimum) but anything touching the wire sheath just needs to resist cutting and rodents but should let water and debris out if possible. I really like the braided stuff from my time building construction equipment. There are a lot of caveats to each product/method of assembly. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

8 minutes ago, Torq_Shep said:

I also use Tesa exclusively but try and use it sparingly as unwrapping a tapped harness is super annoying. 

Absolutely! I've been doing sections of my engine bay harness and the old tape becomes dust when touched. I've had difficulty in finding good wiring harness sheathing for the engine bay. The gardner bender stuff I get locally melts from the heat of the engine bay. I redid my o2 sensor cable and the knock sensor, and the split loom was not having it.

[Torq_Shep]

Everything I have been doing has mostly been fixed from it sitting or stuff that was broken before...

 

I fixed the fuel pump gauge, swapped out the ignition for one that matches the doors and has a metal key holder thing instead of a plastic one, changed the oil, put the rollbar and tonneau cover back on, and got it registered with 1991 Washington plates.

 

Drove it to work today and of course the damn starter died. Went to replace it and the top bolt was missing... Luckily it was at work so I just stole a replacement bolt from stock.

 

Waiting on the stock mechanical fan to come in from eBay. Have not been very pleased with the 3 fan setup in terms of actually controlling temps at idle.