Alt. signal wire

[SirRobyn0]

That pic left over above is to blurred to use. I don't know how to delete it. How do you do that.

If you edit the post, bottom left of the post, click that, then hover your mouse over the picture and you should see a little garbage can appear I think it's one of the top icons on the picture, click it and it should go away.

Looks like the repair is coming along nicely!

 

[Raider L]

@SirRobyn0
Ha, ha, ha, (happy laugh). That worked. Thanks!

 

[Raider L]

Okay, I'm at the point where I'm about to hook up the alt. signal wire back into the (black plug) ignition switch wire, #12 orange. I've looked for the old alt. light wire and I can't find it anywhere. It's supposed to come out of the interior firewall wire block but it's not to be found. I know good and well that "gen" light used to come on every time I started the truck. Of course it doesn't matter at this point.
I got on line and ordered something I think some of you electrician's and electric industrial workmen will appreciate. I went to McMaster-Carr's site and ordered a five foot length, that was the shortest length they had and I'm sure I'll find other uses for it, a 1/8" I.D. fiberglass cloth tubing. You find it on a host of applications where a wire needs protecting from heat, either from the wire getting hot or from external heat on or near the wire. It's that tight weave fiberglass covering you see in many electrical applications. And surprising enough I ordered it a few hours ago and it said it would be delivered tomorrow! Great, I hope it does come in tomorrow that way I can go ahead and put it in.
I plan on covering that little bitty alt. signal wire that caught fire. It made such a mess when it got stuck to several wires in the bundle it was in. I had to go in and splice out the burned section of every wire that was burned. What a pain. I had to make a decision as to how bad it looked. A couple of the wires were just kinda scorched in a small place or two. Then there were several wires that got burned where that signal wire was up against another wire and looked like the wire inside was affected. What happens there is the wire itself has burned and hardened and will cause a high resistance in that spot. It could cause a hot spot in that area when the juice is flowing and possibly make other problems. I do not want anymore wiring problems...period! I really like doing wiring. Gee, look at all the gauges I've put in and a bunch of other stuff wired up all over the truck. I must like it, there's so much of it. But, dang, when it's from something like what happned and have to go in and pull out a wire with burned insulation and cut it out and some how prop the other wires up so the stress is off the spliced wire so I can better solder it together with another wire?? Forget that! Some of them were hard and had to be suspended up with zip ties to hold the other wire up so I could get a good solder job on it. Your splice is not going to hang there with a pound of other wires, and the whole fuse block hanging on it from all the other wires connected to that one wire. Then you touch it with the soldering iron and it falls...several times!

 

[SirRobyn0]

@Raider L I didn't look at the product you specifically mentioned, but I have used those fiberglass tubes for wiring and yes they are really great for high heat. We were just talking about this at the shop. Do you own a power probe? I do not and never have. I've used them a few times and I can certainly see how they are handy to have but I learned electrical, and electrical troubleshooting without one so I just never bought one.

 

[Raider L]

@SirRobyn0 ,
No I don't have one of those.
Well, my fiberglass sleeve came in like they said it would. Fast, huh? But the weave wasn't what the photo looked like. I thought it was going to be a lot tighter. So I emailed McMaster-Carr tonight and asked them if they had any with a tighter weave. This stuff looks like rope! And it's the 1/8" I.D. stuff to. So I went on line and looked at all kinds of other fire retardent, expandable poly sleeve, other kinds of fire "resistant" fiberglass tube, split conduit out of fiberglass cloth. Even the kind of stuff we used to use on jets, it's fiberglass tubing that has a fire proof red silicone coating on the outside that was for fuel lines and other applications. But the smallest size even in that was 1/4" I.D.. So I found some stuff on Amazon that was called "Fiberglass Heat Shield Sleeve, Adjustable PVC Silicone fiberglass Sleeve Pipe". Man, what a name! 1/8" X 2.97 ft. for $6.49. Made by UXCELL. So my wife has a Prime account and she ordered it and it'll be in Thurs..
Man! Dang it! I want to drive my truck!!! I'm having withdrawals. My truck has been down for like three weeks or so. For the dang wire! But, that's okay because I've found wires that needed to be cut out, repairing wires, re-routing wires, and examining previous wiring for gauge replacement. And replacement of the alternator. So it's a hot rod what can I say.

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[SirRobyn0]

@Raider L I agree that "Adjustable PVC Silicone fiberglass Sleeve Pipe" looks like the stuff I've used once or twice not the rope thing you just got. Actually when I first saw the picture I wondered why you had taken a picture of a woodstove gasket lol.

 

[Raider L]

@SirRobyn0
Ha, ha, ha, ha,! That's funny! What's funnier is I know what that gasket is! It also looks to me like rear main seal packing as well. That's what I first thought of when I saw it.
Well, on further review of the schematic, ignition switch drawings, and fuse panel drawings, I think that something must have happened to the ignition switch. The reason being is the only wire that fried was the #24 gauge wire, which is a single strand wire which measures .015" in diameter. And like I was saying in my first post, when I pulled over a block and a half from the house and looked under the dash to try and see where the smoke was coming from, for some unknown reason I grabbed the ignition wiring bundle and when I did I found it to be HOT. I don't have much of nothing in dealing with vehicle electrical problems, and I must lack some common sense, anyone who does would have said the ignition switch fried and must have been shorted out. But the truck started right up, twice! That's why I've been steering away from repalcing the ignition switch all this time. Why else would that alt. signal wire burned and the ignition bundle got hot. Also to, no fuses were blown, that's what lead me away from the ignition switch. No other wires were burned as if they also took a load of juice, and none of the alternator wires in the engine compartment were burned especially the alt. light wire that goes to the light on the instrument panel, and the #24 wire to the ignition switch.
Just the fact the ignition wires were hot would, or should tell most people that there's a problem with the ignition switch and to get another one, which I did tonight. I hope there's not a problem with the neutral safety switch to. This whole feasco started late last year when I had to have the truck towed back to the house because I couldn't get it started. As it turned out after replacing two ignition switches, and a new spare starter that I had in supply, that I replaced the neutral switch and the truck started right up. I should have one of those spare igniton switches but if it doesn't work for some reason I don't want to go through all that crap again. I just want to drive my dang truck!!

 

[Raider L]

Okay, I just got my new fiberglass sleeve in the mail. Now this is more like it!

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A little blurred, but you can see, it's 1/8" diam. Most of these kinds of product places carry only 1/4" as the smallest size. But 1/8" is easy to find. And this stuff is cheeeeeap.

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[Raider L]

I determined where to cut the alt. wire coming through the firewall so I could pull the instrument panel out later and not pull on the alt. signal wires, spiced the alt. wire, signal wire, and alt. light wire together with a ring terminal. I crimped it on both sides then soldered it at the ring side to make sure there was a good connection.

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Then, in the pic below, cut the ring off. All I needed was the metal part that receives the wire to make a splice.

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In the pic below, put the shrink wrap on, then pushed the alt. signal wire into the fiberglass sleeve. Then tied the end of the sleeve closed with fiberglass thread.

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Below is a pic of a roll of fiberglass thread. This thread has many applications but when I worked for the airlines what I used it for was in wrapping a jet engine bleed duct which directed 700 degree jet engine exhaust into the ducting back to the heat exchanger for the aircraft air conditioning system. Grummen Aircraft Corp. send us a refurbishment kit to re-wrap the cast aluminum duct I was rebuilding with fiberglass and asbestos sheet that had to be wrapped around the duct. After a single layer of fiberglass and asbestos was applied to the duct I tied this thread around the duct in a specific pattern. Then each successive layer of covering had to be coated with high temp. RTV. Then another layer of covering, tieing thread to hold it on, RTV, another layer, etc. Building up four layers in all. This thread is about the size of upholstery thread. I'm using it to tie the ends of the fiberglass sleeve to close the end off around the wire. Why does it need it? I don't know, I guess just to make this as complicated as possible, ha, ha, ha. Force of habit.

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[Raider L]

Then I soldered the other end if the new signal wire onto what was left of the old signal wire at the ignition switch plug (black), and shrink wrapped it

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Below pic, I slid the fiberglass sleeve down on the new signal wire. It's a little short but I figure if it ever gets burned again, god forbid, I'll have a little bit the wire at the plug left to solder another wire onto that won't be buried in a glob of shrink wrap and vinyl covered fiberglass sleeve melted at the end of the wire.

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Tied the end of the sleeve closed with the fiberglass thread.

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Below is where the #16 brn-25 from the alternator wire that I sent through the firewall by itself ends up, at the alternator light on the instrument panel, center of pic, black cylindrical shaped plastic with a red shrink wrap wire end on one side and a black shrink wrapped end of wire on other side. Red end of wire is the alternator wire and the black is the ground for the light inside, 4 watt screw-in mini bulb. I connected the ground wire next door to the ground post on the fuel level gauge which has another bulb grounded on it already. That's how I did most of the gauges and other bulbs and that was to piggy back grounds so I wouldn't have ground screws attached all over the place. Everything has a double duty.
To the left below the alt. light fixture you'll notice what looks like a black wire soldered to the side of the bulb holder in what is the amp. gauge. Since the dash face is plastic I had no way to ground the bulbs, i.e. metal gauge body to metal dash providing ground with single white wire coming from base of bulb. So I had to solder a ground wire on the metal side of the bulb holder and run that ground to the ground post on a gauge or to the ground side of a instrument panel light switch. Or somewhere else depending on what it was in some other application. Like I said when you do stuff like this everything has a double duty.
If you'll notice in front of the alt. light fixture is the hole I did when I trimmed, the stock instument panel gauge holes, back to fit the Autometer gauges into the the existing gauge holes in my truck. I had to use a rasp saw blade that fits in a saber saw and melt the plastic off from around the hole. I measured the diameter of the Autometer gauge and then how far down the sidewall of the hole I needed to cut in order for the gauge to fit. A Autometer gauge will not go into a stock gauge hole. So you have to cut the excess plastic away. The stock hole is a cone shape. It worked out pretty good but was kinda hairy cutting the plastic. The instrument panel had a tendency to flop a lot while running the saw. I had to hold the panel down as best I could with tape and a flat surface material. You just have to be careful and take your time. But allowed me to use the stock instrument panel instead of making up an aluminum one. In past posts are good photos of my instrument panel.

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[Raider L]

The truck is running!!!!! I finally got it going tonight. I tried earlier today and got nothing. I had taken the ignition switch out thinking it may have been it and put in a spare. It was junk so I took that first one (new) and took it apart. It was perfect inside. Put it back together, I've done this before, and put that sucker back in the truck. At first nothing was happening until I pressed the neutral safety switch purple wire plug in good and the truck crank right up. I discovered that there is a point about my self installed light I wasn't aware of. It wouldn't turn off once the engine was running. So back to the internet and watching a video I realized, and not because the narrator said something, but I noticed that he had the light wire hooked to the No. 1 on the back of the alt. wire, that's okay, but he had the wire that from the bulb socket would look like it would go to ground, that's how I had it, to get the light to work. But instead he had it going to battery. Or in my case 12v keyed. So I got behind the instrument panel and switched the (ground) wire to the 12v post on that same gauge. When I cranked the engine the light came on and when the engine started the light went right off just like it's supposed to. Hooray!!!
Everything is cold, i.e. no hot wires, new alt. light is working, and it repeatedly cranks up. I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow but when I get back I've still got some wire re-arranging to do to get the wires to a position so I can get to all of the from underneath, and not over, under, in and out of everything. Right now I've gopt wires hanging out from evrywhere. Looking at it you'd think I had no idea what I was doing. Not so. It's all under control.

 

[Raider L]

@SirRobyn0,
Thanks for suggesting to replace that alternator. That's what it was. I don't know all the trouble shooting and have no idea what it would have been except that the stator windings were over fifty years old. I don't remember ever changing the stator out. I replaced everything thing else but that. I read in the maintenamce book that it takes a machine to check it. Even though you can put a ohm meter on it and it will check fine but be fried. Well, I guess I got my money's worth out of it. I ought to box it up and send it to GM and tell them, "Here, make your parts like this and you'll be back to making a good car again! It lasted over fifty years before it failed."

 

[Raider L]

I just went on line to look up what a new stator would cost. Fairly cheap. But what I discovered was that's that's what makes the difference between my 63 amp and a 140 amp alternator is the stator. Hey, what do I know. Well, seeing that, and if that's what controls the amperage, that may be what happened to mine to catch the wires on fire and it was the stator went out of control...maybe.

 

[SirRobyn0]

@Raider L Glad to hear you, have the problem solved!

 

[Raider L]

I borrowed my son's car today to go to the doctor and run errands, but tomorrow I will hit the truck hard. If I can trust what I've done to correct the problem, just think of it though, you're going down the street and smoke statrts coming out from under the dash. Now if it had been a wire that was hanging on by one strand it it just couldn't carry the current and caught fire, I can see that after you fixed it all would be fine. But noooo. I have something happen that leaves not one single sign that it was the cause, obviously except for the burned little tiny signal wire, a 24 gauge wire, a single strand that measures .015" in diameter. And everything else in the whole truck is fine, everything tests fine, I was going to put that old alternator back in the truck until @SirRobyn0 convinced me to change out the alternator, which I did.
Tomorrow I've got one wire I'm going to change out in the engine compartment and I'm going to start replacing the old volt meter and put my new amp gauge in. I'll tell you one thing, no errant alternator from China had better not fry my brand new Autometer amp gauge or I will be P.O.'ed to the max!!
I got my new ignition switch in today. I was trying to get the truck running this past weekend because my son's business could cause him to have to leave the house for the day, today and I'd be up the creek. But he didn't have to go into the office and I got to leave the truck at home.

Perdy ain't it.

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It has a one year warranty on it. I guess that's pretty good, huh?

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