Electrical stuff

I really wanted to clean up the engine bay so, I rerouted transmission lines and I wanted to reroute some of the wiring.  The factory harness just drapes wire all over the engine.  So, I started to tag and trace everything.  I used binder clips and toe tags.  I guess that's what their called anyway.  Every wire got marked.

With the engine started, it quickly became apparent that the old 61 amp, or so, alternator wasn't going to cut it with the new radiator fans.  I was planning to clean up the engine bay wiring anyway so, that was the next chore.

I installed a 140 amp alternator with an internal voltage regulator so I could have just one wire running across the engine instead of the bundle in the factory wiring harness.  When I took that bundle apart to trace wires, I found 4 or 5 wires in there that were terminated.  They must have been used on options my car didn't have.  I also ran one wire to the new engine temp sensor.

This is all that's left of the factory wiring.  I removed all the old voltage regulator, alternator and coil wires.  The wires that used to run across the engine to the coil, electric choke and oil pressure are now routed through the interior of the car and come out on the passenger side.

You can see the rerouted wires coming out, just below the A/C air intake.  The stubbed one is for the transmission temp sensor.  I didn't think about installing it sooner.  To do that now, I would need to drain the tranny and braze the sensor adapter into the fluid pan.  So, I'll wait until I change the fluid and filter at the 500 mile mark.  (Because I rebuilt the tranny.)  I'm not too concerned about the transmission overheating while I break in the engine.

You will also notice that the monster air conditioning evaporator didn't go back on.  I hate the looks of that thing.  I'm sure that after sitting for the last decade or more, all the o-rings leak and I'm not sure it even works because the compressor was gone when I bought it.  I added it up and to recondition that monstrosity and replace all the parts I would need, it would cost more than one of the new Vintage Air A/C systems, and I'd still have old less efficient tech.  So, I've ordered an A/C delete plate that I will put on there and eventually replace everything under the dash with a Vintage Air system.

I went with the Equus 8000 series gauges.  I like the look and the one I used to replace the dummy light during engine start up worked well.  For now, I've just wired them all out of the radio hole in the dash.  I'm going to create a plate for them to mount in when I remodel the interior.  I'll either fabricate a mount for the stereo where the ash tray used to be or put it in the glove compartment.