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Here's a page showing more than you ever want to know about wire. At the bottom is a chart showing the designations and differences of the various types for your reference.http://www.bcae1.com/wire.htm

Make sure you are using automotive grade stranded wiring. Usually it's GLX, and has a more resistance to fuel, oil, temperature, abrasion and vibration.

I really believe that it's cheaper to start with a 6 volt after market harness and modify as you need, then trying to build one up from scratch unless you are going to use a lot of the same color wiring. Due to the price of copper, wire has gotten much more expensive in the last couple of years.

Also if you get a GM style harness, I have the diagram on how to wire-up the Packard column connector to it.

Too late! I've already got most of the wiring. The basic colors are covered except brown and orange. I saw some in THHN, and that kind of peaked my interest as to if that wire would work. I checked the link provided by HH56 and it is for dry/damp environments in high heat. It also has an abrasive resistant coating. Apparently it is used in residential applications, but maybe I can use a couple to complete the color range? The link didn't talk about primary wire, or what makes it special.

For tracer, I'm thinking of just looping some masking tape around the wires and spraying a little paint on them to show a difference. Kind of hokey, but it's not like I could have trouble shooted with the original wires anyway since the ends were gone. I agree the aftermarket harness would be easier, but I already had some wire and terminals anyway. I figure it will be around $90 by the time I am done.

I'm not at all familiar with all the types/codes of wire, but any stranded wire that I've found at big-box stores in recent years for residential use is way too stiff for automotive purposes. You need flexibility for any later service, as well as the initial installation.

When I was working in a dealership parts department, third-party suppliers, who called regularly, had a pretty good variety of color and gauge available for order/shipment. Not cheap, but no copper wire is these days.

As for tracer, I used to run a Sharpie marker along the full length of wire (insulation) for a given circuit, but gave it plenty of time to dry before handling. While those markers come in a lot more colors than black, red, and blue these days, they don't seem to be quite as indelible as they used to be. Also, no such thing as white - that I know of.

Also, no such thing as white - that I know of.


Actually there is a permanent white paint marker or Sharpie. We use them a lot for identifying our darker power cables and works very well.

Would be a good way to stripe the wires. Make a small block with a hole large enough for wire on one side, a larger hole that met it at 90 degrees for the pen point--whatever color-- and then enlarge the wire exit hole larger than the wire so it wouldn't touch & smear. Hold the block in a vise and just pull the wire thru -- a nice stripe should result.

Google white sharpie marker and several places selling them come up.

Thanks guys...I was thinking about a sharpie too, but I didn't think all the colors would be available and I wasn't sure how durable it would be. I'll have to check our office supply book at work. We need to get some supplies anyway. Maybe they have a good selection. If I can't find a white sharpie, they have white out pens that might work too.

I went back to the hardware store and looked at the THHN wire again and compared it to the primary wire. It was almost as flexible as the primary, but I was also comparing 16 gauge primary to 14 gauge THHN. Seems like it will work. The thickness of the insulation looks comparable too. I might give it a go, just to get some of the colors I can't get otherwise. The more I look at, the more similar they are. Didn't buy any today, but I might tomorrow.

Looking at the cable code and identification chart in the 51-54 shop manual, I only found six colors used as tracers: black, blue, green, red, white, and yellow. Did I miss any?

Except for white, each of those colors can be found in Sharpie's 8-pack of assorted colors that I've seen in many stores. I've heard that other colors are available and (thanks to HH56) now know that white is available. As such, I don't think I'd mess with white-out - seems to me that it would be prone to cracking and flaking off.

The tool fabrication described by HH56 is BRILLIANT!

However, I see that some wires have double tracers in red, yellow, and white. I don't think I could get parallel lines by running the wire through the tool twice, but I'm thinking you could drill an additional hole for a pen point in the block, just ahead (or behind) the first and slightly off to one side, for a second marker of same color to do a double tracer in a single pass. Yet, I may be flying blind on this as I've never seen a wire with double tracer.

Also, I would want to make separate blocks for different gauges of wire.

11-03-10

Well my "winter" project as been moved up in the schedule because the wife is not liking a wire harness on the dining room table. So, I went to the hardware store and picked up the 10 & 12 gauge size wires I still needed. I was going to use the board with nails technique, but since I want to do this indoors and I'm upsetting the family, I'm just going to carefully follow the wires on the existing harness and cut the new wires to length, temporarily taping them together where appropriate.

It was hard to get started. Really couldn't find the best place so I went with the part of the harness that goes from the generator to the voltage regulator. I started with the 10 gauge red with black tracer wire. Cut it to the appropriate length and used the Sharpee to make a tracer line in black. I didn't make a jig to hold the marker because the wire is not totally even. It has bumps in places from being on the spool. Instead, I gripped the tip with my fingertips and dragged the wire through my hand. Worked pretty well. Some mess ups, but 90% of this harness gets covered anyway so I'm not worried. I think I will reuse the old connectors on this wire if I can because they are a flag style that I can't find at the store. I don't want to just order those from a specialty place because it seems a waste.

Next wire I did was the one that grounds the voltage regulator to the junction block. That wire is also connected to the ground for the generator. I found out that this wire was not connected to my generator at all. There is a hole in the generator where I assume it goes, but I will have to investigate how to connect it. I left it about a foot longer for now.

The harness was driving me nuts and my wife and kid went to bed so I ran outside to start putting the front end back together. Let me just say that I hate cotter pins! Had trouble getting the holes to show up so I loosened the nuts again and used a nail to clean the hole. After that, I positioned the bolt so the hole would be at a place that I could insert the pin easily. Held the bolt in place with a wrench while I screwed the nut on with a socket. Took a little practice, but by the time I got to the last one, it was pretty easy. Took a lot of time though.

After that I reattached the upper arm. That's as far as I got today.

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You can use standard spade, bullet, fork and ring terminals from the auto parts/hardware store. Just pull of the colored plastic part. Much cheaper than speciality connectors. Once they are crimped on and heat-shrinked, you cant tell the difference. I bought a good size selection of them from Harbor Freight for like $10.

Terminals - my favorite supplier
http://www.mcmaster.com/#lug-terminals/=9ke2cz