10-4 Magazine June 2024

54 10-4 Magazine / June 2024 the new lights. Wham, bam, thank you ma’am, and send this project out the door. Sounds simple enough, right? That’s not quite what happened once I opened up the taillights and began to inspect the condition of the old wires. At that point, things went south fast. I can honestly say I’ve never seen such an electrical misappropriation of excess wire and butt connectors used to assemble and facilitate the passage of electrical current to fire/power lights. What was most amazing to me is they still actually worked after all this time. Much of the original wiring was still intact, but the number of random splices rendered it useless. The wires themselves were still encased in the factory shielding, but they crumbled to dust when handled. I sure wish we could get products to last like they did 60 years ago. To do this project right, all the old wires needed to be removed and replaced with new wires and wire loom installed in their place. Some of the wires had multiple uninsulated connectors only inches apart. Yes, it would have been much faster to install the new light and let it go at that. What’s the saying, “If it fits it ships!” But that’s not how I roll. The customer said to make it right and to have it ready for the light show on Friday night, so that is what I did. In my experience, I have found in cases like this it’s faster (and normally cheaper) to start over with all new wires, connectors, and a junction box to make all the connections to the main power supply. I like to make moisture tight cables (a tip from the land of salt, rain, and snow) from the connector box to the light grouping in the back, then run separate wires to the side marker lights from the junction box, not the taillight. They are easier to troubleshoot this way and you don’t need to disrupt the taillight assembly to check for wire continuity. Doing it this way uncomplicated the taillight assembly. Most of the light manufacturers have prewired and cabled light plugs available for watertight “plug and play” applications. What looks like a massive knot of wires can be reduced to just three or four. If you have a good tape measure, you can build these cables on your bench, reducing the amount of time spent cramped under the trailer and bent over the axle. This project took longer than I had anticipated but the time spent was well worth it. This is a unit that may work for years to come, and with a little luck, I will be back in the shop at PCT when it’s time to rewire the cab and main harness. Again, that will be a major undertaking since most trucks of that vintage had a basic electrical system for just the turn signals, taillights, and headlights (there wasn’t a need for any more power). Finishing this assignment on time, the customer picked it up with enough time to load an impressive amount of hay on his decks before the show. What did they say at the end of every A-Team television show, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Until next month, you can catch me at home where I will be outstanding in my field, waiting for the driver to pick up a couple of my friends, Timothy and alfalfa. Oh geez, there I go again with the farm humor! n