At this point I'm in a position where I won't be able to do anything else to the Truckstang's electrical system due to the fact that I have to still order some key components for the car's system. Things like the HVAC boxes, radiator fan, fuel tank sending unit and H4 headlights need to be ordered. This doesn't stop me however, from running the wires for these loads over to their respective locations so once I get those components and mount them, all I have to do is just hook the wires up. Little by little this will get done as these components are some of the pricier components. In the meantime, I did take a moment to go ahead and hook up one more component that was part of the batch of stuff that was planned to be used on the car. The tachometer, a vital component in tuning the engine as well as monitoring its performance, is that component. Because the universal turn signal box was mounted on the left side of the steering column body, the only valid spot to mount the unit is on the right side. Because the column is mounted farther in under the dash, there isn't enough of the narrow portion of the column shaft available to mount the tach. I had to mount the thing almost straight across from the turn signal box. Again, long zip ties came into play to secure the tach due to my not having a large worm clamp, which I also need to use for the securing of the turn signal box. With the tach in place, I went ahead and zip tied the wire bundle along the steering column tube and along the same path as the other wire bundles under the dash. I hooked up the gauge light, tapping into the gauge cluster light circuit and securing the power line to the switched 12v line feeding the gauge voltage regulator and the ground to the bolt holding the regulator, which then goes to chassis ground. The tach feed line was routed through the firewall to the engine bay so it can be hooked up to the dizzy. While I had the gauge cluster out I also took a moment to route a switched 12v power feed from the same point on the voltage regulator over to the radio hole. I tapped another line from the cigarette lighter to feed the constant 12v line for the radio. Once the radio comes in all I have to do is hook those power lines to the wire harness, and of course the speakers. I do plan on seeing if there's some smaller speakers that I can use to mount in the top of the dash in two spots that grace either side of a larger hole that will be used for a vent tube from the universal HVAC box to blow onto the window as a defroster vent. Doing this will negate my having to run a whole other batch of wires to the rear to cover two speakers that would've normally went into the back panel that held the old speakers. With everything pretty much done as far as big wiring, I did take a moment to put the interior panel back on along the side just under the dash. Getting this out of the way and taking a moment to clean up the area will go a long way towards the completion of the rewiring. With the internal wiring done, the next thing that I needed to do is make a battery tray. The old battery tray has long since rusted away and the remnants disposed of. Luckily, I had a homemade battery tray made from angle iron that I used in a past project that would work in this application just fine. I did have to trim a couple pieces of metal from the tray and reweld them after fitting the tray. I did end up welding the tray a little too far in against the core support and fender wall. This pretty much prevented me from using the typical class 24 battery that I would've normally used in the car. I did check out the side post battery from the S10 to see just how it would fit and found that it will work in this application just fine. At least I can say that a GM side post battery with the additional lugs screwed into the terminals will work, as this same arrangement is used on the S10. These batteries are widely available so I'm ok with this arrangement. Now the next move is to start testing the system to make sure everything is working properly. Even though I can't fully mount the class 24 battery, I could still set it up enough to connect the battery terminals to test things. I also had a USB charger with an integrated voltage meter, which I plugged into the cigarette lighter socket. The battery was reading 12.4 v and one of the interior lights came on as intended with the doors opened, and went off with the doors closed. The key switch turned on the fuel pump and the alternator warning light, which will be on when the alternator is not charging. Attempting to crank the starter yielded me a successful test, also proving the engine was nowhere near frozen and everything else associated with the engine was working fine too (solenoid, starter). Headlight circuit also worked. Even though I don't have the H4 sockets, I could still plug a set of LED bulbs to the plugs to test the circuit, successfully, I might add. The problem area I had was with the turn signal circuit. The cheapo switch assembly currently has me running around in circles because at one point the left lights worked, then the right side would pop the fuse. After playing around with shit I would get the switch to activate on the left and right sides, but then the hazard light switch would pop the fuse. Now I'm at the point where the two sides activate on the switch but no outside lights come on and the hazard switch still pops the fuse. I have to investigate this to determine if this is a case of a faulty switch or if I'm missing something on the circuit. The fuckery continues....
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