1985 Ranger Wiring Harness Fried

[Dustinicus]

I had an electrical short in the engine bay of my truck, I found at least 2 wires that got totally fried. I was able to disconnect the battery before it burned to the ground or anything got too badly damaged, but I need to go through an fix the wires I found to be burned and any others that might have been damaged.

Does anyone have any advice for this project, any tips to give or upgrades that I can do to improve the electrical system?

I have a relay/fuse box that I want to install to eliminate the fusible links and upgrade the electrical system.

Any advise would be nice.
Thanks
Dustin

 

[RonD]

In 1985 the Starter Relay on the fender was the Power distribution hub
Starter relay is mistakenly called starter solenoid by some

So Battery's positive cable ran to one of the larger posts on this relay, and all the other Power wires were connected to that post as well
Alternator, fuse box, ect.......some with just wires to a fuse, others with fusible links directly to the powered device.

Other larger post on the relay connected to start motor, only wire on that post.

One thing you never want to happen, is to have a wire without a fuse connected to battery positive.
Only 12volt wire without a fuse should be the battery cable itself, and the fuse or fusible link should be as close to the battery as practical.

Cab fuse box is itself powered by 1 or 2 fused lines, 40 or 50amp fuses, and then each circuit in the cab is also on its own fused line(fuse box)

So you should never run a wire from the battery positive to a device, i.e. lights, radio or ?? and put the fuse by the lights/radio, fuse always goes at the battery end of the wire.
Point of the fuse is to cut power if too many amps are running through a wire.

If a wire shorts between battery and its fuse then wire can get 500amp pretty quick, lots a smoke and then hopefully the wire melts and separates without grounding, or you end up with a car fire.

If you have a wire that you are not sure about........add a fuse, can't hurt anything by having two fuses on 1 wire, its like have too many Grounds in a vehicle, can't happen, lol.

Gauge(size) of the wire tells you what amp fuse to use

Smaller wire means smaller fuse
Wire length also matters
If you use a larger fuse on a small wire then the wire becomes the fuse, that is really all a fuse is, a smaller wire attached to larger wire, if amps get too high then smaller wire melts, but inside a glass tube or plastic case.


Look for why you had the short to begin with

 

[Curious Hound]

Patience and Neatness. Take your time and do things the right way. It makes a huge difference years from now when you try to trace a wire and track down a problem.

If you have to replace a damaged wire, it is best to replace the whole wire. Splices are places where problems can occur later. If you must splice a wire, strip the ends, twist together, solder the splice, then cover with heat shrink. Avoid crimped butt Splices if at all possible.

When crimping terminals to the ends of wires, use the proper size terminal for the wire and make sure you get a good, tight crimp. Loose connections are your mortal enemies.

One good source for automotive terminals, heat shrink, wire, tools, etc. Is Waytek.

I'll try to find some more links tomorrow in case you need them.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[Dustinicus]

Thank you for the responses.
I am pretty savvy to automotive electrical, but I always like to get advice when it comes to new projects.
Since I am taking the harness out of the truck anyway I wanted to see if there was anything in particular that I might want to look at, or give some kind of special attention too.

Thank you for the tips.
Along with the Relay/Fuse box I plan to retrofit, I also plan on adding a homemade grounding harness to supplement the existing grounds

-Dustin

P.S. ericbphoto thank you for your service!

 

[Curious Hound]

It sounds like you have some good ideas.

Here is another source I found recently. I haven't ordered from them, but there seems to be a lot of useful stuff there.

Here is the link to www.waytekwire.com. I have ordered from them a few times.

There are also some good resources Here