1970 Convertible Restoration

[Vicfreg 772]

I have my battery in the trunk, so not in the same situation.  But, I have run some of my wires in the fenderwell, and that takes some work.  One concern I always have is the potential for those wires to "rub" against holes/grommets in the fenderwell and possibly short out.  So, I am taking some extra precautions with mine.

An option you might want to consider is using a "bulkhead" or "pass-through" connector.  That will allow you to get the wires where you want and not worry about rubbing shorting.   I used that for my starter wire.   Let me find the pics, or you can look at my build site....

 

 

[Vicfreg 772]

Here is the pass-through in my passenger footwell area, use this for my large cable running to my starter.  Pics show both inside and outside views.  I did decide to use a large grommet where the starter cable goes into the engine compartment.  My logic was that this cable is only "hot" when the starter is cranking....

 

[Mike65 475]

Thanks for the pics.

[Vicfreg 772]

Kept moving on the wiring today.   Did some tugging and arranging to get the harness aligned the way I wanted, and ran the wires over to the passenger side of the car.   Hooked up the main power wire to the fusible link "2J", by adding the male connector to the red wire.   Hooked up my starter solenoid wire (purple wire) to my yellow wire that I had run to the trunk to my starter solenoid.   

Pics show some details of my crimp of the purple and yellow wires.  I use Mil-Spec double crimps and heat shrink them when done.  Then wrap them over and wire tie them, so there is no chance of any movement pulling the crimp connection apart.  Also included a pic of my favorite crimper....the Greenlee crimper has replaceable dies, and I have the double crimp ones installed for my Mil-Spec crimps.

Last pics are an overview of the whole dash.  The long black wires coiled near the shifter hole are the VHX oil pressure and water temperature harnesses.  VHX uses multiple wire sensors that feed their digital box.   I will be doing some measuring on my engine and then cutting them to length, routing them, and terminating the wires tomorrow.  I also need to start routing wires in the passenger side wheel well.   A main power feed to the front of the car, and wires for my digital ignition box.

 

[Vicfreg 772]

Oh, one comment on the "double crimp" stuff.  If you look at the dies on the crimper, the inner side of the die (left) is designed to crimp the metal part of the connector which "folds in" over the bare wire.  The outer part of the die (right) is shaped differently, and is designed to compress the metal part of the connector to flatten it over the wire insulation.  This greatly decreases the possibility of a wire "pulling out" of the crimp.  I pull test every crimp by hand.   Sounds pretty anal until you have one come loose and catch your car on fire.....

 

[Vicfreg 772]

Started wrapping up my wiring going to the rear of the car, and also some items that I wanted to wire out to my console.

Added a connector to interface between the Vintage Air system under the dash, the Trinary Safety Switch, and my fan controller.   The Trinary safety switch is wired in between the "demand" signal from the Vintage Air system, and the compressor.  It prevents over-pressurization of the system.  It also interfaces with the electric fans to turn them on when the A/C comes on, and also turn off the electric fan demand when they are not needed.  For instance, if you are cruising down the highway, if the condenser pressure is low enough the fans don't need to run.  This circuit is somewhat of a nuisance to wire for me, as I have to run wires from the trunk to the front of the car, and through the fenderwells. But, got if figured out, after a confirmatory call to Vintage air.

First pic is my new connector which will go to my console.   I consolidated wires from the AAW harness to fit my needs:

 - Transmission temperature gauge

 - Oil Temperature gauge

 -  Dash light feed for the gauges

 - Key-on-hot power feed

 - Courtesy light feed for a rear mounted courtesy light

- Fog lamp switch wiring (2 wires)

 - Ground

  2nd and 3rd pic is the wiring running to my trunk area from the drivers side air vent area.   This includes the typical stuff like lights, gas gauge, etc.  I also added several connections for my trunk mounted PWM fan controller and my power amp, and 2 extra wires.   I plan to seal off the rocker channel tomorrow once I account for all the wires on the drivers side that are supposed to run there.  

Last pic is my new connector that interfaces the Vintage air system with the fan controller and the trinary safety switch.  (Not completely wired out yet).  The yellow wire is running back to the trunk for my PWM fan controller.  The wires on the other side of the connector run to the Vintage air controls (1 wire) and the Trinary Safety Switch (3 wires).

 

 

[Mike65 475]

Looking good Vic. I mounted a toggle switch for my fog lights above the radio in the stock spot where the power top, & the cruise control switches would normally mount.

 

[Vicfreg 772]

Hi Mike.  Did you post a picture of that?   I thought about mounting 2 switches up there, and using the stock power top switch and the stock fog lamp switch.  My dash only has one hole.  I guess if someone ordered a Mach I with cruise, then there would be 2 switches....   I need to look into that.

[Vicfreg 772]

Made some good progress today, trying to get my in car wiring to the point where I can move to the fenderwells and front of the car.

First pic is my connector for the interface between my wiring that runs in the drivers side door channel to my PWM Fan controller, located in the trunk.

2nd pic is the controller with the harness run to it.  The controller location is temporary until I can get over a friends house and double check the possible interferences with any of the top hardware in that area.  If not, that is where it will go.

3rd pic is view of this location through my trunk access door

4th pic is a new harness/plug assembly I made that runs from the drivers side of the car, through the dash area, over to the passenger side of the car.  It is for the interface between my PWM fan controller, the Vintage Air System, and the Trinary Safety Switch, which will be mounted on the radiator support on the drivers side.   The wiring will continue through the passenger side fenderwell.  Just not ready for that right now.  So, the connector is a good interface point for later.

5th picture is my passenger side door channel wiring, which is done.  Has mostly battery related wiring, including starter wire, and some dedicated ground wires, along with courtesy light for the trunk area.

6th and 7th picture is a dedicated ground terminal block that installed (attached to the Vintage Air system bracket) that will be used for all my digital accessories.  This includes the VHX dash hardware, the EFI computer, and the ignition computer.  I did this to minimize the chance of noise getting on these systems due to using a chassis ground.   The terminal block has a wire that runs directly to the negative battery connection, where I also have a ground terminal block mounted.  These are nice and compact, and I got mine from Blue Sea, which sell marine grade electrical hardware.   It comes with a cover to protect any accidental contact with the terminals. 

Last picture is my drivers side door channel wiring, which is also done.   

Moving to the fenderwell wiring in a week or so.

Happy Holidays!

 

 

[Vicfreg 772]

Oh, this version of the picture might make it easier to see the ground terminal block....

[Mike65 475]

16 hours ago, Vicfreg said:

Hi Mike.  Did you post a picture of that?   I thought about mounting 2 switches up there, and using the stock power top switch and the stock fog lamp switch.  My dash only has one hole.  I guess if someone ordered a Mach I with cruise, then there would be 2 switches....   I need to look into that.

No I did not yet. I went to the garage & took a pic sorry it is a little dark. I will try to get a better one later. My dash has 2 holes in the small raised spot just above the radio where I mounted these 2 switches. Here is a link to the switches I used.

http://www.steambrite.com/switch-toggle-stainless-spade-connect-single-pole-single-throw-approved-volts-amps-volts-p-14288.html

I got the switches from the Lowe's where I work.

The switch on the left is for the fog/driving lights, & the switch on the right is to switch the am/fm radio from radio mode to MP-3 player. danno is doing the radio mod for me.

[Vicfreg 772]

Cool, nice work.  I like that having 2 switches there.   

[Vicfreg 772]

Got my ignition box installed.  Ran the wiring up to the radiator support where it will be combined with my other wiring on the passenger side which will be run in conduit through the fenderwell and then into the passenger compartment 

Black terminal block in pictures is my “front” power distribution point, which is fed from inside the car.  The front power point feeds my 2 electric fans, ignition box, and transmission cooler.   

Picture of outer fenderwell shows the power feed wire from the front power point (big red wire) and the ignition box wires (black flex conduit) 

 

[bigmal 225]

Looks great. Very neat.

[Vicfreg 772]

Took advantage of some very cold weather locally to stay inside and keep moving on my wiring.  I fabricated some harnesses to run  through the passenger side fenderwell. These will be used for the Pertronix Ignition Box, the FITech Fuel Command Center, and the Trinary Safety Switch that feeds the Vintage Air System.  The FiTech and VA stuff is on the drivers side of the car, so you can see the wires running across the bottom of the radiator support, and then coiled up on the drivers side.   I ran out of room in my 1/2' conduit on the drivers side, so I had to run these 4 wires the long way, from the passenger side.

I installed the 1/2" non-metallic conduit elbow and pulled the cables through. This is for the Ignition Box and Trinary Safety Switch Wiring.   I am waiting on a shipment of black, 1/2" non-metallic conduit to complete both the drivers side and passenger side fenderwell wiring.   On the passenger side, I will add a second conduit, which will run together with the first one, and will contain the large red wire (power distribution block) and 2 small wires (ignition box trigger wires) that will run into the passenger compartment as well.  I routed the trigger wires separately from the other ignition box wires, in particular the coil, on advice from Pertronix that the MSD box coil wiring can be "noisy" and should be separated from the trigger wires.

Also ran my power feed wire up front for my transmission cooler.   I am using the AAW connectors  as needed to make the installation go easier, or where I need to pull wires through the conduit.  I don't generally use splices.

1st picture shows passenger side fenderwell with the non-metallic conduit elbow

2nd picture shows the inside of the engine compartment on that side, and where I installed the non-metallic conduit elbow.  Also shows my front power distribution block, with the main feed that goes into the car, 2 wires for each of my electric fans, one wire power feed to the Pertronix Box, and one power feed for my transmission cooler

3rd picture shows all the wiring that will be routed in the passenger side fenderwell.  Large harness is for the ignition box and VA safety switch.  Small harness is the 2 ignition box trigger wires and 2 spare wires. Large red wire is the power feed that connects the in-car main power block to the front power block

4th picture shows the wiring running across the bottom of the radiator support.

 

 

[Vicfreg 772]

I was asked to share some of my info on the interface between the AAW wiring and the VHX dash and Vintage Air system, in particular, the Trinary Safety Switch.   

Have attached some information on this which shows some block diagrams and wiring diagrams that I used when first laying all of this out.  Hope others find it helpful.

Pic below is Trinary Safety Switch with connector.

AAW wire tab attachment is my working spreadsheet for all of my wiring.

Other document is .pdf of some sketches and block diagrams

 

 

 

AAW Wire Tab - 70 Convertible (V4a).pdf

new doc 2018-01-01 15.08.30.pdf

[bryonbush 85]

So a few questions. The box that you are using shown in picture #2 is that included with the aaw kit or separate? I was under the impression that you were using a fan controller so are you running the power from that box, back to the controller, then wires back to the fan? If you're running fitech, why not have that control the fans operation?  Also, will this box be directly tied to the battery?

Next, what line from the aaw kit do you plan to use to power the convertible top motor? Maybe I just missed that part. 

[Vicfreg 772]

Hi Byron, Happy New Year.

The second picture in my 12/22 post is a Pulse Width Modulation fan controller supplied by Auto Cool.   The box posted in my 12/29 post is my Pertronix digital ignition box.

I assume you are asking about the fan controller, so:

http://www.autocoolguy.com/home

There are a couple of reasons I chose this approach:.

• I am running a ~400 cubic inch stroker with an automatic and air conditioning.  It will run hot.  So, I went with a large aluminum radiator (DeWitt) with no integral transmission cooler.  I am using 2 - 12" NASCAR cooling fans, and I need them to cool both the radiator and A/C condenser.  So I need really tight temperature control that will also allow me to use the Vintage Air Trinary Safety Switch.
• I wanted a soft start controller so I would not have to worry about relay's cycling the fans on and off.   There is also no real temperature control with a relay based system.  The cool guy set up uses direct measurement in the radiator return line.  I controlled the engine temperature running on my test stand in +/- 5 degree increments.   I watched the fans ramp up and change speed slowly when I ran the set up on my engine test stand.  It works like a variable speed drive on A/C motors.

I wanted to mount the PWM controller in the trunk.  The PWM controller manages the fan speed from the negative side.  So, I ran power direct from my battery feed to the fans up front.  Then, ran the PWM controller cable back to the trunk.  I also had to run some other wires that were not included in the AAW set up back to the trunk.  I actually used some of the AAW in-used wires as spares.  (like the 3rd brake light for instance).  

I purchased the 100 amp PWM controller, which honestly, is overkill.  I did it because at the time, it was the only "no buzz" controller available.  (the others make some buzzing noise). Now the cool guy has a full line of the controllers in no buzz.   I highly recommend their product.  It is industrial grade, and is used on 24 volt military and commercial vehicles.

I decided on the FiTech system afterwards, so I did not consider that option. But, one of my going in design goals was to have a stand alone cooling system that had it's own sensors and a manual override.   

I posted the top power connection a week or so ago, if you look back you can see how I wired it.  I used wire #116, which is a spare key on power feed that comes from the AAW "accessory" plug.  This wire is protected by the fuse that is labelled "PWR WDO", which is a 30 amp fuse.  I did this to avoid using the original circuit breaker wire harness stuff that attaches to the starter solenoid on these cars. If you look at the .pdf file I attached to my post on Monday, it has the fuse assignments, and also every single wire in the AAW kit, plus all of my extra wires, tabulated and cross referenced.   

Hope this helps.   Now that the holiday season is over, if you want to chat over the phone sometime, send me a PM and we can find some time during the evening.

 

[Vicfreg 772]

Finally finished my drivers side fenderwell wiring.   

1st pic is the grey non-metallic conduit and a 4' piece of 1" heat shrink.  I really wanted to use black non-metallic conduit and fittings, but I ran out of patience looking around for it.  So, used 1/2" grey flex conduit from Lowe's and got the large heat shrink from the local electrical supply house.  A good heat gun and some patience and it came out great.  I measured out the conduit and trial fit it first.

2nd pic are the wires that go from under the dash to the front of the car.  These are the standard AAW wires (headlights, turn signals, horn, etc) plus other wires I needed to run (e.g. PWM fan controller temperature sensor wires).   To keep them together and tight, I did a spaced tape wrap of the entire length of the wires.  This will allow me to pull them through the conduit without them getting all bunched up.

3rd pic is my high tech wire fishing rig, which is a piece of string tied to a small nut.  I dropped that through the conduit, then took a piece of #10 wire and hammered it over the string with a bullet nose shaped end.  Then I pulled the  red wire back through the conduit.

4th pic is the red wire hooked to the wire harness, pulled through the conduit.  I took the red wire and laid it parallel on top of the wire harness for about 8", and taped it to the wire harness.   This will keep the red wire from pulling off.  I fished the wire through with the conduit as straight as possible.  DON'T FORGET to install the connector caps on the conduit fittings before you start pulling wire or else you will be doing it over again....

5th pic is the wire pulled through the conduit fitting at the front of the car.  This is located at the bottom front of the inner drivers side fenderwell, adjacent to the factory wire routing hole in the radiator support.

6th and 7th pic is the conduit in place and hooked up.  I will be installing some 5/8" heater hose style clamps to keep it in place. Now, onto the passenger side....

 

[Cantedvalve 128]

Wow.  Love that wire work and front suspension!  I gotta resist the urge....

[MAC390 327]

Like that suspension you have and very nice electrical work.

[Vicfreg 772]

Thanks.  The wiring work is very tedious and time consuming, that is why I saved if for the winter. In the nice weather months, there are too many distractions.  

The suspension is Global West tubular inner shock tower supports, and their (+) 3 upper control arms.  They have 3 degrees of caster built into the UCA, so you can get enough caster with large tires.   The lower control arms are roller bearing from Open Tracker.  The bolt in coil-overs are my favorite, and are from Viking.  They have adjustable rebound and damping, and also have adjustment collars that allow the suspension height to be adjusted.    I have previous posts on both the front and rear suspension I am using.

[Vicfreg 772]

Kept moving on the fenderwell wiring, now working on the passenger side.  Same process as before.  On this side, I will run 2 conduits.  The first one, which I installed today, has all of my ignition wiring and the Trinary Safety Switch wiring.  The second one, which I will do tomorrow, will contain my main power feed from inside the car to the radiator support, and my ignition trigger wires.   I ran the trigger wires separately to avoid running them with the Pertronix multiple spark discharge/coil wires, to minimize potential electronics interference.    

1st pic shows conduit, 2nd pic shows where it comes into the passenger compartment, 3rd pic shows second bulkhead connector.

 

[unilec 57]

Coming along very well. With the conduit, its always a good idea to run in a draw wire, just in case in the future you need to add wiring and if you need to then add another draw wires as well.

[Vicfreg 772]

Unilec, this is a very good point.  I thought about that when I installed the conduit, and the space under the dash is so tight, that I decided to run some extra wires from the start, so I have 3 extra 14 gauge wires in each conduit in case I forgot something.  I have already used one of them....