An Electifying Idea

So every once and while I do swerve into a good idea. This little idea was just that.

Maintaining drivability also includes making sure the lights and other electrical stuff is working. I started a checklist on a white board of little things that needed fixing. Electrical was near the top. I went through the regular checklist of issues: fuse, corrosion, broken bulb, missing fixture (yes a whole bumper fixture was missing, see previous post about the mystery of missing parts), or maybe bad wires.

I had a wiring diagram in the service manual for the car but it was impossible to read and follow the lines. The car wiring was 99% factory, and I wanted to keep it that way. Especially the color coding. So as I fix or add wiring, I am using the factory harness colors. I got rolls of purple, orange, yellow along with the standard red, black, and white. Some of it in 14 ga., some of it in 12 ga..

Remember: Red is hot, white is hot, black is ground, green is switched ground, wait why is the white wired connected to the green wire? And what’s this brown wire coming from the fuse box? Do I smell smoke…?

I took the two sheets to Kinko and had them blown up, then stopped off at Hobby Lobby and bought a folding display board. It kind of felt like I was doing a science project. I glued the huge sheets to the board and I was now able to follow circuits and fix the wiring issues. I lost track of the number of times I used the display and I will need it again when I start the resto-modding project.