ignition switch question

[shrike]

Working on a 1950 panel truck.
Previous owner had put in a painless wiring kit and replaced the steering column with something from a junkyard (possibly a Cadillac) with the ignition on the steering column.
We want to go a more original route and are looking to replace the ignition switch in the dash, but we have no idea what wires go to what on the switch. Anyone have a wiring diagram?
Bear in mind that with the wiring harness replaced, we will need to know what the wires are for, not just what color goes to which position on the switch.
Thanks a bunch!
Scott

[craig32]

Scott, I'm assuming the Painless is 12V? I had the same mess in my 56 when I got it. The good thing was all the wires were labeled. If you're running a points engine, this may help. What I did was figure out which wire on the column switch was hot (its the big one) and pulled off the socket and put a jumper on the hot post and ran through the cycles and recorded what was hot when. Don't know what switch you'll be using, but mine was a 55/56 switch that was the same for cars and trucks. The posts are labeled. You just have Batt, Acc, Ign1, Ign2, and start. Three of them are pretty obvious, the other two are the top and bottom of the resistor, don't rememer which is which!

[mr48chev]

The good thing is that almost all GM vehicles use the exact same color coding on the wiring. This should work. Each spot on the switch is marked as to what it does and the wire color. The plug should be pretty close to same and the wires coming out of the Cad pigtail should be the same but tilt wheels have the ign switch working backwards to a non tilt.

It can't get much easier than this http://www.painlesswiring.com/manuals.php Pick the manual for the wiring harness you have and open it up and scroll down.

[shrike]

Ah, good to know about the switch. We weren't sure which one to order.
Yes it's a 12v but it has an HEI distributor

[Thadious]

I found that a ignition switch from a chev van 70s to mid 80s dash mount fits the stock hole pretty good. I made trim ring for the front of mine but not too hard to mount up. All the parts are easily obtainable and the wiring block for it is pretty standard to modern chevs. I wired mine directly into my S10 chassis harness with ease as the colors were a direct match for the most part.

Best of luck,
Ted.

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by Thadious

I found that a ignition switch from a chev van 70s to mid 80s dash mount fits the stock hole pretty good. I made trim ring for the front of mine but not too hard to mount up. All the parts are easily obtainable and the wiring block for it is pretty standard to modern chevs. I wired mine directly into my S10 chassis harness with ease as the colors were a direct match for the most part.

Best of luck,
Ted.

That is useful info for a lot of guys. The universal switches never seem to fit or look right in these trucks.c

The other option would be to use a stock style switch and a pushbutton for the starter. That wouldn't give you and accessory pole on the switch though.

[mknittle]

I am going with the stock on off switch and rigging up a switch using the foot peddle. I figure a linkage can be built that uses a couple bellhousing bolts. But I haven't got that far yet.

[mknittle]

OOPs starter switch using the stock starter peddle