1971 Stepside LS Build

[1971Stepside]

I started laying out all the wiring and plugging in the obvious stuff to determine routing etc. The kit is pretty simple once I had it all laid out where I could see it all in front of me. Got the wires ran to the front and rear. Crimped the front lights and began routing. Have to make it all pretty, but I am enjoying the puzzle and making it all look as clean as I can. I wanted to skip work today and continue working on the truck, but I decided I better not finish this thing up too quickly.

[MDPotter]

There's something about a red interior in these trucks that really does it for me. I kind of enjoyed the wiring process, it was fun to start trimming out the interior and seeing things light up. The Autowire kit is great.

I know how you feel, I want to take Friday off work to take advantage of another warm day to get more priming done.

[TA_C10]

Very clean. Makes me wish I went ahead and lengthened/rerouted my LS harness into the cab. My PDU is "plumbed full" Monday dad jokes already started...

[1971Stepside]

For those of you that did an LS swap with the AAW Classic Update kit...

1. Where did you wire in the PCM to the harness? I have a pink wire (BP Automotive harness) that I had going to my ignition pre wiring the whole truck. Not sure where to run it to on the harness for power. Use accessory plug?

2. Vintage Air. I have a 10 year old (brand new) evaporator. Has a red wire to batter and a purple wire to key power. Do I need to go to battery, or can I go to harness inside the cab for this somewhere?

3. Fans, I am using + fan wire from harness and fan 1 and fan 2 wire from PCM harness. What is the best way to jump the + wire from AAW to both fans. So, going from one wire to feed two fans. Will I have an issue doing this? For fan power I am going to my mega fuse block instead of directly to battery. Will that be an issue?

4. I hope this all works. I was feeling confident, but now I'm second guessing some of these last details.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

For those of you that did an LS swap with the AAW Classic Update kit...

1. Where did you wire in the PCM to the harness? I have a pink wire (BP Automotive harness) that I had going to my ignition pre wiring the whole truck. Not sure where to run it to on the harness for power. Use accessory plug?

2. Vintage Air. I have a 10 year old (brand new) evaporator. Has a red wire to batter and a purple wire to key power. Do I need to go to battery, or can I go to harness inside the cab for this somewhere?

3. Fans, I am using + fan wire from harness and fan 1 and fan 2 wire from PCM harness. What is the best way to jump the + wire from AAW to both fans. So, going from one wire to feed two fans. Will I have an issue doing this? For fan power I am going to my mega fuse block instead of directly to battery. Will that be an issue?

4. I hope this all works. I was feeling confident, but now I'm second guessing some of these last details.

1. I used one of the accessory circuits.

2. I just got my evaporator and am planning to use the heater circuit. It's a pretty large wire (orange or red, can't remember).

3. I soldered two wires onto one connector then they split off to both fans. Mine are powered from the mega fuse and work just fine.

4. Don't worry! If you apply the same level of detail and forethought into wiring as you have on the rest of the truck, it will work great. Even if it doesn't, Plan B.

Here's a picture of the backside of my fuel pump/fans fuse block. The pink is the fan wire from the AAW harness (basically just an ignition trigger so the fans can't run when the truck is off). Blue wires - one is the trigger from the PCM and the other is a lead for Vintage Air trinary switch (both ground triggers).

[TA_C10]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

For those of you that did an LS swap with the AAW Classic Update kit...

1. Where did you wire in the PCM to the harness? I have a pink wire (BP Automotive harness) that I had going to my ignition pre wiring the whole truck. Not sure where to run it to on the harness for power. Use accessory plug?

2. Vintage Air. I have a 10 year old (brand new) evaporator. Has a red wire to batter and a purple wire to key power. Do I need to go to battery, or can I go to harness inside the cab for this somewhere?

3. Fans, I am using + fan wire from harness and fan 1 and fan 2 wire from PCM harness. What is the best way to jump the + wire from AAW to both fans. So, going from one wire to feed two fans. Will I have an issue doing this? For fan power I am going to my mega fuse block instead of directly to battery. Will that be an issue?

4. I hope this all works. I was feeling confident, but now I'm second guessing some of these last details.

1. If your talking about getting power ran to your PCM, that should be CLEAN(fused) battery power straight to/from your battery. GM designed it this way. If your talking about ignition power, yeah, accessory circuit works just fine.


2. Vintage Air also recommends to get CLEAN battery power, direct from battery. I had to extend the power wire they sent in the kit because I remote mounted my battery. I mounted the connection right next to battery on frame rail. The key power I did same as mdpotter, used the "BROWN" heater wire from AAW harness(accessory power).




And yeah, the brake switch you will need 4 prong. Here is part number if you want it. Also included my wire map for the brake switch just in case You will notice on my brake sw map, I have the provisions for LED brake lights using the coil side of a relay. Ignore this part if your using regular lights, or if you already have LED brake light provisions.

[1971Stepside]

Thanks MD Potter. I appreciate you taking the time to answer those. Beaterku stopped by the house today to see the truck on his way through with the family and he set me straight I think I can finish it up. He did inform me that my brake light switch is not going to work having only two prongs...

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Thanks MD Potter. I appreciate you taking the time to answer those. Beaterku stopped by the house today to see the truck on his way through with the family and he set me straight I think I can finish it up. He did inform me that my brake light switch is not going to work having only two prongs...

No problem man! He's a wiring guru so you should be set!

I used the 4-prong switch from PSI.

[beaterku]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Thanks MD Potter. I appreciate you taking the time to answer those. Beaterku stopped by the house today to see the truck on his way through with the family and he set me straight I think I can finish it up. He did inform me that my brake light switch is not going to work having only two prongs...

Glad I finally got the see the truck in person. Guys, it is unreal. Attention to detail is second to none.

Originally Posted by MDPotter

No problem man! He's a wiring guru so you should be set!

I used the 4-prong switch from PSI.

I don’t know about all of that. My OCD takes over and I just can’t stop lol

[1971Stepside]

My AAW kit has two purple wires that go to the brake switch. I assume these are both 12v ignition wires. So, I add the PCM wire and then a brake light wire? Not sure on AAW kit what wire this is unless one of the purple wires I have is that.

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

My AAW kit has two purple wires that go to the brake switch. I assume these are both 12v ignition wires. So, I add the PCM wire and then a brake light wire? Not sure on AAW kit what wire this is unless one of the purple wires I have is that.

Here are the directions from my switch:

Those two purple wires from the AAW kit basically get tied together when the brakes are on, allowing the starter solenoid to energize and it also sends signal to the brake lights.

[TA_C10]

Those two purple wires go to the NSS(neutral safety switch). You have two options in the AAW kit. Standard trans or automatic. Since you have the automatic you will use the little adapter wire that turns the separate purple wires into a double purple wire plug that connects directly to the NSS as shown in my diagram above.

On my phone but can send a photo of this in the morning if needed.

[TA_C10]

NM, found the pics...

First pic is both brake sw and nss switch. You can see the two purple wires plugged into nss. Second pic is the brake sw connection plug in AAW harness. White and orange. The AAW also includes a blue wire for optional 3rd brake light(I tapped into this blue wire btw, otherwise it's just 1 single blue wire joined at plug with white wire). This plug goes to the brake sw that you see in my first pic, not yet plugged in, open set of prongs.






I used the AAW Deluxe harness. Should be same as yours. Study my diagram above and it should help make sense of it all. Wire colors should be identical. I built my engine harness, so that's the ECM TCC wire. Your BP engine harness should have a labeled TCC wire also. Have any questions let me know, I have more diagrams and a billion pics.

.

[1971Stepside]

Thank you guys! I've ordered a new switch. Hope to spin around the neighborhood before the snow flies.

[KMC3420]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

Thank you guys! I've ordered a new switch. Hope to spin around the neighborhood before the snow flies.

It will happen! Such an awesome truck. I am going to have to make a trip up to see this some day. Wiring is not my forte so maybe seeing it in person will help. Excellent job.

[SkidmoreGarage]

Thanks for all these details, great job!

[TA_C10]

I feel like I should ask this question stepside. Are you using LED taillights? If so do you know about the ground you need to keep the TCC happy?

I found on my build thread where I posted about all these connections, maybe it will help. Post #593 gets into the above topic but on page 21 is where I started really getting into my AAW harness install.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...switch&page=24

[MDPotter]

Originally Posted by TA_C10

I feel like I should ask this question stepside. Are you using LED taillights? If so do you know about the ground you need to keep the TCC happy?

I found on my build thread where I posted about all these connections, maybe it will help. Post #593 gets into the above topic but on page 21 is where I started really getting into my AAW harness install.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...switch&page=24

For what it's worth - I am running LED taillights with LED flashers and wired straight to my PSI brake switch like factory. No issues.

[1971Stepside]

I feel like I should ask this question stepside. Are you using LED taillights? If so do you know about the ground you need to keep the TCC happy?

No, I decided to keep the stock look of the lights. That should make it more simple. May be a future project to swap over to the LED's though.

Did you come up with anything on your review mirror?

[TA_C10]

Actually yes, siggy is making up more prints of the pivot ball again for me. I discovered one of them did not break under load and he is coming up with another design/material to test. I will have an update on this as soon as he sends me the new pieces. I'm pretty excited because it will be nice to finish this up and have a backup camera functioning. Speaking of that, I need to wire this up this week!

[1971Stepside]

Decided to put down the crimpers and do something else for a break from wiring. Started messing around with potential speaker cabinet ideas behind the seat. I plan to run kick panel and tweeters in the front and then speakers in the rear corners with one 10" or 12" sub depending on what will fit. I want some space behind the seat for storage, so this is my preliminary idea. Transferring it to mdf will be fun

[TA_C10]

must be nice to have a seat that folds down...... Ugh, jealousy setting in

I really like your idea though. I will have a very similar setup. I will be interested to see how this turns out. Eventually I am going to bucket seats with console so I need to accomodate for that, but with your bench, I like how you are putting the sub directly in the middle. Is that going to be a 10"? I hear a single 10" is plenty for our small cab if the box is made correctly.

EDIT: I like this guys idea and thought about doing something similar. What are your plans for that empty space for storage? Shelves?

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...33&postcount=3

[MDPotter]

That's going to be sweet. I have 2-10's and they're more than enough. Are you putting the amp on one side and using the other for storage? It looks like you're closing off the corners - that will be good so you don't lose stuff down there.

[1971Stepside]

must be nice to have a seat that folds down...... Ugh, jealousy setting in

I really like your idea though. I will have a very similar setup. I will be interested to see how this turns out. Eventually I am going to bucket seats with console so I need to accomodate for that, but with your bench, I like how you are putting the sub directly in the middle. Is that going to be a 10"? I hear a single 10" is plenty for our small cab if the box is made correctly.

EDIT: I like this guys idea and thought about doing something similar. What are your plans for that empty space for storage? Shelves?

I put a single 10" in my son's 99 regular cab and it is plenty. With that said, I'll probably go with a 12" in this truck since the price is so close between the two now. Looking at a JL Audio shallow sub with Hertz speakers.

I just plan to leave those spaces open. When I say storage what I mean is a place to put some cleaning cloth and a couple cleaners

That's going to be sweet. I have 2-10's and they're more than enough. Are you putting the amp on one side and using the other for storage? It looks like you're closing off the corners - that will be good so you don't lose stuff down there.

The amp will either go on one side or under the drivers seat. Will map that out once I have it purchased. Probably hide it under the seat. I think the corners will be a tricky fit with the mdf, but I like the look of them being closed off.

[tucktuck]

Originally Posted by 1971Stepside

I put a single 10" in my son's 99 regular cab and it is plenty. With that said, I'll probably go with a 12" in this truck since the price is so close between the two now. Looking at a JL Audio shallow sub with Hertz speakers.

I just plan to leave those spaces open. When I say storage what I mean is a place to put some cleaning cloth and a couple cleaners



The amp will either go on one side or under the drivers seat. Will map that out once I have it purchased. Probably hide it under the seat. I think the corners will be a tricky fit with the mdf, but I like the look of them being closed off.

I have one 10" shallow JL in my 4 door F-250 and it is plenty IMO. I can't imagine one in a reg cab. I went with the JL C5's in the doors and it never distorts even at full volume. Awesome build...its an inspiration for mine that I just tore completely apart. Hope mine turns out half as nice as yours.