55.2-59 1958 Apache Wiring advise

[elorenzof]

I have a 1958 Apache 1-ton with the straight six and original floor starter. I replaced wiring harnesses throughout, found proper ignition switch, proper headlight switch, got it all hooked up not hard just tedious. I have no power AT ALL not even headlights. Battery is testing at 12.5 volts. i did not replace the switch at the starter.

I suspect: On my starter wiring there is a Brown, Black and Violet wire. I found an old thread that said i would not need the violet wire so i taped it up. Is that my issue to why there is no power? Am i supposed to use the violet wire after all? I am not too good at this i apologize for the juvenile questions. Please see pics. I put all wiring into per my wiring harness instructions.

[Hcb3200]

which wiring kit are you using?


Do you have power on the red wire at the light switch>
Do you have power on red wire at switch?

start at positive on battery with a ground to the frame/body (not negative post) and work your way from there. If no power with this make sure your negative is grounded well to the frame/body.

[_Ogre]

what wiring harness did you use?
i'm going to assume you used a universal wiring harness with a fuse box. our trucks did not come with a fuse box, the only fuse in a basic truck is on the headlight switch for the instrument cluster lights. the points like contacts on the headlight switch are thermal overloads, in an overload situation your lights would flash but never go out completely.

the heavy red feed wire to the fuse box should connect to the battery or the starter with a maxi fuse or fusible link in the line. is that connected?
the heavy red wire on your headlight switch should be fed by the headlight fuse and hot all the time. test for voltage on this wire should be 12v+
obviously the truck will not key start as your starter has no solenoid. you still need to turn the key to on and stomp on the starter.
you also need a good ground to the motor and additional ground to the body

[_Ogre]

does the starter turn over when you stomp on the start pedal?
that should work regardless of anything else as it's connected directly to the battery
if not, check your main ground wire

the purple wire you taped off activates the solenoid on a newer starter
just keep it taped off and secured in case you ever update to a newer motor

the small brown wire coming off the foot start switch goes to the + side of the coil
or connected to the ballast resistor wire that goes to the coil +

[dsraven]

I would say start at the battery and work outward, ensuring there is a good connection everywhere. a lot of people forget that the ground circuit is just as important as the positive side of things. there needs to be a dedicated ground for every circuit. a poor connection anywhere is going to be a voltage drop and a resistance point which, depending on the draw in the circuit, can also be a hot spot. personally I usually run the negative cable from the battery directly to a clean bare metal connection on the engine block and from there to the truck frame. there also needs to be a cable from the negative side of things to each body part that has a circuit grounding on it. the cab is the next in line and I would install a cable from the frame to a clean bare metal spot on the cab sheet metal. the rad support is the ground for the front lights and horn so I run a ground cable to that as well, ensuring that any gound cables from those accy are also connected to the same piece of sheet metal as the new ground wire I install. next would be the rear of the truck where the rear lighting and trailer hitch wiring connects. a cable from a clean bare metal spot on the truck frame to a clean bare metal spot on the box will allow you to use that box panel as a common ground for the electrical stuff at the rear of the truck. when done protect those clean bare metal spots with some rust paint, di-electric grease, brush on electrical tape or whatever you normally use for that purpose. now on to the positive side of things, the battery cable usually goes from the positive post to the starter which becomes the multi connection point or power supply for some other circuits. it is common to find several larger gage wires connected here in order to keep the battery area clean and the connections kept away from the acid/corrosion area. at this point I am hoping that the new harness would connect to the starter terminal for power and would hopefully have some fuses inline close to that point. that is because if there is a short anywhere in the system then the wiring doesn't get fried/melted anywhere on the system side of the wiring past the fuses. put another way, if the fuses are 10 ft from the battery supply and there is a short somewhere then there is 10 ft of wire that has no protection and can possibly melt the isnualtion off the wires and become the source of a vehicle fire. as a proffessional firefighter I have seen this first hand where a fella has added a stereo component in the truck that required a large gauge cable to supply battery power. there was no underhood inline fuse close to the battery, just a power wire with a fuse in the truck. a short occurred in the trunk area and the power wire from under the hood got so hot it melted the insulation off, burnt the carpet and underpad and caught the car on fire. it WAS nicely done Mustang. with mega fuses and holders being so common in the market these days it is easy to install circuit protection for a pretty decent price compared to the cost of replacing the vehicle or doing repairs after an incident. here is a link to an affordable weather resitant mega fuse holder. there are lots of others on the market and this is only 1 that I have used in the past
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/b...RoCX7YQAvD_BwE
now would be a great time to invest in an old fashioned bulb style circuit tester. a multiumeter is handy to check voltages etc but they will not be able to tell you quickly if a circuit that has battery voltage is also capable of sustaining a draw. an old fashioned incandescent bulb style tester can do that to some extent. you may run a voltage test with the multimeter and find 12v but then when you try the circuit tester the bulb runs very dim, that is because there is sufficient voltage to run the multimeter, which basically has no draw, but not enough to support a basic current draw from a little bulb. seen it often as a mechanic. anyway, getting back to it, connect the ground clamp of the tester to a bare metal ground, even keep it there with a small vice grip or similar, then test the light on a known good power source simply to ensure the light is working, then test your circuits. a bright light is good, a dim light is less than adequate. test the light at the battery before you start so you know how bright it should be for your given battery voltage, then test it at the starter so you know that far down the line is good, then test it at the outlet of the mega fuse and then the fuse panel, ignition switch and headlight switch. turn the ignition on and test the accy terminal on the ign switch as well as the accys. remember that the points/condensor will not last long with the key left in the run position. the fix for this is to disconnect the wire at the coil that comes from the distributor, just remember to put it back together when done. the brown wire at the starter connection is what feeds the ign coil when you run the starter. normally the ignition coil will recieve a lesser voltage when running because full battery voltage will make the lifespan of the points/condensor/coil less. you still benefit from having full battery voltage for a hotter spark when trying to start the engine so that brown wire at the starter is used for that. the new harness will likely have a ballast resistor somewhere in the ignition coil feed line. the purple wire, as ogre pointed out, is likely a starter solenoid activating wire for a truck that doesn't have the "step on the starter" pedal but instead has the key start option. also, as ogre says. the starter should work just fine the way it is connected there since all that switch needs is battery feed to the large cable and also a good ground to the engine. since we know the brown wire feeds the ignition coil during starter oeration the engine may start but shut off as soon as you release the starter pedal. that would be because the coil may not be getting power through the wiring harness, possibly due to not being wired crrectly or possibly the ballast resistor hasn't been installed in the harness yet or possibly the ballast resistor is burnt out.
any time you work on the wiring it is a good idea to block the wheels fore and aft and slip the trans into neutral. just in case the wrong wire gets powered up, or you accidentally push the starter pedal in this case.
what harnes did you get, did it come with a wiring diagram? are you using an alternator or the old style generator? are there mega fuses? is there a ballast resistor? where does the new harness get it's power source from?

[dsraven]

sorry, that was a novel.
hope it helps somebody.