New to me C20 came with some interesting wiring....

[Vance_cortino]

Happy Friday, everyone.

Purchased myself a 1970 C20 this week, 350 with a 4 speed, and a Mark IV Roamer A/C that runs but not cold.





Going over the truck and trying to get it running a little nicer to enjoy the summer driving we have left.

One thing I am going to have to address sooner rather than later is some very....creative electrical work that's been done under the hood. The pics tell a tale:







So, yeah. There's some kind of power outlet tied to the alternator, and a mess of wiring. With the heavy wire from the alt being cut and spliced like that, plus the age of things, I think I'm just gonna order an American Autowire restoration light harness and engine harness.

That's not to mention the brand new Edelbrock AVS2 being hooked up with old cracked vacuum lines, no throttle return spring, and the electric choke being wired to the alternator on the positive wire and the A/C bracket with a self tapping screw for the ground.

But, tinkering and such is half the fun!

[truckster]

Wow. Just wow. Yes, I would absolutely start by stripping all the wiring and putting a new harness in. Other than that it looks like a nice truck.

[Vance_cortino]

Yeah, I am not comfortable taking that thing out in that condition. The entire electrical system will get replaced over the winter, but this will do for the rest of the season. She does drive nice though!

[best view]

Hopefully your a electrical engineer lol

[Mike80D]

Interesting for sure. Just imagine what the ol fella’s house wiring looked like! He did do you a solid with those Denso plug wires. It’ll run forever now!

[Vance_cortino]

Since I am buying the harness anyways, do I go for an internally regulated alternator? There's nothing wrong with the one I have currently though.

[Mike80D]

Originally Posted by Vance_cortino

Since I am buying the harness anyways, do I go for an internally regulated alternator? There's nothing wrong with the one I have currently though.

That would probably clean some things up, although I can’t speak from experience.

[Orefactory4x4 swb]

Originally Posted by Vance_cortino

Happy Friday, everyone.

Purchased myself a 1970 C20 this week, 350 with a 4 speed, and a Mark IV Roamer A/C that runs but not cold.





Going over the truck and trying to get it running a little nicer to enjoy the summer driving we have left.

One thing I am going to have to address sooner rather than later is some very....creative electrical work that's been done under the hood. The pics tell a tale:







So, yeah. There's some kind of power outlet tied to the alternator, and a mess of wiring. With the heavy wire from the alt being cut and spliced like that, plus the age of things, I think I'm just gonna order an American Autowire restoration light harness and engine harness.

That's not to mention the brand new Edelbrock AVS2 being hooked up with old cracked vacuum lines, no throttle return spring, and the electric choke being wired to the alternator on the positive wire and the A/C bracket with a self tapping screw for the ground.

But, tinkering and such is half the fun!

You had me at the 110 box. That’s gots some thinking involved, somebody had a plan.

[Richard]

Probably a work truck. Maybe a 120v converter setup some one wired up.

[truckster]

Originally Posted by Vance_cortino

Since I am buying the harness anyways, do I go for an internally regulated alternator? There's nothing wrong with the one I have currently though.

I would go with the internally regulated alternator and HEI. That's what I did.

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by Richard

Probably a work truck. Maybe a 120v converter setup some one wired up.

Thinking that too, though placing the 110 outlet under the hood is puzzling

[Rust_never_sleeps]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

Thinking that too, though placing the 110 outlet under the hood is puzzling

Maybe he ran the engine to power his own block heater so it wouldn't freeze

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Rust_never_sleeps

Thinking that too, though placing the 110 outlet under the hood is puzzling

Thinking the outlet box is somewhat protected from the elements negating the need for a water resistant box, well in the installers mind. Wiring runs are shorter due to proximity of power generating sources. The outlet is probably not used while driving

[mr48chev]

That 110 setup is something you might find in Mechanicx illustrated or Popular mechanics back in the early 70's and basically is a home made inverter. The idea was the same as having an inverter or 110 plug in one of the new trucks or cars that has a built in inverter. You could plug in your electric drill out in the back 40 rather than using a brace and bit to drill a hole. Now I would do exactly as you plan, remove it and the attending pieces that go with it.

As far as the alternator goes if you don't need more amps to power electrical things that have been added to the truck and keep the battery up to snuff I'd go with the concept of if it isn't broke I don't need to fix it now. It isn't a big deal to change it later and here is the diagram I used when I changed mine.


Checking the O'Riely's site on my 71 GMC 2500 that change may come when either the regulator or alternator dies as either costs the same as an internal regulator alternator if not a lot more. I didn't have to go buy one when I did mine and now with the 500 Cad I have the one that came with it that is big frame 27SI and Is I believe 80 amps.

[Vance_cortino]

Yeah, I think for now I will just get a replacement harness and keep the alternator and regulator. There’s many other things higher up on the list that need attention before I start changing to an internal one, or going to an HEI distributor.

The dash harness in the cab comes after this. It is also a mess of splices and questionable safety. Oh, and power steering comes over the winter, I think. So many things to work on, so little money

[Sheepdip]

[QUOTE=mr48chev;9396686]That 110 setup is something you might find in Mechanicx illustrated or Popular mechanics back in the early 70's and basically is a home made inverter.

My brother's father-n-law had a set up like that back in the early 70's when we all were cutting our own firewood, he ran his chainsaw sharpening tool off of it.
We didn't have all the battery powered tools back then, so I personally used the file on the tailgate method

[mr48chev]

[quote=Sheepdip;9396718]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

That 110 setup is something you might find in Mechanicx illustrated or Popular mechanics back in the early 70's and basically is a home made inverter.

My brother's father-n-law had a set up like that back in the early 70's when we all were cutting our own firewood, he ran his chainsaw sharpening tool off of it.
We didn't have all the battery powered tools back then, so I personally used the file on the tailgate method

I've seen a lot of various styles of them under the hoods of trucks over the years. Almost always to be ableto run a small corded electric tool out where you have no electricity. Now days you would use that to charge the spare battery for your battery powered tool.
I
It might be interesting after all that is removed to see if he can put the pieces on a board and fab an inverter that hooks to a 12 volt battery with jumper leads.

[Chevys4life]

It looks like an Electrical Engineer did that work.

[Vance_cortino]

Spent yesterday afternoon doing some tinkering and tidying. Got all the vacuum lines replaced and re-routed. Checked and tidied the PCV hoses. Got the choke ground connected back to the carb body. but left the positive unhooked for now. It's warm enough that it doesn't need it.

Plus, there's something odd going on with the throttle levers on this AVS2. It's very stiff at idle when your press the gas or even move it by hand. I need to look it over again today, but I think the PO twisted something or messed around too much with it. Once you get past that initial hard spot, it operates quite nicely, though.

Gonna order my new harnesses tomorrow morning, and hope to have them by next weekend. Also ran into a guy at my town recycling center that pulled up in his C20. We got to chatting and I mentioned looking for period correct wheels for mine. His has 16.5 wheel, with gold bowtie hubcaps, and he said he bought new wheels and would sell his old ones to me. I know the 16.5s aren't great and hard to get tires for, but they'll buy me time until I find decent 16s, and they would come with all four dog dish caps. Hope he sells them to me!

Anyways, I couldn't help myself but take the truck out for a cruise around town to get fuel and feel it out more. Still got a list of issues and quirks a mile long to work through, but man it felt great being back in a classic truck!