1956 Chevy Truck Instrument Cluster Wiring HELP

[BigMike56-72]

I am in the process of restoring my truck and unfortunately the tape and labels I had for each wire on the instrument cluster have faded away (its been years) and I am not 100% sure on which wire goes where. The cluster is stock and so is the wiring. I am hoping that one of you has a picture or diagram on which wire goes where. I have somewhat of an idea but not sure if I have the wires crossed. Anyways, thanks in advance for your help with this.

The image shown below is one I found online. I think is for a Tri-5 Belair, but something like this would help a ton if someone has one of the 55/56 Chevy Truck instrument cluster.

Mike

[_Ogre]

not sure what you're asking for, don't overthink the process
gm has not change wire color forever (rr turn pink to green)
other than the 3 dash lights, each wire has it's own purpose

top 3 lights are dash lights: to small fuse on headlight switch
left light is left blinker: to turn switch front light
right light is right blinker: to turn switch front light
center light is hi beam: to hi/lo switch
gas, temp and oil gauges get key on 12v+ and ground thru the sending units, not sure if 56 has mech temp
amp gauge: imo bypass it or convert it to a volt gauge no need to have all the power running thru that 30 amp gauge especially if you're running a 60 amp or bigger alternator




this is my instrument cluster with quick connects and the amp to volt gauge conversion

[BigMike56-72]

Thank you so much! This will get me going in the right direction. I am thinking I should replace the wiring all together. Can anyone recommend a replacement wire harness that good? I am looking at American Autowire/Painless/EZ Wiring. Just not sure would be the best one to get as far as ease of install and good instructions and of course cost. Thanks again for all your help.

[dsraven]

if you are a stock truck then you could easily rewire it by yourself if you have any skills with wiring. especially if you have the original harness to copy from. you can pick up some good strippers/crimpers and some connectors, shrink tube, plugs, different colored wire etc. there are only a few circuits. the generic ones make it easy in that there is a fuse box and the wires say where to put them but you still need connectors, crimpers, shrink tube etc.

[Foot Stomper]

Here's a thread that has a wiring diagram posted within.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=550576

[BigMike56-72]

Thank you fellas for all your help. Not sure yet if I want to try to tackle installing a new wiring harness or just fix what I got.

[_Ogre]

other than lights a stock truck only has 5 wires
save as much old wire as you can, otherwise you need new bulb sockets
the stuff that has forked or eyelet ends ins easy to replace

that said if you plan on rebuilding your truck later hold off on new wiring harness
not easy to pull the harness out after installing it
when you do replace, if you want cheap ezwire is what i chose

[_Ogre]

hardest thing for newbies or oldbies to grasp is wiring in the turn signal switch
using the pic above you can see the turn signal switch has 3 hot wires: haz (not on stock), flasher and stop light switch
then it's a matter of 4 wires going to the 4 corners of your truck
plus the horn gives you 8 wire (7 stock) in your column

remember that your left rear and right rear lights are stop and turn, all decided by the turn signal switch
the tail lights come off the headlight switch
2 filements, 3 functions: tail (headlight switch) and stop/turn (turn signal switch)

basic signal stat wiring diagram



and if this makes sense... how the turn signal switch works on the inside
it says maustang, they are all the same

[BigMike56-72]

Good stuff Ogre. Thank you again for the knowledge you provided.

Mike

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by BigMike56-72

Thank you so much! This will get me going in the right direction. I am thinking I should replace the wiring all together. Can anyone recommend a replacement wire harness that good? I am looking at American Autowire/Painless/EZ Wiring. Just not sure would be the best one to get as far as ease of install and good instructions and of course cost. Thanks again for all your help.

I have a few EZ wire kits in service for MANY years and have not blown any fuses!
I just wired a truck with a Speedway brand kit it was either a 12 or 14 circuit kit and was marked very well and had enough wire length for head and tail lights