rosso Posted February 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 1 minute ago, thisismatt said: Yes. That's why with an upgraded alternator I would run a new dedicated wire from the alt to the starter lug or straight to the battery, but leave the fusible link & associated wiring. You can put an additional inline fuse on this new run if you like, but probably not 100% necessary as long as it's routed cleanly. I can easily add a white larger wire to the harness from alternator direct to battery - this would be the path the main amperage would take since it offers the least resistance and I could avoid blowing the fusible link or cooking wires. ?? Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 Best harness tape? silcone rubber self fusing or Tesa tape? Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted February 21, 2020 Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 39 minutes ago, rosso said: How about moving strap from steering to the lower motor mount bolt, left bottom of photo? It really depends how much bare metal to metal contact there is from that point to the body. A bolt directly to the body with the paint stripped off under the ring terminal would be best, or at least one with bare, clean threads. Last thing you want is power trying to ground through your speedometer cable. Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted February 21, 2020 Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, rosso said: I can easily add a white larger wire to the harness from alternator direct to battery - this would be the path the main amperage would take since it offers the least resistance and I could avoid blowing the fusible link or cooking wires. ?? That's the idea, yeah. At this point I would remove the stock wire at the alternator, though. Leaving the fusible link to main harness. Edited February 21, 2020 by thisismatt Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 2 hours ago, thisismatt said: It really depends how much bare metal to metal contact there is from that point to the body. A bolt directly to the body with the paint stripped off under the ring terminal would be best, or at least one with bare, clean threads. Last thing you want is power trying to ground through your speedometer cable. Looked around the area and not much better there other than creating new holes somewhere in the inner fender, will investigate more. On the other side I could use one of the starter mounting bolts and a strap to something - the idler arm mounting bracket bolts would be close. . Quote Link to comment
Duncan Posted February 21, 2020 Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 (edited) 20 hours ago, rosso said: Best harness tape? silcone rubber self fusing or Tesa tape? I've not tried the Tesa tape, but my experience with any harness wrapped with adhesive tape is a nightmare if you ever have to undo the harness. You can get regular old harness tape at Summit or similar, and the non-adhesive type will easily come apart and can be reused. I used a very small piece of electrical tape at the beginning of a wrap, and a small piece at the end just to hold the ends on. It's easily removed, and I had to undo mine several times to repair or re-route certain wires. The harness sections in my car were wrapped with electrical tape, and it was an absolute shit show trying to unwrap it and get the adhesive residue off the wires. It was a sticky, gooey fiasco to get straightened out. Edited February 21, 2020 by Duncan Quote Link to comment
Lockleaf Posted February 21, 2020 Report Share Posted February 21, 2020 I picked up a trick a while back that I have come to love. I use the dirt cheap electrical tape, but I use two layers. Wrap the first layer sticky side out, and the second layer sticky side in. The two sticky sides adhere together really well and now you have a snug fit vinyl tube around your wiring. I have been able to feed additional wires through this type wrapping and everything. No sticky mess to deal with later on either. Cuts apart and comes off clean and easy. I usually run two rolls of tape at a time, wrapping about 6 inches in the first layer, then wrapping the second layer, and repeating that until I hit the end. 3 Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 Lockleaf, Thanks for this great tip, if I decide to not use the Tesa wrap I will definitely use this trick. I don't mind the extra work to avoid the mess later on. 58 years of dealing with messy electrical tape on cars is enough for me. (It started in '62) 1 Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) On 2/20/2020 at 6:08 PM, thisismatt said: That's the idea, yeah. At this point I would remove the stock wire at the alternator, though. Leaving the fusible link to main harness. I got the starter and alternator wiring done except for the S -L wires to the Nissan fitting I am waiting for. I did leave the original alternator wire attached since I did not see your edit until just now. Here's what I have: 1. 2. I can easily take the White/Red original off, but I need to think about the current path for a bit to make sure I am understanding what it means. At this point all the main power links are done, so I was thinking about connecting the battery terminals and seeing what is up with the car electrics in general. There are no disconnected and bare wires on this side of the motor. I have taped off all the ends of all other wires in the engine bay area - all on the side by the coil - photos below. I am not going to turn the motor over, just want to check what instrument warning lights, gauges, headlights, taillights, side lights etc are working. Do you think it is safe to do that? Here's the last three groups of wires to deal with: probably ballast resistor and coil, I just pulled them up since they seemed to be the right length. then these three pairs of wires these wires come from the firewall and dip down just below the wiper motor the run along the frame rail towards the front. here's a close up of where they come from last bunch, just in front of coil. not wiper washer I have them labeled and separated farther forward. All lights are connect. I will have to study the wiring diagram for these last pieces, any help always appreciated. Would love to be able to turn the switch on and see what's good. Cheers to all. Edited February 22, 2020 by rosso Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted February 22, 2020 Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 The pictures are helpful, but some with the newly added, non-stock, wires are a little *too* up close to follow the new wiring for me to confirm. There shouldn't be any problem with leaving the original wiring. The only concern that comes to mind is if, for some reason, you lose connection with the new larger wire. If that were to happen, all the current would revert back over to the stock wiring and you may blow your fusible link, or burn up your harness, whereas if you disconnected the stock wiring you would just have a failure to operate at all. As it is right now, what's your battery to starter & alternator wiring? Direct from battery to starter, and direct from battery to alternator? Some of the wiring around the master cylinders will be the third gear switch/relay stuff for the dual points distributor which you won't need. Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 Photo 1: Battery to starter with standard red battery cable. Light blue wire is new fusible link on same lug. Connected to original white wire. Photo 2: - Alternator to battery is new 8 ga red wire direct lug to lug, original White/Red still attached to same alternator lug. - Original black wires to alternator body ground. - Yellow, and White/Black going down the bottom of the photo are the S and L original wires yet to be spliced into the new Nissan connector I have on order. I will take a couple photos in the morning from a bit farther back and post. On the other side, looking at the wiring diagram I see a lot of greenish and blueish wires for 3rd switch, carb sw, solenoid, etc, which on the car were just lying around and that is what they appear to be in the groups I took photos of. I took out the throttle linkage switch etc but all the wires were already just hanging so I sort of forgot what they might have been. Will try to trace a bit and see where I can remove them back to. 🙂M Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted February 22, 2020 Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 Yeah, I tried to highlight that section in the schematic but I should have pointed it out 😄 Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 2 hours ago, thisismatt said: Yeah, I tried to highlight that section in the schematic but I should have pointed it out 😄 That's so funny, I did not even notice the red outlining in your wiring chart it just blended right in with the rest of those other red lines- now I do !! Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 Wider shot of wiring - only additional new wire is 8ga red from alt to battery. Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 Received the new connector and ready to install but the yellow wire is on the right of the connector, You mentioned in an earlier post that the yellow wire would be the left terminal (S).. Before I switch the wires in the connector, can you verify which is which. Really looking forward to putting some power to the car and seeing what I have to work with. Thanks again for all your help. Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted February 22, 2020 Report Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, rosso said: Received the new connector and ready to install but the yellow wire is on the right of the connector, You mentioned in an earlier post that the yellow wire would be the left terminal (S).. Before I switch the wires in the connector, can you verify which is which. Really looking forward to putting some power to the car and seeing what I have to work with. Thanks again for all your help. From every newer Nissan alternator I've seen... Left as it plugs into the alt with the "T" on top is the "S" (sense, +12v) connection, and the right as it plugs into the alt with the "T" on top is the "L" (lamp, to your dummy gauge cluster battery/charge indicator lamp). Nissan isn't always consistent with wiring colors. Edited February 22, 2020 by thisismatt Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 2 hours ago, thisismatt said: From every newer Nissan alternator I've seen... Left as it plugs into the alt with the "T" on top is the "S" (sense, +12v) connection, and the right as it plugs into the alt with the "T" on top is the "L" (lamp, to your dummy gauge cluster battery/charge indicator lamp). Nissan isn't always consistent with wiring colors. That's cool, I can swap out the wires in the new connector so the yellow will match with the 510 yellow. The green of the new plug will connect to the White/Black on the 510 side...and I am fine with that. At some point soon I will have to connect up the battery and see what happens, so once I get the new connector on, I am going to probably try it tomorrow. Unless you see something I have missed or need to do something additional before testing "accessory" position of switch. Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Nope. Your charge/battery light should come on and stay on until the engine is running and the alt is functioning/outputting. Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 A great big HUGE thanks to Matt (thisismatt) for all the help in wiring the new VG33 stuff in the wagon because this: So happy, headlights, parking lights and all side markers, tail lights, brake lights, lic plate light all work Turn signals and emergency flasher work (slowly) and there is some light on the dashboard. High beams do not work and no horn. (horns do work when connected direct to 12v.) And Matt, the charge light did come on too. Thank you so very much again. And to all others who have posted info. For the first powerup I have done, and probably for over 15 years I am very happy - the car would actually be drive-able as far as lights. 2 Quote Link to comment
thisismatt Posted February 23, 2020 Report Share Posted February 23, 2020 Nice! The horn relays do go bad. Start by disconnecting the black/green stripe wire and ground the exposed relay terminal. If that works, then the problem is upstream, like the horn button. If it doesn't work, pull both the green & green/yellow stripe and then short those same two wires together. If it works, then your relay is bad. If it still doesn't work, then there is an issue in the horn wire or with the power feed, but this same feed goes to the brake lights so that should be good for the most part since you said they're working. 1 Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2020 Horn is working! You hit the nail on the head again, first shot - black/green wire terminal to ground and horn. Went to the steering wheel and pulled the button (Momo) and voila - no wires connected. Made the wires and beeps just great now. I could have stumbled around for hours looking everywhere except for a previous owner who had just not connected the horn. Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 26, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2020 Decided to paint the radiator front black Have not decided about the grille - it's all silver now, but I was thinking about top and bottom bars silver and center black. Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 27, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) I have rusted solid wiper pivots - anyone know a source or substitute new part? Wiper pivot assembly 28870-A0600 and 28875-A2200 Cheers EDIT: I have searched the interwebs for some but not found anything yet. Edited February 28, 2020 by rosso Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted February 28, 2020 Report Share Posted February 28, 2020 Use the engine mount bolt on the lower left side. When I got my 100 amp alternator it came with a long heavy gauge output wire. I crimped a huge lug on the end and bolted it to the starter. There really was no where to connect to the positive battery terminal except the crappy nut and bolt. It would have been in the way every time I wanted to take the battery out. Left side wire is the battery ground. There is also a smaller ground for under the fuse box and you can't see but the block is also grounded to the engine mount. Can't beat having it right on the starter case. The cable with the red end is the battery positive. The second one on the starter lug is from the alternator output. Electrical tape just won't cut it for me. I used inexpensive split harness cover wrapped in electrical tape. 1 Quote Link to comment
rosso Posted February 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2020 After I had the ground strap installed I thought about using the engine mount bolt but I completely restored my crossmember and it is painted along with the EE mounts so I do not have a good ground through that bolt. The entire top of the steering box and all the bolts had a better ground through them. I am using the original ground wire to the external voltage regulator mount, which I stripped down to bare metal and have a good ground from the harness. Regulator has been removed. Battery negative ground goes to a bolt in top of the engine block at the front corner. I am still considering a ground from the starter bolt, but have not found a good connection on the chassis. So far everything electrical is working well, battery is holding steady with no drain after several days. Wiper motor works. 1 Quote Link to comment
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