'71 "F200" SWB PROJECT

[XABN82]

Cool work. Looks really nice. Is that a full sized Jeep J10/20 rear bumper?

[mc33212]

No, the bumper doesn't appear to be from a Jeep. My best guess is aftermarket from the 80s. The truck originally had a lot work done when my dad got it. Most of it was not of the highest quality.....

The recent discovery is that it's got a newer steering column, or at least the turn signal and shift indicator assembly. Here is the elegant splice into the factory harness.

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Well this made me want to pull the cluster out and take a look at the wiring harness. I'm glad I did, it was a fire waiting to happen.

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I'm surprised it hadn't caused an issue already. Looking at the amount of oxidation on the bare copper wiring that was obviously shorted, it's been like that for a while. There were also several "taps" into the main ignition switch power that were left exposed.

So I traced back the burnt wire from the ignition switch and found the culprit: A corroded alternator connector.

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Looks like I have some electrical work in my future.

[Lone Ranger]

Whew it's a good thing you pulled that cluster! Wiring sucks but a burnt out truck sucks way worse!! Hopefully that wire didn't melt anywhere else or any other wires along the way.

[hfdco4]

Keep at it. You will have a great ride when you are done.

[mc33212]

Unfortunately, the bad wire was damaged all the way through the harness. Not to mention it melted itself to some of the other wires it was touching. But, luckily I remembered my parts cab still had the harness in it and it looks to be in good shape. I'm glad I didn't damage it when I removed the cab.

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I'll start pulling the old one. Eventually I'd like to re-wire the truck, but at least for now this spare harness should be fine and I can save that money for later...

[hfdco4]

Great find. Just make sure the gauge clusters are the same or use the one from the parts truck.

[mc33212]

Yup, both clusters are the same type with full gauges. I"ve got about 90% of it hooked up now. For some reason the dome light is not working, but I can worry about that later. I gave it a test crank and it turned the motor, so I'm on the right track. I decided to fix the ends on the turn signal connector with some factory pins (replace the barrel shaped connectors). So I found the pins online at Mustangs Etc.

While I wait for those I figured I'd clean the gauges. Here is the cluster:

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And gauge needle paint was surprisingly expensive. What was NOT expensive was this nail polish my wife doesn't use....

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And here are the cleaned up gauges with bright needles.

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A tip I discovered the hard way on my spare cluster is wipe the gauges with a dry brush. A damp cloth smeared the old ink around and then left them looking faded. I guess that cluster will be a good candidate for white face overlays....

[mc33212]

Alright, so I got the wiring pretty much done with the harness out of my parts cab. I had to troubleshoot the horn a bit, the aftermarket Grant hub for the steering wheel was not correct and did not have a horn contact. It was also missing the spring that goes on the steering shaft. I got a new spring and swapped the hub with the correct one.

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Something is still not right thought. I press the horn button and I hear a "click" under the hood, but no sound. Maybe the horn is bad or the relay. I will double-check later.

Meanwhile I got the turn signal connector pins from Mustangs Etc. and used them to attach the necessary wires from the newer style 73-77 wiring harness to the 8-pin connector in my 72 harness.

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Looks like I matched things correctly, as I tested all the lights and and it works. So happy with that.

The last bit under the dash was the park/neutral switch. For some reason the holes in the column for the switch mounting screws are not aligned correctly...maybe because it's the wrong column...wrong transmission...haha. Either way, in order for the needle to be in the right spot to activate the switch, I had to rotate it quite a bit. I wasn't sure if I should just bypass it for now or try lowering the column to drill new mounting screw holes.

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As you see, I chose the quick and dirty solution. Again, I can get back to this stuff later when I have more time. My push is to get the thing moving under its own power so I can get it registered, etc. Because its Phoenix, and Summer is Coming.......

[mc33212]

So, I haven't posted much because I've actually been working on the truck a lot, almost everyday. We had an odd break this month with some cool weather before the heat settled in, so I've been taking advantage of that.

First of all, I finished with my gauge cluster and wanted to get the dash back together once and for all. The cluster looked a lot better with the cleaned up the gauges and painted needles.

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I then sanded the bezel a gave a quick coat of primer.

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And finished it off with some flat black and silver.

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I tried to mimic the look of the Dakota Digital gauge cluster, I thought it looked pretty good. A bit of an update to the classic color scheme.

So with that, the cluster went back in and continued putting the dash back together.

[Bullitt74]

Wow, that gauge bezel looks absolutely fantastic!