Electrical Demolition in the Gray Ghost is Complete!

Well, that was easy!  Really!  The old electrical wiring is now gone.  The only difficulty was a couple of stubborn clutch head screws in the engine compartment that were holding the fuse holders to the firewall.  It was likely that they had never been touched after production in 1953. Anyway, it is all out now and in the recycle bin.  The only exceptions were non-wire components. They were saved for the future, if a future owner wanted original components.  These included the external voltage regulator, fuse holders, dimmer switch, turn signal switch and the gauge light bulb holders. Everything else is gone.  Here it is, laying on the garage floor:

The circular bundle are the tail light wires.  The tan wires to the left of that are headlight wires. The engine compartment wires/cab interior wires are at the top of the photo.  The wire harness at the bottom is from the starter to the firewall.  I had to cut the bundle to get them through the firewall.

Next steps:

I have to buy the split wire loom to protect the new wires and the loom holders that attach it to the frame of the truck.  I also need some wire solder and flux.  I have figured out where on the firewall to locate the new fuse panel.  Actually, it has to be on the inside of the cab, not in the engine compartment.  Also, I need to arrange the new wire bundle so that the wires go out of the correct holes in the firewall.  What I mean by that is that wires that go to the starter go through one hole and wires that go to the headlights or to the rear of the truck go through a different hole.  Cab interior wires don't go through the firewall, they get routed to their respective locations (ie, headlight switch, dome light, instrument gauges, heater, etc).

Once I get started on that, I'll make another post.

The Gray Ghost Can Park or Not!

Well, Gray Ghost fans, I have good news!  No pictures today, but definitely good news.  After reading the shop manual many, many times and thinking it through many, many times, I finally think I've figured out what the GM engineers wanted me to know.  The end result is that it appears that I have successfully installed the park brake cables on both back brakes drums and properly adjusted the normal brakes and the park brakes!  What a relief!  As I mentioned in my last post, this project was started last January.  It seemed like it would be such a simple job.  Not so much.  The whole thing fought me at every turn.  To be honest, some of my time in between January and June was spent sandblasting parts from the pile.  Plus a little clean up in the cab. But now, it is done.  When the park brake pedal is fully depressed, the back wheels do not turn. When it is released, the turn freely. When the normal brake pedal is depressed, the wheels stop turning.  Who could ask for more?!?

What's up next on the Gray Ghost agenda?  Wiring!  I have a brand new wire harness to install.  If you were alert, you would have noticed stray wires hanging down in one of the interior pics from an earlier post.  If you were really alert, you would have noticed that one of those wires is actually an indoor extension cord wire!  Yes, a previous owner used an old extension cord to wire in something.... No matter, it's all going.  After the wiring...wait for it...time to swap engines!  Being realistic, or at least trying to be realistic, if I can get the engine swapped out before the cold weather I will have really done something.  Yes, it is only the first week of June.  But my time is limited and I still need to buy some supplies for the electrical work.  Then I need to do the work. Once that is done, I can turn my attention to removing the transmission.  Once that is out, I can work on getting the flywheel surfaced and ready for the replacement engine.  Then I'll need to buy a new clutch assembly.  So I've got a little saving to do and a little work.  Something to keep me going through the summer.

That's all for now.  Back when I have some news.

Happy summer!