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Wiring Replacement and Fuse-Panel Installation
With the power wires for accessories properly identified and disconnected, work can begin replacing the old wiring with higher-quality wire and connectors.
Note :
- Always wear eye protection, and follow proper safety Note, when working with power tools.
- As a standard safety precaution, always disconnect the vehicle's negative battery cable before you begin work on any electrical or mechanical components.
Note :
When soldering, heat the terminal you're soldering, not the solder itself. With the terminal heated, touch the end of the solder to it until it flows freely around the connection.
Procedure :
- For this project, four different colors of new wire are used. The yellow wire is a heavier gauge as it will be used to supply power for the 30-amp off-road lights.
- On the heavier gauge wire, a spade-type solderless connector is used. This connector matches the connection on the back of the switches used for the lights. To install this type connector, strip about 1/4-inch of insulation from the end of the wire, twist the wire-strands together, slip the wire inside the connector and crimp the connector onto the wire firmly using a wire-crimping tool.
- The CB-plug wires are soldered. Separate the wires, and strip about 1/4-inch of insulation on each wire.
- For the red wire, position the solder-type connection into your crimping tool, and slip the end of the wire into it. Crimp it down firmly.
- Slip a piece of heat-shrimp tubing over the new black wire, and slip the black wire into the connector and, again, crimp down firmly. Repeat the steps with the red wire.
- Once the connections are made, solder them using rosin-core solder.
- Let the soldered connection cool before sliding the heat-shrink tubing in place. Place the tubing so that the soldered connection is in the middle section of the tubing.
- Use a heat gun (or a hair-dryer) to shrink the tubing around the connection.
- With all of the wiring connections made, the wires are ready to be installed. First, however, a grommet must be placed in the firewall so that the wires can pass through without becoming damaged. The grommet must be of sufficient size to allow all of the accessory wires to pass through. With the grommet in place, feed the wires through from the cab of the vehicle into the engine compartment. Having a helper will make this process faster and easier.
- Now the final connections inside the cab can be made. In our case, the yellow wire connects to the back of the off-road light switch. The blue-wire connects to an accessory switch.
- Once connected, the switches are re-mounted in place on the dash.
- The CB wire is plugged in at the back of the CB unit, along with the external PA wire.
- The CB radio is then reinstalled in the dash.
- It's advisable to bundle the new wires together neatly, leaving a small loop under the dash. In that way, if a switch ever needs to be replaced, there will be enough available slack in the wire to do it easily.
- Now, the connections can be made under the hood. Again, the new wires are bundled together, and taped with electrician's tape every six inches or so.
- New split-loom is installed on this new harness to protect it.
- As you position the new wiring harness, route it as closely to the factory routing as possible. With the new harness routed, use zip-ties to attach it and hold it in place. Avoid tying the harness down too tightly. Once the wiring harness is in position, trim off the ends of the zip-ties.
- In our case, we replaced the cracked amplifier fuse-holder we discovered earlier with a new one.
- The next step is to solder the new power wire to the terminals for the fuse panel. This one wire supplies power to all four fuse-ports on one side of the fuse panel. This connectors has prongs that bend to hold the wires in place as you solder. Aside from that, the soldering process is the same as before.
- Once the final soldered connection is made, the terminal can be installed into the fuse panel. It simply plugs and snaps into place. This supplies power to four of the eight fuse-ports on the new fuse-panel. The other four ports are left unused, and could be used later for expansion if more accessories are added.
- Each of the accessory wires is then snapped into place on the fuse panel.
- With the wires connected, the fuse panel is mounted onto the fender-wall using screws into predrilled holes.
- At this point, the power supply of the fuse panel is not yet connected to the battery. It is left off until work is completed on the winch installation.
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