Nellybelle progress and problems...
So I posted an intro thread a couple of weeks back. Digging into this old '46 CJ-2A that sat in Roy Rogers & Dale Evans museum for many years. I'm a car detailer and automobile collection manager by trade for the most part and a reasonably competent mechanic on my own vehicles. I don't often get to do much mechanical work for my clients but this old Jeep has been an interesting change of pace for me.
I don't think anyone had driven Nellybelle much for probably 40+ years and it needs most everything. I started with the brakes and went with all brand new stuff from master cylinder to hard lines to soft lines, wheel cylinders, drums, and shoes . . . That was a bit of a project but it's finally wrapped and hopefully good for another generation. Also did fuel sending unit and new fuel line from tank to carburetor because the previous line was not done well and looked pretty dangerous as it rubbed against the frame in many places.
Next up is the new wiring harness, switches, gauges, and 12 volt conversion and I have a feeling this is going to really be difficult. I'm not much of a fabricator. I purchased the alternator kit (and everything else) from the site here. The alternator bracketry is pretty crude and the pre-drilled holes are slightly off, but it's also straightforward in a rather Rube Goldberg fashion. I thought I'd get the old, dead, generator out this afternoon and get the alternator fitted. The brackets have a lot of adjustment options for different alternators and different Jeeps. There was also not much instruction included which was a little disappointing considering the price paid.
I managed to get the bracket in place, and fitted the alternator to it on the bottom where it pivots for belt adjustment. My current problems are 1) the rod coming from the block with the long slot for belt adjustment isn't even close to where the alternator needs it to be. I'm going to have to locate another, longer and possibly curved adjustment rod, and it will also have to have a zig and a zag in it in order to suitably connect to the alternator top bolt. 2) the oil filter setup above the alternator appears to be original Jeep, but the alternator interferes with the bottom of it where the hose comes out. I may be able to raise the filter setup a bit and re-route the hose to solve this problem.
I realize I'm not re-inventing the wheel here and I'm sure some of you all have had similar issues with this swap. We're trying our best to maintain the aged look of this but the goal is to make it a safe and dependable driver. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If any of you Jeep gurus are in North San Diego County, hit me up and you could probably see it in person :-)
Gar
3 Attachment(s)
NellyBelle Wiring HArness
When we restored the '48, I had every intention of building my own wiring harness.
But ...
As I looked at the actual details of doing it, I saw that there were a variety of wire gauges and colors, a lot of terminals to be crimped and after all of that, I would have had a harness with obviously "new" plastic wires.
There is a lot to recommend a new harness from KWAS. First of all, it will be done with cloth covered wire with wire colors and tracers that match the original. It will be the right length. You will have to do some accommodating to adapt to the 12-volt conversion, but if you Google "cloth covered automobile wire", there are lots of places out there that have a variety of colors, gauges and tracers available. Once you get to pricing wire, you might be surprised at how little money you will save by building your own harness.
When you get to building or adding to the harness, several suggestions:
1. Use the terminals correct for the wire gauge you are using. We've all seen guys trim wires out of a #14 wire to get it to fit in the #16 terminal they are using. Yuckkkk .
2. Get yourself a good wire stripper. The one on the handle of the hardware store crimping tool really isn't the stripper you want to use.
3. Use a good crimping tool. The hardware store tool is OK for this if it's tight and the jaws line up.
4. Figure out the correct strip length and don't under or over strip. The insulation should just butt up against the metal crimp ferrule of the terminal and the wire should just peek out of the other end of the ferrule.
The pictures show how a KWAS harness looks after it's installed - nice. Let us know what happens.
In the famous words of Roy's sidekick: " WHOOOAAAAA Nellybelle!"