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Thread: Cajun's '59 CJ5 Resto

  1. #151
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    I tried the freezer method and got the upper bearing race in place. Just took a couple of gentle taps. The lower race is still chilling. Hopefully it doesn't fight me too badly. Bmorgil, I don't have any way of measuring diameter of the new bearings. The old ones will almost fall through the bore. I thought about reusing the old ones but they are a bit pitted in the cup. The struggle continues, lol.

  2. #152
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    The steering box is done. Everything looks good on that end. My next project, when I get home, is to address the wiring harness. I'm debating on whether to build a completely new harness from scratch or purchase one. For those of you that have pursued either option, what were the pro's and con's of your choices? My harness has been hacked on over the past 60+ years but is still fairly functional. I've got it laid out on a 4x8 sheet of ply wood and zip tied down. I was thinking about just replicating the original, one wire at a time. I have found sources for the terminal ends and wiring. It appears that there are three different gauges of wire. The heaviest is the main power source, followed by the wiring supplying power to the headlights. Does anyone know what gauges I would need?

  3. #153
    Senior Member TJones's Avatar
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    Cajun98 when I did mine I bought a harness from Summit Racing made by Painless Performance and my buddy that installed it said it was probably the best harness he’s ever used.

    If you check out my post https://willysjeepforum.kaiserwillys...w-to-the-Forum and go to page 62 or 63 is when I started the wiring on mine.
    Last edited by TJones; 11-05-2022 at 03:57 AM. Reason: Added my post on wiring my project

  4. #154
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    I don’t think I have ever seen a jeep wiring diagram with wire gauges. To make a new harness, a person might have to measure what is there or figure out the load for each circuit and find the correct size in the charts. The load can be based off the fuse size for the circuit. Just want to make sure the wire is heavy enough that the fuse blows before the wire starts to melt.
    Jeff
    '51 CJ3A
    '47 CJ2A

  5. #155
    Super Moderator bmorgil's Avatar
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    It's a simple harness, a basic DC circuit, if you have a bit of electrical skill it can be replicated fairly easily. All you need to do is follow the factory diagram, and Jeff's advice on circuit size. I replicated mine. There were only two original wire colors (I did add a few more colors). That's if you are just replicating it. If you are going to add a lot of modern stuff to it or you want to make it more modern in general, TJ's suggestion is a good one. The painless harnesses are a great way to go.
    Last edited by bmorgil; 11-05-2022 at 07:52 AM.

  6. #156
    Super Moderator LarrBeard's Avatar
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    I had the same debate with myself when I redid the '48 truck. After all, I had been making aircraft harnesses for 25+ years, so how hard could it be I asked myself?

    Then I looked at how much wire I would need, (the truck has a lot of different wire colors and tracers), several different gauges, how many terminals I would have to strip and crimp and once it was done I would have to either wrap it or zip tie it into a bundle. And, when I got it done - it might still look like a home made job.

    So - I bought a ready made harness and I have not regretted it in the least.

  7. #157
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    I guess I'll take the advice provided and start looking at a pre-made harness. I've done electrical work but it's surely not my specialty. Thanks for all the advice, gentlemen.

  8. #158
    Super Moderator bmorgil's Avatar
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    Good point on the original harness Larry. KW has a big selection.

    https://www.kaiserwillys.com/categor...ring-harnesses

  9. #159
    Super Moderator gmwillys's Avatar
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    I had a neighbor who worked at a power plant. He was constantly bringing me unique items home in his lunch pail to repay all the beer that he liberated from the shop fridge. On one stop, he brought me a spool of six pair, Nomex covered color coded wire. Each strand had its own color. There was pretty close to 75' of wire left on the roll, so I can assume that he plucked it out of the trash..... But it was good stuff. I used it to wire up all my derby cars, to where heat could become a factor. I later used the remainder on my 2A Heep. It looks close enough to a factory cloth covered wire, that I ran with it. With that being said, if it weren't for the "free" roll of wire, I would have saved up and purchased a wire harness instead as LarrBeard suggests. I had a small fortune in 3M shrink connectors, and a whole lot of time laying everything out.

  10. #160
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    gmwillys, that's would be a great snag, to get that kind of wire. On my '59, was the original wiring harness composed of the cloth coated wiring or was it the usual plastic coated wiring? I'm not sure how much of it is the original and how much has been changed out over the decades. The only additional add ons have been a radio and a few after market gauges.

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