Gerry wrote:Thanks,
I was thinking that. Do you need a special crimp tool to atach the ends for douglas connectors?
The special 4-crimp tool is intended for the job, or they can be soldered on. I personally like soldered the best.
We never make harness based on using an old one as a pattern. The easiest way to build one is to pull the longest wire along the route you desire it to go. Don't be afraid to change the route if you see a better way to go around obstructions, staying away from high heat items, etc. Once in place, tag it with labels where all the other wires need to turn out from that one. While it is still in place, simply measure off from the labels how long the turned out wires need to be in order to reach their destination. When complete, remove the long wire, lay it out on a flat surface and built the harness one wire at a time working off the labeled wire. There isn't that much to it, doesn't take that long to build up. You can either put it in split loom or wrap it in a good quality tape. We like high temp split loom the best, last better than tape and easy to remove and replace a wire if the need ever arose. This is way easier than taking apart a crumbling harness, and if you measure carefully allowing a slight bit of extra length, every wire will fit perfect without being stressed, something NOS harness didn't always do.
Charles makes a very good point here. I know I don't always agree with him but he has a lot of years and a lot of talent in the truck building business.
Unless you are having the vehicle judged or are very sensitive to being told that something on your truck is incorrect the modern wire, modern connectors and etc is absolutely the best way to go. For this purpose I would start from scratch and not use any of the Douglas or Packard hardware unless it was absolutely necessary to attach a component or accessory. I also agree with Charles methodology for stringing the wire. Only thing I like to do is leave each wire a tad longer then it needs to be and then install the finished harness and make the terminal installations on each wire after the harness is in so I can tailor the final length. In cases where a lot of motion is encountered during use of the truck I would build in some extra wire length for the motion and for later terminal repairs hide an extra folded back length in the loom or tape. Custom harness time is also a great time to make the switch to a modern fuse or breaker box as well.
Carter wrote:Charles, how many feet of wire is needed, "tad longer 'n all, to build an "as stock" B1 harness?
We usually buy 1,000' spools, I'm really not sure how much an original harness takes. The ones we normally build are far from the originals generally speaking.
Check out Saturn Surplus. Here is a link to the page in their catalog. 12 for a buck. Go to Harbor freight and buy the 1/8 number and alphabet set of punches works great. I bought lots of electrical items from them. Friendly fast service. Check them out .
The markers are about half way down the page.
I'm a big fan of the military wiring system. It's the original plug and play. 22 is brake light, 23 black out marker etc. 22 goes to 22 and so on. It's simple, straight forward wiring.
M-11 get the 5 ton harness and make it work. The B1 trucks had the rubber Packard connectors so it wouldn't be wrong, plus I think it's a good upgrade from the metal Douglas connectors.
Heck if the military wire harnesses and system was bad they wouldn't still be using it today...(though modern military trucks have had to have more stuff added to them just like modern civilian vehicles for computers etc)
Hi Gerry I bought 48 from Saturn. I'm not sure how many you will need for a total harness. I didn't build my whole harness. I used a euro color coded chassis one I got from Sid Beck. This became my starting point and I added everything else and added the tags with the correct military numbers. The hard part for me was making the blinker harness. I re used lots of the connectors from the old harness and would drill out the bullets and used a 300 watt soldering gun and shrink tubing to solder them on to the new wire.
Man did I learn a lot. Also thanks to Charles T. who was a great help at a couple of critical moments when I was really stuck. Sid sent lots of info with the harness and articles on blinkers. It is too bad he has had to stop his business.
rixm37,
Thanks, I also have talked to Charles and he was a great help. Is it possible to email me the info sid gave you? Also any photos you took would also help!
Thanks,
Hi Gerry
Sorry been kind of busy. I have one really good article called the definitive turn signal. Most of the others are about the color coding of the euro harness. I really didn't take any pictures as I went ,probably should have. I would be glad to send you a copy of the turn signal article. or if some one can tell me how to go from paper to posting it on the forum I could do that. IF you send me a PM with your mailing address I could send you a copy.
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I know I don't always agree with him but he has a lot of years and a lot of talent in the truck building business. 
