Electrical: Spontaneous complete wire rework

[Okiejoe86]

So the wiring on my 1940 President that I inherited from my late grandfather has been equipped with the original wiring. fire hazard, stiff, cloth wrapped wiring. I have a complete wire set to install on the car that my uncle ordered from Lark Works that looks amazing. regular wire wrapped in the cloth wire wrap. I have been putting the project off for almost a year because... no one likes wiring!! Well... After a couple of beers one night i was feeling ambitious and just started ripping and tearing away at the wiring. Started under the hood and then proceeded to the dash area. During the whole process I was laughing at myself think "What the hell are you thinking joe?" hahaha!! 4 hours later my car is completely stripped. Now I have the new harness going in slowly. Its going to take awhile but man..... it is difficult. I dont have tiny little asian hands to reach up under the dash. I just started a 2 week vacation today, so I plan on spending the next couple of days finishing it up!! Hopefully the radio will work and headlights!!!

Just thought I would share!!! Happy driving Studebaker owners!!

[1954khardtop]

Good start Joe, don't be scared! I did mine a few years ago. I used a harness from Studebakers west, which uses the stock color code. I found it helpful to label the ends of all the wires. I spread the new harness out on a table, opened my shop manual to the wire diagram. I made small tags with masking tape to put on the ends of each wire as I identified it. Hope this helps.

[Okiejoe86]

This harness came with all of the wires pre labeled. I have an old wire diagram and installing each wire one by one per the diagram.

[Okiejoe86]

[1954khardtop]

Nice! mine weren't tagged, and I got tired of looking at the diagram for each wire, so tagged them myself.

[rockne10]

Labeled wires from the manufacturer are wonderful.
The additional ploy that I've used, now too late in your case, is to cut the old harness at the firewall grommet and detach/reattach each connection under the dash, then fish the harness through the firewall and do the same under the hood; or vice-versa.

[brngarage]

I did it like Rockne10. Worked pretty well. I still need to sort out the directional signal connections where it comes out of the steering column (new switch with different color wires to complicate things) and the heater and defroster. Everything else worked pretty much the first time including the fact that I converted to12 volts and had to use resistors for the gauges (Runtzes from 5th Avenue) and reverse polarity on the ammeter. Got my harnesses from Studebakers West. Great product! I had never rewired a car and now I would not be afraid to do another one.