I spent a couple hours last weekend looking at the spare C-series wiring harness I’ve got tacked to a board vs. the diagrams in the service manuals, with a goal of trying to identify what I’ve got and to possibly refurbish it for the truck. In the manual there are two model years provided, those for the C100 series and those for the D1000+ series. With a lot of studying and some magnification I was able to track down some of the cable runs from the fuse block to their endpoint at the bulkhead connectors.
The easiest ones to follow were for the headlights: two green wires marked 18A and 18B, which didn’t change between the two model years. I put a multimeter lead at either end and tested for continuity, and was please to see things worked. I found and tested a couple more but got stalled when I was trying to compare what I found at the end of some of the bulkhead connectors to what the diagrams said, and stepped back to have a beer and a think. This wiring harness is in decent shape and is about 90% complete, but there are several runs that end in clipped wires before they get to a connector, which means I don’t know where they lead or how they connect to the truck.
I decided to do some product research. My first call was to Super Scout Specialists, who sadly told me the guy they had building their wiring harnesses is no longer with the company. Next I (gulp) called Travelallparts.com, who have harnesses listed on their site for $2-300 more than SSS does. They confirmed the price and told me I should consider a blade fuse upgrade to the kit for an additional $300. Then, on a hunch, I called the Scout Connection, with whom I had excellent luck finding the brake part nobody else was able to identify. Dave took my information and when he called back gave me a great price for a bench-tested used harness, minus the fuse panel. I told him I’d send him the spare fuse panel I have on my workbench, and we set up the deal.
Having a mostly working electrical system will be a huge upgrade to the truck; right now it starts and runs without any fusible links at all, which is still a bit mystifying to me, as are the working fuel and amperage gauges and the single brake light that worked before I disconnected the leads to the aftermarket trailer brake.
In other news, the box of dilapidated seat covers I sent Jeff last week have gone completely missing via UPS. On my visit to mail off the fuse panel (which was insured), I asked them to help me track it down, but they still don’t have any information.