1935 pickup wiring issues

J

jarretts70

Junior Member
Hello all, new member here. I was referred here from the HAMB as this project is more "original" than you might find on the HAMB...

1935 ford pickup. It belongs to Bob, the father of a good friend. Bob has a small fleet of cool old stuff, but he's not a mechanic. The truck is really nice, but the wiring is a mess. The usual butchery - cut wires, splices, etc...It's been converted to a voltage regulator on the firewall & the headlights wired through relays (what I believe are GM horn relays? They are Delco-Remy). It's a project

First issue I have is the horns. Neither works, & wires have been cut - there is a crappy aftermarket horn under the hood. In the picture you can see a wire attached to one of the screws that hold the points in place. That wire goes nowhere, it's been cut under the hood (both horns).

From my research, there should be two wires coming to the terminal I'm point to. A yellow wire from power (taken from the hot side of the starter switch) and a blue/yellow wire that goes to the horn button. Can someone confirm that's correct?

I used test leads directly from a 6v battery to those terminals, but neither horn works. I would like to bench test the horns to make sure they work before getting into the actual wiring...

I should note truck is pretty original other than the wiring mess. 6v positive ground.

Thanks!
 

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You need to contact Tyree Harris and he can build you any wiring harness you need. Google him. He's in the Carolinas, I believe. If you can't find him, send me a PM and I'll look him up. You need to straighten out your wiring harness before you burn your truck up. I can't help you with the horns. Mine only work off and on. Nice truck.
 
jarretts70 said:
First issue I have is the horns. Neither works, & wires have been cut - there is a crappy aftermarket horn under the hood. In the picture you can see a wire attached to one of the screws that hold the points in place. That wire goes nowhere, it's been cut under the hood (both horns). From my research, there should be two wires coming to the terminal I'm point to. A yellow wire from power (taken from the hot side of the starter switch) and a blue/yellow wire that goes to the horn button. Can someone confirm that's correct? Thanks!
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Yes two wires the Y to battery + and the Blue/Yellow to the center contact of the light switch (horn button). Your horn appears to be original and may need a very slight adjustment of the contact gap or cleaning of the contact to get going. Start with the contacts just closed and adjust from there very small adjustment.
 
I second Lawson's advise to contact Tyree Harris. He can supply original quality cloth-covered wiring harnesses for your pickup. You might want to consider replacing the entire wiring harness with new wires. As long as the electrical components are in the correct places and the body is still original, it won't be a giant project and you will be able to have more comfort that you won't have an electrical issue.
I will look through my files and post a wiring diagram which is included in the original Ford instruction book (owners manual). This will tell you the layout of the wires and their colors and I've found to be very helpful.
 
The best way to eliminate wiring problems is to install a new wiring harness. In most cases, older vehicles have deteriorated cloth wire covers, and brittle rubber insulation. We just completed rewiring a beautiful 1947 Chevy pickup at our shop with a new system. Be sure that the supplier furnishes information with it, such as wire color codes. Most harnesses are designed to fit a variety of makes and model, and often contain extra circuits you may not need.
 
If you ask Tyree for a complete 1935 pickup wiring harness, that's what you will get. There will be no extra wires or circuits and you will have exactly what you need.
I've attached the electrical wiring diagram from the 1935 Ford Truck Instruction Manual. Use this as a guide. Lots of wires can be added over time to make a total rats nest, probably by some well-meaning folks trying to fix a problem. Take it all out and start over and you will have the best results.
 

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Model51 said:
If you ask Tyree for a complete 1935 pickup wiring harness, that's what you will get. There will be no extra wires or circuits and you will have exactly what you need.
I've attached the electrical wiring diagram from the 1935 Ford Truck Instruction Manual. Use this as a guide. Lots of wires can be added over time to make a total rats nest, probably by some well-meaning folks trying to fix a problem. Take it all out and start over and you will have the best results.
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Hey, thanks for all the help! I found a link for Tyree Harris wiring in VA, I'll give hi a call. A new harness is what I need for sure.

As far as the horns go - are they hard to adjust? I'll pull them off the truck & bench test.
 
I've got the horns on the bench & cleaned the points. Using a spare battery I've put power to the leads. One horn kind of works; it will make a bit of noise but only for a moment & then it goes dead. If I manually open the points & re-test it will do the same thing. The other horn does nothing....is there a trick to bench testing one of these? I've bench tested many horns this way, but that was all musclecar era stuff....
 
The horn is basically just a vibrating diaphragm. A little dirt, rust or even bugs can seize up the diaphragm. Clean the points and squirt something like WD40 on the diaphragm and see what happens. Sometimes a sharp rap will help break it loose.
 
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