1952 Ford Customline looking for a wiring diagram

R

RandyLPeterson

Junior Member
Friend of mine just picked up a 1952 Ford Customline overdrive.. He wants me to check the wiring for the overdrive and Brake lights dont work. Anybody got wiring diagrams online .. Figure if I had an Idea of the wiring before I got there it would help a Ton.. THANKS
Randy L Peterson
Havin A Blast Preservin The Past:)
 
A lot of brake light problems can be traced to the turn signal switch or the wiring that goes up into the steering column to it.
 
I 2nd RF Man
I also just got my also.
well worth the $$$$ plastic coated so can take to car and not worry about Ripping,tarring,or getting oil on it.

BILL W
 
rotorwrench said:
A lot of brake light problems can be traced to the turn signal switch or the wiring that goes up into the steering column to it.
Click to expand...
rotorwrench,
Having problems with my brake lights, also.
Both turn signals work but can't get the right side brake light to work. Would you suspect, as mentioned, wiring up to the turn signal switch or possibly the turn signal switch?
I find the wiring in the trunk to be very brittle and sections without insulation.
I just ordered one of the laminated wiring diagrams, hoping that will help in discovery.
Tikker
 
I have found one or two wires mismarked on the laminated diagrams as sold on flea-pay too. I didn't find the correct colors out until I purchased the new wiring harnesses. Rhode Island Wire's and Bauer Electronics' diagrams that come with their wiring harnesses are correct as far as I have found to date. I have Mercury cars and they are a bit different than the Ford cars but they both use a similar turn signal switch arrangement and many of the wire colors are the same as well. The signal switch cuts out the brake light for the blinking side when you have the turn signal and brake lights activated at the same time.

If your car has the cloth covered wire you will likely need to replace any harnesses that are crumbling before they short and kick your breakers or blow fuses depending on the circuit. You can buy the Bauer Electronics harnesses one at a time from Macs and maybe a few other vendors and they aren't bad harnesses. The Rhode Island stuff is very good quality since they laquer the wire. Their stuff is expensive but you get all the harnesses at one time instead of purchasing them seperately like Macs has them. There must be 10 different little harness sections that a person has to purchase to completely rewire a car. They don't tell you this until you get the first one and find out you need another one. You then start to see that they sell them all individually and it takes a while to figure out what all you have to get.

I rewired my original switch by desoldering and resoldering the Bauer Electronics wiring to it and it works OK now. Getting it back into the collumn tube is way too much fun. The wires are just enough bigger on the repop stuff that they are hard to get back in there. At least on the Mercs it is anyway.
 
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Richard in Florida / rotorwrench

Please explain where the mistakes are on the laminated diagrams.

It may help others.

BILL W
 
rotorwrench said:
I have found one or two wires mismarked on the laminated diagrams as sold on flea-pay too. I didn't find the correct colors out until I purchased the new wiring harnesses. Rhode Island Wire's and Bauer Electronics' diagrams that come with their wiring harnesses are correct as far as I have found to date. I have Mercury cars and they are a bit different than the Ford cars but they both use a similar turn signal switch arrangement and many of the wire colors are the same as well. The signal switch cuts out the brake light for the blinking side when you have the turn signal and brake lights activated at the same time.

If your car has the cloth covered wire you will likely need to replace any harnesses that are crumbling before they short and kick your breakers or blow fuses depending on the circuit. You can buy the Bauer Electronics harnesses one at a time from Macs and maybe a few other vendors and they aren't bad harnesses. The Rhode Island stuff is very good quality since they laquer the wire. Their stuff is expensive but you get all the harnesses at one time instead of purchasing them seperately like Macs has them. There must be 10 different little harness sections that a person has to purchase to completely rewire a car. They don't tell you this until you get the first one and find out you need another one. You then start to see that they sell them all individually and it takes a while to figure out what all you have to get.

I rewired my original switch by desoldering and resoldering the Bauer Electronics wiring to it and it works OK now. Getting it back into the collumn tube is way too much fun. The wires are just enough bigger on the repop stuff that they are hard to get back in there. At least on the Mercs it is anyway.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that added information.
Can you clarify what you are speaking of when you say "the Rhode Island stuff"?
 
Bill W: I will have to compare again between the diagrams but the interior lighting comes to mind including the dome light & courtesy lighting but I can only help on the Mercury cars from 49 thru 51 since those are the diagrams I have.

Tikker: This is their web-site. http://www.riwire.com/
They are one of the best in the business. Also, taking a look at the RI Wire site you can tell what all the different circuit harnesses there are available and there are much more than 10 seperate little circuit harnesses.
 
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Maybe someone can give me some pointers here.
I've gone ahead and started some digging in the wiring on my '52 Customline.
There are six wires running from the turn signal switch, I've determined the two left side and two right side wires. I've also determined a wire that energizes when the brake pedal is engaged.
My problem is, there is one wire that I get nothing from. Could that be my problem as to why I have no right side brake light?
By the way, rotorwrench, I did find their site, they don't list a full body wiring set for the '52 so I inquired if the '53 or '54 might be the same, they said not.
But they said if I had one for them to work from they would build one.
Very quick response to my inquiry.
 
The wire from the stop light switch is jumpered left for right/right for left at the signal switch to give power opposite to which ever turn signal lamp side is selected. You have 4-wires for left front and left rear then the same for right side. Then you have a wire to the signal stat or turn signal flasher unit. The Mercury also has the horn wire so it has seven going into the same place as all the other six. I think Fords still had the horn wire inside the steering shaft.

I see what you mean about the 52 wiring harness from RI Wire. They have them for the Victoria and Convertibles only. The Victoria may be close enough that they could easilly fabricate one as long as the wire lengths & terminus are adjusted but they would need an old harness to do that correctly.
 
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Call Tyree Harris. I rewired my entire '53 Victoria with harnesses and wires from Tyree. He's a great guy and always ready to answer questions or help with problems.

Tyree Harris
2693 Crewsville Road
Bumpass
Virginia 23024
804-556-5200
 
Richard, I second that on Tyree. I did my '53 Vic last year and two others the year before with perfect results from Tyree.
Don
 
Since I've gotten some real helpful information in this thread for my '52 Customline, I'll stay here for further information, even though I maybe should start a new thread.
I have a repair manual that gives instructions on how to remove the horn ring, "push in and rotate counterclockwise".
This just isn't working.
I'd like to get access to the turn signal switch to determine if that is where my problem, with lack of brake light on the passenger taillight, originates.
Again, any helpful hints would be appreciated.
 
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Well, I did get the horn ring/steering wheel off.
I also got my color coded wiring diagram. Not all colors were correct but enough information was there to determine what was what relating to turn signal switch and tail lights. It is a good wiring diagram.
Here is my present problem, I started this search to try and determine why I didn't have a LEFT brake light (all turn signals work). I've pulled the turn signal switch out, without removing any wires. Did lots of probing with a circuit tester to determine power, actually removed the wiring/switch section of the switch to get better access to the soldered wire connections.
For some magical/mysterious reason I now have a RIGHT side brake light........but not a LEFT side.
Can anyone give me some explanation as to how that might occur?
 
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