Positive vs negative ground

Unknown

I am converting my 55 Hornet to 12 volt. I can get a positive ground alternator but should I consider moving to a negative ground and rewire what needs to be rewired?

Unknown

My opinion is stay posative and don't use the single wire version alt. --BUD

bob ward

Most of the bits and pieces in a 6V Hudson don't care whether they are +ve or -ve earth, apart from the radio.



We live in a 12V -ve earth world, if you are changing your Hudson to 12V, I would go with the flow.



I would seriously consider rewiring the whole car. Bend a piece of the original wiring and see if the insulation flakes off.

Unknown

The wiring on the car is somewhat in disarray - especially under the dash. I ahve spent a few hours trying to sort it out. Is there someone who makes car wiring harnesses?

Jon B

Here are three:



http://riwire.com/Pages/main.htm



http://www.ynzyesterdaysparts.com/



http://www.narragansettreproductions.com/wiring-harness.html

Unknown

Unfortunately, 1955 Hudsons don't exist in their catalogs. Any other ideas?

onerare39

Davek111 wrote:

Unfortunately, 1955 Hudsons don't exist in their catalogs. Any other ideas?

The following quote is from the YnZ website FAQ's.



My car is not listed in your catalog, can you still make me a harness?

If it's an antique or classic chances are yes. Simply remove your original harnesses (tagging as many wires as possible) and we will duplicate it, wire for wire. Upon receipt of your harness, we will give you a price quotation and delivery date.



Give them a call and talk to them. YnZ made the harness for my 54 and did a beautiful job, easy to install too.



John Forkner

Jon B

You might attempt to make your own. You can remove sections of the harness form the car, and lay out the sections on a large piece of plywood (temporarily securing them to the plywood to keep them straight). This makes it easier to see which wires run where. Purchase now wire of the same gauge as each particular wire run, and (laying your new wire out parallel to the old harness) construct the new harness. Use twist ties every few inches to bundle wires together. Replicate the terminals at the ends of the wires (best to solder them, not merely crimp).



Before you remove the wires from the car, make sure that they are of the correct length to reach the engine components. (Patch new sections of wire into the old harness to act as a pattern, if the old wiring is short or has been spliced.)



If you don't know where wires go, just consult your car's wiring diagram.



When the new harness is done, you can simply bind the wires together by wrapping black tape around them to form the harness, or -- especially if portions of the harness are visible under the hood -- enclose the wire bundles in that black woven fabric "loom" material, which looks "period" for older cars.



When you make your harness, you can include new wires for accessories that were never on the car, such as turn signals, electric fuel pump, relays, extra lights, etc., so everything will be neat and tidy and original looking.



You'll probably save a bundle, because these repro harnesses can cost hundreds of dollars.

bob ward

Re-wiring a Hudson from scratch is not as daunting as it may seem from looking at the mess of wiring that you have and the wiring diagram.



Its all just a heap of simple circuits, a wire goes from point A to point B then maybe on to point C. Test the circuit. Repeat 30 times or so.



You can get away without trying to purchase all the different colour coded wires that the wiring diagram calls for.



I've recently rewired my 53 Hornet and I'm not an auto electrician. I ran a length of 7 core trailer wire to the rear of the car, and I used 4 different colours for behind the dash and the engine bay. One colour for the charging circuits, another for the ignition circuits, another for lights and one for accessories, some masking tape labels to keep track of things. I didn't try to copy the old wiring, I just stripped it all out and followed the wiring diagram.



Use the opportunity to modernise where you can, eg a modern fuse block with blade fuses, headlight relays.



There was quite a sense of satisfaction when it was all finished, everything worked, and above all I knew all the wiring was SAFE.