Wire harness install

Chris Smith

I am working on installing the wiring on my 54 that I bought from YnZ about three years ago. Pretty much kicking my ass so far. looks like I did not get the wire for the Hydro gear indicator light or the wire that goes up the column to the horn button. I can say that I have no idea where the wires that go from the trunk,up the driver side roof and down the inside of the A piller connect to at the under dash. Im either missing an important page of directions or Im too stupid to understand them. I will try to figure them out tomorrow. I also see they used barrel shaped connectors for all four wires that go to floor mount dimmer switch and they should have had banjo shaped connectors. For eleven hundred bucks I expected a little more I guess. I do have the under hood and headlight wiring installed so Im not feeling totally lame. lots of fun to look forward to on the courtesy and dome lights harness.

PAULARGETYPE

KEEP AT IT CHRIS YOU WILL GET IT DONE I KNOW I ALMOST WENT BALD (PULLING OUT MY HAIR DOING MINE ) LOL

onerare39

Chris,
I did a YnZ in my 54 a few years ago and it worked out beautifully. Give ma a call and I can help answer some of your questions.

I'm in the roster
John Forkner
Spring Hill, Kansas

464Saloon

I'm nearing doing mine in my 54. I bought the engine and dash from Y and Z a couple of years ago and wasn't going to do the rest. Well things have changed and now after 2 years in the body shop it is finally nearing completion from a complete strip down. So now I am just going to make a complete new car basically. In talking with Y and Z they get 1100 for a complete yet it does not include the body harness and tail lights WOW! One is not even available. I did a complete for on a 52 for a guy years ago and it went pretty well. I imagine I could modify it to the 54 but you would be looking at 1300 plus then my time to modify from what I see so far.So not sure the path I want to take now. Those of you that have already done this please share your thoughts and comments.

Chris Smith

Rob, I had YnZ make me the 52 53 club coupe harness for the back half of the car and had them install the 54 ends for the tail lights. It eliminates the junction block at the driver rear tail light area. That part seems to have worked out as long as I can figure out how it all connects at the dash area. There is a seperate harness for the passenger side dome and courtesy lights and switch. I have not tried to string it yet. I took them my tail light parts and my turn signal assembly so they could do the soldering. I think the only soldering I will have to do is at the front running/turn signal lights as the half twist bulb fixtures were not included in the harness. I may have to change the ends on the wires for the dimmer switch also. John, I appreciate the offer and I may call if it dosen't click for me in the next few days. Do you happen to know the 12 volt bulb number for Hydro indicator at the column? I will need one when I get a wire made up.

onerare39

Chris,

I purchased a complete bulb set from YnZ when I purchased my wiring harness. I still have a 6 volt system, the nomenclature on the Hydromatic bulb is CPI 51 6V China, maybe you can cross reference that for a 12 volt, check with YnZ to see if they might have it. Your dimmer switch was probably changed at some point in time therefore the banjo style terminals vs bullett. If you are doing the soldering make use you use a good soldering iron and a dab of soldering flux on the wire and it will go smoothly. YnZ told me to use a 6 volt lantern battery to check my work, there is enough juice to run the lights but not enough juice to do any damage if you have your wires crossed. If you have a wiring diagram from a service manual that might help, YnZ uses the same color wire and tracers that Hudson did.

The folks at YnZ are great and will help you through any difficulties. I am going to have them make a new wiring harness for my 1940 Packard/Henney hearse.

John

Chris Smith

Thanks John the bulb coverts to a #53 and I have a box of them. Do you recall if your dimmer switch had barrel type connections?

Browniepetersen

Just finishing the harness in my 54. It is also from Yn'Z. I ordered the same kit that Chris worked out with them and we have had rather good luck with it. The one complain that I do have is that they did not sent enough end caps and we had to order a few more. They hit us for the parts and shipping with the comment that our harness was a custom job and did not include those parts. Rather lame after the initial investment?

Chris Smith

I went to Vintage Coach today and Jason had the correct dimmer switch I needed. I feel better now.

onerare39

Chris,

Yes, my 54 dimmer switch has the barrel/bullet style connectors, my parts car has the same connectors also.

John

Chris Smith

Went to YnZ today and no charge they made me the shift indicator light wire and gave me a yellow wire to make my horn wire. They said I will have to reuse the brass contact tip. That will require cutting it off flush, drilling out the center and cross drilling a hole on one side to back fill with solder. I installed the shift indicator light today but need to know where and what it plugs into. I don't see anything near the neutral safety switch to plug a barrel connector into.

Nevada Hudson

Boy , that is really serious money for a wiring harness!

RL Chilton

Boy , that is really serious money for a wiring harness!

That's what I was thinking. Lot cheaper just to make up your own.

lostmind

I've always made my own harnesses. Strip open the old harness and duplicate what's there , one wire at a time and tape it together.
If you want an original cloth covered look , you have to pay the big money.
There is a reason they switched to the vinyl/ plastic coating, it last's longer

464Saloon

The cost depends on how you look at it and what your time is worth. If you are retired I would say heck ya make it yourself but if you work a lot like myself with your own business your time can be pretty valuable. I have a tool business and I get complaints all the time how much tools are. My response is look how much you spend on fuel for your car and a couple of days it is gone. You spend 10.00 for lunch and by night your hungry again. Tools in many cases can last forever. The wiring in my 54 is original. Shabby but still works. So if you take 1300.00 and divide by 60 years that is 21.60 a year. Just my 2 cents.

Browniepetersen

This is the second time I have purchased a harnesses for one of my cars. With my 36 Hudson Stratton Sport Saloon it was not an option. This "one off" car did not have anything but a blue print. It has some major differences than the 36 8cyl cars that were custom build harnesses. So, we built our own harness for the 36 and did all the detail work using the correct gage and cloth wires. We used tin solder on all the joints and did a bang up job. If you compare costs with labor and wire to the harness it is about a trade off.

Frankvintagefullflowcom

464
That cost/yr figure can really skyrocket when it burns to the ground on the side of the road.
Not to slam your '54 (mine are the same way except worse) but there's some scary old wiring in these cars and most of them have been "worked on" many times over the years, adding to the likely hood that flexing of no-longer-flexible insulation has caused bare-spots in places we can't see.
I've had smoke fill the cabin a couple of times and it's terrifying.
But, I'll admit, I drive 'em anyway.
F

onerare39

Chris,
Your shift indicator light will go on the same circuit as the dash lights.

You may find it difficult to drill out the wire on your brass contact tip. Instead, just cut the wire 1/2" from the brass contact and strip off the insulation. Solder your new wire to the old and then slide a piece of shrink tubing over the joint and heat it up. I might suggest soldering the new wire to the old and then pull the new wire through, finish up by cutting off the old wire after you get the new one pulled through.

Hope this helps

John

Browniepetersen

Frank, a lot of people do what you do and never have any problems. I have more money than luck (that is not saying much) and since my cars are built for long distance driving I chose to eliminate those problems that are hard to track down and sometimes impossible to fix, but once all the wiring is replaced you should have no electrical issues; and, it is much easier to do the wire harness before you replace all the new parts. The wires under the dash of my 54 were bare almost three inches back from the contacts. 40 years in the California sun can do a bit of damage to the old wires. As a point of fact, the only wire that was in good shape was what was under the headliner. since I needed to strip the interior, and change the color inside, the wire project was the right way to solve the problem with this car and at the right time. Here is the before and after.

464Saloon

Frank, that is why I am changing out mine. I have patched it in numerous places. I am just making the comment that 1300 really isn't that bad when you one compare it to the time it takes to make one yourself, especially if you want it to look original and two not to replace it at all and maybe having it burn down

Chris Smith

The YnZ wiring is a visual match to the original down to the factory colors and striping but is not a cloth covering.

Chris Smith

Here is another area I am having trouble figuring out. I have looked at the 7d wiring schematic till my eyes got blurry and I can't seem to find the neutral safety switch to figure out the wiring. My under hood harness does not have any unaccouted for wires accept the red wire #15 that YnZ is calling a utility wire. I have taken some pictures of the wires. The safety switch has four possible connections. The Hudson mechanical procedure manual supplement 53-54 models shows that the optional back up lights connect to #2 and #4 . That leaves me with #1 and #3 and a loose wire with a barrel connector end from the hydramatic indicator light that needs go somewhere. Im guessing that the neutral safety switch must get its power from that utility wire and I will have to jump #1 and #2 then connect the shift light wire to #3 so that the back up lights that I added but not wired yet will work. Am I close?

Chris Smith

My other thought was to add a jumper wire from the horn relay to the neutral safety switch as a power source.

onerare39

Chris,

When you ordered the wiring harness did you order the one for the hydromatic?

If you did then look for wires numbered 21 and 21S.

21 goes from ST on starter ignition switch to to neutral safety switch terminal 1.
21S goes from terminal 3 on the neutral safety switch to the small terminal on the magnetic starting switch.

And as you mentioned terminals 2 and 4 are used for the backup lights.

It is best to connect all of the wires to the neutral safety switch before you bolt it back on the car. Mine is difficult to get to because of the power brakes. Make sure that you adjust the switch for the correct neutral position. I used a contunity tester with a tone setting to get mine adjusted correctly.

I don't believe the hydromatic indicator light would go through the neutral safety switch, you want it to come on when you turn the dash lights on, not when the car in in or out of neutral. It should run to the T terminal on the lighting switch.

Keep plugging away, you'll get it.

John Forkner

onerare39

Chris,

Here's a picture of the wiring diagram I have showing the neutral safety switch. An expanded view would have shown it wired as I stated above.

John

onerare39

Another picture with some highlighted circuits. Not necessarily the correct color for wire.

Chris Smith

Thanks John, I did find the loose wire 21s and will look for the 21
I appreciate your efforts

onerare39

Chris,

Glad to help, keep asking questions and I'll try to help with some correct answers.

John

50C8DAN

I used Rhode Island Wiring for '50C8 and they did a super job. The wiring they use is vinyl but has a cloth covering so it looks original. They even did my Supermatich harness taking mine and installing the special connectors. Every wire was tagged and labeled for exactly where it was to go. http://www.riwire.com.

Aaron D. IL

Is Rhode Island Wiring or Narragansette better than YnZ ?

50C8DAN

I believe that Rhode Island and Narragansette are from the same family and split some years ago. I also have heard that quality and customer service from each is about the same, although I have never bought anything from Narragansette. I also used Harnesses Unlimited (http://harnesses-unlimited.com)for my Cadillac but they don't have a lot of options for Hudsons at this time. Most of these guys will reproduce if you send in your harness as a pattern.

I have no opinion on YnZ as I have never used them. From what was said here not sure that YnZ offers cloth covered wire as an option?