One of the other desperate things this truck has needed for quite some time has been a revamp of the electrical system. At the 2019 FSJ Ouray Invasion the ammeter burned up and was bypassed in the field. We chased electrical issues the rest of the trip including a sinking in the river and at least one legitimate fire after the invasion.
Earlier this year there was another small electrical fire and further electrical gremlins were chased at Ouray 2020 much to the dismay of a couple of attendees....sorry guys :p
The old wiring was cleaned up and anything that even looked suspicious was removed. The heavy red and yellow wires to the main firewall connector are now run to a fused power distribution block and the alternator has its own dedicated run to a separate block complete with a fuse. The alternator was also upgraded to a Ford 3G which puts out 130amps. The 1977 models use a Ford alternator so this was deemed to be the most logical swap without swapping the brackets out.
4/0000 double jacketed cable for the main leads and 6/ga double jacketed cable for the smaller leads. Battery is a group 65 and is slightly too big for this tray. Not finished with the wiring just yet.
Speaking of new stuff and failures....the starter, solenoid and battery were also replaced (yay for warranties!) due to a battery explosion with the previous unit. With the oversized cables the engine cranks over at a ferocious pace now.
