alanco Tue Jul 07, 2009 1:10 am
Dave:
The plastic wire in Ford trucks of his vintage is very good and if not abused, will be fine for reuse. The NEC codebook rates wire by how it is used and rating #10 for only 30 amps is for wire in conduit with 60% fill at 70C, or BX or Romex. Now if you looked in a table that shows #10 insulated wire in free air at 70C, it will show 50A. Bare #10 in free air is 70A. The usual GM alternator is 45A and that is only for a short time, right after startup, Almost never is a continuous charge of over 20A seen. So #10 is perfectly adequate for this use. If I had some house wire I would use THHN #10. I think this fellow can look at the wire or wires and replace any that need replacing on his own. As far as electrical fires, I do not agree with you. The battery to generator regulator wire has a fusible link built in to the wire just below the starter solenoid which is where it joins the battery lead. If I were using a larger alternator than the standard GM alternator, I would replace this fusible link. However, no fire will start in this alternator/battery link as you have insulated wire and a fusible link to protect the circuit. The idiot light circuit is protected already, but only enough current will flow through the lamp to light it so it is not capable to ignite anything. So it does not follow that this simple wiring will be capable of flames in any way. We are trying to help young fellows do their work without making it ridiculously hard. When I started working on cars at 13, I was very affected by a mechanic who chastised me for trying to change a clutch. I did it anyway, but after having done it I lorded it all over that mechanic. But his comments threw me at first......
As far as HEI ignitions, they have been used since 1974. It is hard to find many 350s which only started in 1967 as a special order and Novas in 1968 as the full line got them in 1969, so HEIs were not on only 5 years of production of 350s and not bloody likely to be on the average 350 IMHO. And if one isn't on the engine, I would go to a wrecking yard and find one, and use the old single point distributor as an oiling tool, by grinding all the teeth off the distributor gear, removing the breaker plate, advance weights and exposing the distributor shaft so it can be chucked in a 1/2" or heavy 3/8" reversing drill. OK?
Now if this fellow has bad wiring in the engine compartment now, he can easily replace the wires from the firewall grommet forward one at a time without a big problem. If he were building a show truck or tearing the entire truck apart, then he can rewire it, but for a truck that is running just fine and doing a very simple engine conversion, no, I would not rewire it. No engine computer is going in, no huge changes, and the OEM Ford wiring is done quite well IMHO. I am giving him specific instructions which are easy to do and understandable. They are the way I would do it if he came to me with the order to do the work.
Alan