new guy with a 69 c10 and questions

[nasgue]

i have a 69 c10 longbed. i bought it from my uncle who says he bought it from the 2nd owner and he was told it had a 327. I've heard of mid year trucks and i think that's what i have. Anyway, i'm looking to get pointed in the right direction for help. i've searched the forums but i feel like i'm missing something somewhere.

I have a speedometer and gas gauges on my dash panel. i wanted to upgrade to include a water temp, oil and battery, gauge but i'm told i have to change out wire harnesses. Is this true?

Also, does anyone have a diagram that show's what is supposed to be positive/negative in the fuse box?

[GREASEMONKEY72]

im not sure if youd have to change the harness, i dont really see why you would, but its possible if you want to run the newer stock gauges unless you go with after market ones all you need is power for the lights if you use the mechanical ones and also WELCOME TO THE BOARD and i hope you enjoy it as much as i do and thats a pretty nice truck there and goodluck with it

[nasgue]

tanks, greasemonkey. i appreciate the input.

nas

[GREASEMONKEY72]

anytime nasgue its what we are all here for

[68GMC454]

nice truck..i got those same wheels on mine..they are gonna as soon as i get it running...welcome from utah

[69rut]

Positive and negative in the fuse box?

Not sure what you want. There soould be some "hot" terminals and some that are "ignition" terminals. The ignition terminals will be "on" with the ignition. Like the radio, wipers, and heater. Headlights and horn would always be "on".

[panhandler62]

If you have the 3 hole panel you *will* need to re-pin the connector and add a wire to the harness for the ameter to use a full gauge panel. You don't have to replace the harness though.

GMC Paul has a diagram to walk you through it.

CAUTION: Don't do what I did and poke all the pins out and then try to figure out what was what! Poke them out one at a time and label where they came from so you know where to put them back!

[nasgue]

actually what i wanted to figure out was which fuses or circuits are supposed to be positive all the time and which ones are supposed to be on with ignition.

[krue]

Click the Index link in my sig for a list of links to a lot of good info (including upgrading to gauges). If you don't rewire the plug (just a matter or moving wires in the plug I think, you'll burn up the fuel gauge among others if I recall correctly.

[Longhorn Man]

You WILL burn up the fuel guage, and your drunk friend will be laying in the dirt laughing hystaricly when the needle does a couple laps around the guage.
Ask me how I know this.


As for the 327... not if it is original. If your glove box doesn't say anything as far as engine options, and it is a V-8, then it should be a 307.


Pnl lights are only hot when the parkign lights are on... IIRC, Cluster feed is the same.
The 3 below that, spot light, tail light, traffic (Not sure what that one does off the top ov my head) are all constant hot. Cigar lighter spade (CIG on the pic) is also constant hot. To the right, you have Back up lamps, heat, witers, radio spade, and ignition unfused... all those are hot in the run position.

I think radio and heat are also hot in the acc position too.

[mnunn454]

Welcome from another fairly new 69 C-10 owner that's new to the site too.

I had gage wiring problems with mine too. Almost nothing worked. Almost everything was burnt out or burnt up. I installed new aftermarket gages in the 4 holes across the bottom, 4 new push in and twist marker lights in the back of the cluster for the larger gage backlighting and rebuilt the original gas, tach and speedo gages.

I hard wired everything (hated that printed circuit harness with a vengence) using a pair of 6 connector trailer pigtail connectors (12 connection wires in all). It took some lengthy pin-out wire tracing and testing to get the connections right, but she works and looks like a champ now. Plus, whenever I want, I can pull the loaded gage cluster out and set it on the workbench with no loss of time, or fear of cross wiring it when I put it back.

If you're not up to this, don't worry. There are easier solutions. I chose the major overhaul approach.

[nasgue]

thanks for the tips folks. i haven't been able to do anything for weeks becuase of the weather here, but i may have time over the weekend...

[84 400]

wow good looking truck you got there and welcome to the board

[1fast71]

yeah bout the fuel gauge spinning in circles i jus put some gas in my truck last night and it started doin that so does that mean its toast?

[corn]

This picture will show you the difference in wires. Im still looking for the other one I saw...


http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d1.../Cab-2-web.jpg

[kenm78]

Good looking truck. welcome to the board from Oklahoma.

[nasgue]

thanks for the diagram cornfed

i actually got the high res version of that emailed to me by another board member (boundstaffpress). i haven't had time to compare it with what i have yet. i have a 3 month old....free time is hard to come by.

by the way, thanks for all the compliments on my truck!

[nasgue]

Am i correct to assume that i can just remove the dash gauge harness and hardwire each on e indiviually? wouldn't that be easier than trying to figure out all of the wires?

[mnunn454]

[QUOTE=nasgue;2009706]Am i correct to assume that i can just remove the dash gauge harness and hardwire each on e indiviually? wouldn't that be easier than trying to figure out all of the wires?[/QUOTE

That's what I did. See the pictures below.

Took me a couple of hours (I'm slooooow), to make sure I had the connections correct on the truck wiring harness end of things, but it all worked the 1st time. Look close at the top picture and you can see the push/twist side marker/clearance lights I used as gage backlights and the pair of 6-pin trailer pigtails I use as a quick disconnect. Just make sure everything's grounded well. If you go the trailer pigtail route, just make sure you use one male and one female on the gage side, and one of each for the chassis side. That way when you plug them in the 2nd time, there's no mistaking which connector goes where.

Good luck.