Wiring question

[House Money]

I'm getting ready to start the wiring on my truck, first thing I did was to lay it out on a flat surface and see how it wants to route. I saw right away that both the starter and alternator branches were made to go to the right side of the truck. That works fine for the starter on the LS3 but my alternator is mounted on the left side.

I've read that many have stripped out a lot of the wiring from the chassis harness as it is redundant to the LS3 wiring, I thought I may go that way too so I started to open up the harness so I could at the very least move the alternator wiring so it could be routed with the branch for the forward wire harness. That's where I found something odd, at least to me, in that the alternator wire simply loops around to the starter bundle. It appears there will be a lot of heavy gauge wires connected to the starter: The positive cable from the battery, the charge wire from the alternator, one from the ignition switch and finally one marked battery feed - that actually goes to the fuse block.

So I guess my question on this is: Does the starter post serve as the positive distribution buss for the entire electrical system?

Thanks, Gary

[House Money]

I posed the question to FFR and here is their response: Yes, the starter post is the power distribution for the Ron Francis harness.

[FF33rod]

Yup, that's the intent. Many have augmented that in various ways.
I put a larger independent distribution post near the starter but on the firewall. Much more convenient than the starter and more robust.

Steve

[Duster]

There is a ton of resources for electical on the forum. Thank god or I would never have made it. Some of the advice I used was to strip the harness of all sheathing and really look at the path for all of the wires. This helped me immensly. I ended up using to large distribution blocks, one for positive, one negative to keep the amount of wiring to a minimum. The instructions for my roadster had 5 heavy gauge wires all meeting at the starter - simply would not work thus the distribution block. Dieting the harness was also a must. Any option that you won't use can and should be stripped from the harness including the harness connectors. You will get very adept at removing wires from the connectors.

[VIRGIN MIKE]

Amen Steve,
a ground strip (post) under the dash, near the trans hump, can eliminate a ton of dedicated ground wires and I am considering an ACC post for back-up camera, headlight wiring, etc.

I wish I had done this first: Start at the ends - tail lights, fuel, speedo; headlights fan horn; bring everything into the dash area before making any attempts to make it better or simplify. I have switched from solder to wire nuts until I am sure its is the last time I will change my mind

[Pat Landymore]

I used these on my build. They helped a lot to supply power to various circuits not planned for in the harness. (Fuel pressure and Exhaust O2 gauges as examples)


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