2 weeks to change a radio

Animal

Well-known Member
I bought a 9600 Ford last spring, I needed a second tractor with a good three point hitch. The radio that was in it came with the tractor and it and the speakers were shot. I like my tunes, so I am going to put in a new radio. I figure it will probably take a short afternoon and I will be done with it. Since I started that project 2 weeks ago, I have just about totally rewired my tractor. When I removed the console I found the biggest rats nest of wiring that I have seen in a long long time. Who uses wire nuts, and scotch locks for decent wiring. It was no wonder that none of the lights were bright! The power to the radio was a single wire coming from the starter. None of my gauges worked, and I found out why. After 2 weeks I am about to get the radio done and totally rewired the cab and lights. Its too bad that the monkey that was too lazy, or perhaps above his head in this wiring deal does not get pulled over in a snow storm by the d.o.t. for no clearance lights and go through that rigamaroll. For the Wise Guy engineers that have never had dirty hands, and wants to tell you that these connectors are industry standard stick them up your Axx, I mean ear....
 
The radios in my TW20 and 7700 are both weak, but I'm scared to even start anything, no 2-knob radios left to drop in, and I kinda get over my head on wiring in a hurry.

I understand the scotch locks, wire nuts are good for decades in a house, what do you use for a splice in a 12v setup to last? Used a few crimp on butt connectors, they seem kinda flimsy to me too hard to get between pull apart and sheared off crimp with the ones I see.

Paul
 
After 30 years of wiring trailers ive found the best and longest lasting conection you can make for wires exposed to the elements is a wire nut filled with silicone. Just make sure you only strip enough so the coating ends at the nut.
 
Solder and shrink tubing. Never tried the wire nuts and silicone but I bet that would be pretty good. The heavy salt seems to green rot anything eventually.
 
I get into messes like that a lot here, a fellow will say "put a new clutch in and go ahead and get the lights all working",,,some times it takes longer to get the wiring mess fixed than it did to replace the clutch.
 
Never been into the wiring on a Ford but sure have on I H's . And yes i have seen more then my fair share of BARN YARD wiring . When i run across a mess the first thing to come out of the tool box is the sidecutters and all new wire of the correct Ga. and color is used along with new ends , if the connector is busted up a new one is installed . So when i am done it is like factory just plug and play. Having the compound crimping tool to crimp the Packard -Delco ends was a good investment . If wiring on a truck or trailer then other compound crimper gets the job done and they DO NOT pull apart and i use heat shrink connectors there . I am not sure who makes them as i get them in bulk at a truck parts supply house and they have the GOOOO in them that really seals , they are heavier then some of the other ones i have seen on the market . If a Ford tractor is like the rest of Fords there connectors are a pain .
 
When I re-built my trailer I used those kind of connections and put all the wires inside plastic conduit, using plastic boxes for all the junctions,, no wires can be seen in the open, when mud and ice is swinging on open wires they don't live long.
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Best trailer wiring you will find is on a Dump trailer , now i can not speak of all brands of Dump trailers but East Mfg. like i had it was all in water tight sealed boxes and fixtures . When i built the flat bed for my old Ford i did it the same way and with dual circuit wiring for the lights everything went into a central junction water tight box and left there thru plastic conduit to the lights and i used all truck Lites , then i did the same to my goose neck . Nothing like layen under a snow covered slush dripping trailer during a snow storm freezing your finger off trying to get lights back on . It is a whole bunch easier to do it when it is WARM and SUNNY with the trailer on it's back then you on your back in slush.
 
(quoted from post at 08:55:53 12/20/14) Solder and shrink tubing. Never tried the wire nuts and silicone but I bet that would be pretty good. The heavy salt seems to green rot anything eventually.

That's all I do, solder and shrink tube. I use wire nuts in buildings where they are designed to be used.

After working as a mechanic some of the stuff I've seen on vehicle wiring still amazes me. My oldest boy had a radio "professionally" installed. When he had problems with it I took it apart. Wires were twisted together and taped up......with masking tape. This was at a business that sells electronics! . And I'm not talking about those who use crimp on connectors. I'm talking about the using speaker wire for a circuit or twist and tape. Either is OK for a quick emergency repair but when it's been that way forever there is a problem. I'm not real keen on wire nuts on vehicle wiring. They are designed for solid single strand wire. Not multi strand automotive wiring. They are better than twist and tape any day.

There are far more people out there who are willing to tackle electrical stuff than there are people who know what they are doing. I see a lot of tractors with cobbled up wiring. I think there it's a smaller guy, operating on a shoe string who needs to needs something running. I have to rewire one for a friend in the spring. There is copper core spark plug wiring used for primary circuits on his 8N. What gets me is that this is one that never had the optional lights. So there is maybe 12 feet of wire on the whole tractor. Yet the wire from the ignition resistor to the coil, about 2', is spark plug wire, twisted and clamped under the nuts.

The wiring on my 1206 Farmall cab wasn't much better. One run for the blower motor had 3 but connectors making splices over about a foot of wire.

Rick
 
When tractors come in here for repairs I always make the starter safety switches work and the lights. Most farmers around here don't have the stuff or the know how to keep them going and just get by with less stuff working...
 
Crimp connectors are great if you have the right crimper. People try to use needle nose pliers, and then call them (crimp connectors) a piece of crap. They're actually superior to soldering if done properly because they allow for flex.
 


On the harvest I used to get so psst at guys who would hack into trailer wiring that I had spent hours straightening out. They would cut wires and splice them to other wires to try to get the lights working when all that was wrong was a corroded pin in the trailer plug. GRRRRR. One time I was so mad I almost stayed home for the season. Then there was the young guy who hacked into the wiring in the truck cab to get power for his blue string light he thought was so sxy. He didn't fuse it and when the wire was slammed in the door it shorted and burned a hole in a very hard to get to air hose under the dash. I'm getting a red face just thinking about it!


Anyway, how about the Scotch Locks with the gel in them? I've used a few but not enough to see how they last. The phone company has used them for quite awhile so they must work for them but phone lines usually aren't exposed to the vibration and salt trailer wiring gets into. Regular old Scotch Locks are the bane of all humanity!!!!!!! Crimp connectors seem to work OK if they are crimped with the proper crimper in the hands of an experienced person and are covered with a good thick strong shrink tubing, not that thin stuff that can easily get a hole in it. I always give crimp connections a good hard jerk after they are crimped. If it survives that it will probably last awhile. I have gone to using uninsulated crimp connectors with soldered joints that won't separate when crimped. I buy the high dollar shrink tubing in 18" to 36" lengths and keep it in a separate long drawer so it won't get kinked in storage. So far it has lasted the test of time but I'm not saying it's perfect by any means.
 
At ADOT I specified that all trailer wiring runs and truck body runs had to be in electrical steel conduit. That saved a lot of wiring problems later.
 
(quoted from post at 10:30:26 12/20/14) Crimp connectors are great if you have the right crimper. People try to use needle nose pliers, and then call them (crimp connectors) a piece of crap. They're actually superior to soldering if done properly because they allow for flex.


Really? They allow flex? A butt connector, depending on the brand has a metal tube 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. That ain't flexible! A good solder splice will have 1/2 to 3/4 inch soldered area that is just as stiff. Once the shrink tubing is on it's pretty water tight so future corrosion isn't an issue. On ends, be it an eye, spade or whatever I remove the plastic on a crimp connector, slid shrink tube over the wire, crimp on the connector, solder it, then slide the tube over the wire end of the connector and shrink it. Done properly solder connections and splices are just as flexible as crimp on and with shrink tube resist water better.

I know 2 auto electric shops that do it the same way I do. Think I'll do it the same way they do.

Rick
 
All a person has to do is walk around a machinery salvage and look at the farmer inventions and repair jobs. As far as connections on equipment solder and jell filled shrink tubing or liquid tape is some good stuff also. 29 years with MoDOT and salt and chloride will teach you what will and not work. It is hard to believe but I had a 14 gauge wire turn green and fall into in two days when I didn't get it sealed up. Something about dripping salt water at midnight on a cold winter night trying to fix lights is not fun.
 
I tried silicone sealer on a trailer plug to keep the moisture out,six mouths later the lights quit. The wire had rotted off at the plug connector.
After that I read there are things in silicone that react with copper. I only did it once, never again.
 
Sometimes it's simplest to just install a new factory wiring harnesses: the color coded wires match the wiring diagrams and the connectors work again. If you don't, the next guy that works on it will be saying the same things about you.
 
(quoted from post at 10:59:12 12/20/14) The radios in my TW20 and 7700 are both weak, but I'm scared to even start anything, no 2-knob radios left to drop in, and I kinda get over my head on wiring in a hurry.

I understand the scotch locks, wire nuts are good for decades in a house, what do you use for a splice in a 12v setup to last? Used a few crimp on butt connectors, they seem kinda flimsy to me too hard to get between pull apart and sheared off crimp with the ones I see.

Paul

If you mean that you can't find a 2 knob radio that fits, thy actually make a very very nice new head unit that looks time-period correct for those tractors. Except the new units are digital tuned and mp3 capable. I think LMC carries them. They are made to drop into the 1970's Ford pickups that everyone is restoring.

picture is of a brand new head unit available that fits the old tractors.
1973-1979_Ford_Truck_Radio_630.jpg
 

John, thanks for the tip on the radio. I too would like to find a radio that has two knobs and none of the fancy stuff you can't see or figure out while driving down the road or field, or even sitting still. Jim
 

actually bought mine from here.

not sure if the ones at LMC are the same thing. I do know they have them, though. Everyone who sees it thinks it is the factory radio. Then I light up the digital display. :lol:
 

Go to Del City. You can get repair connectors with the bellows seals like all new vehicles come with.
 
(quoted from post at 19:55:29 12/20/14) I get a kick out of guys that buy a 40 year old tractor and expect it to be like new jeeze :roll: :roll:

Oh I don't expect it to be like new. But some times it's amazing that some of them still run at all.

I get big laughs when people tell me how great farmers were as mechanics with some of the machinery I've bought. Noting wrong with a field repair but some of the stuff should have been fixed right once it was home.

Wiring is another story. Lot of guys just don't know what they are doing. My M Farmall was a good example. Wiring was so goofy on that it was funny. The tractor would act like it was starving for gas if you were on a hill with the right side of the tractor downhill. From a simple loose connection! I rewired it and converted it to 12 volt. Gee, the lights work and everything! The 1206 was just as bad. That was a cut and hack job on that. it's no wonder that so many tractor burn up in the field. Between electrical and leaks a lot are fires waiting for time to happen.

Rick
 

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