68 5000 gasser electrical questions

Alan8n

Member
Been redoing my NEW 68 gasser electric harness and have a few trivial / curiosity questions:
1) My harness from the dash panel uses a plug in connector right where it enters the engine compartment and then the wires go wherever they need to go. My harness was laying on the intake manifold and wrapped in some new electrical tape so I took it apart and sure enough several of them had the insulation melted off and were hanging on but a strand or two. So I will repair that but my question is where should the harness be laying? I see several clips on the underside of the hood and am thinking the harness should be hanging from that not laying on the manifold but I cant find any pictures that show the inside of the engine compartment and how the wiring harness is run. I then thought that is where the Poof Meter cable should go but again no real pics to show me how it should be.
2) There is one wire that comes form the dash and goes to the ignition coil, but before it gets to the coil it gets split into 3 wires that are encased in a plastic like tube. The tube is broken in several places and I can clearly see 3 conductors that have like a cloth insulation. At the end of the tube exits only 1 conductor, with that cloth like insulation, and then to the coil. It all works OK but I am VERY curious as to what that is all about ! It clearly looks factory original but really strange.
Any help greatly appreciated
Alan
 

My Fords have clips on the valve cover bolts on the inside next to the injectors or where your spark plugs go the wiring harness is held against the valve cover by those clips.

It's been a long time since I messed with a gas harness but there should be a wire connecting to your coil wire that goes to the I post on the starter relay.
It provides 12 volt power to the coil while the key is in the start position.
 

Not a 5000 but you can see the wires laying against the valve cover

mvphoto91155.jpg
 
If you look in the parts book, it shows the harness as being routed along the inside of the hood. It even shows the clamps for securing the
harness. According to the parts book, said clips were used until 1970, although I don't think the factory actually went that long with that
routing scheme. I don't think I've even seen a 1965-1970 tractor with the wiring attached to the hood; I'm sure most people laid it down and
never looked back.

That said, routing it under the hood was actually a better idea than running it along the rocker cover. Numerous fires have been started by
the harness getting pinched by the battery tray.
 
On 65 and newer tractors the original
electrics continued to use an external
resister to step down the voltage to the
coil.
Ford accomplished that by using 3 folds of
a resistive wire between the starter
solenoid area and coil.
If you for one reason or another you ever
need to replace the coil buy a Napa IC14 or
equivalent coil that does not need an
external resister. Then you can dispense
with that 3 fold wire And the second wire
from the start terminal on the solenoid and
use a single wire to the coil.
I have often wondered why Ford continued to
use a coil that needed the voltage reduced
with an external resister.
Any of you electric gurus have an answer to
that?
 
The gas coil....has two ignition coil feeds. the normal feed that your looking at has a piece of resistor wire in i between the ignition switch and the coil.... but when your cranking it,,, there is a second feed from the starter solenoid, that bypasses the resister wire and provides full voltage to the coil. The gas model requires a special solenoid that has the second small post on it,,, that is,, to feed the cranking feed to the coil.
 
OK so upon further investigation the previous owner installed the Pertronix electronic ignition. There is a BAT wire on the ignition switch and out of the switch he runs the IGN wire from the ignition switch to the 3 wire resistance bundle and then from the resistance bundle to the + side of the coil. The RED Pertronix wire is also attached to the + side of the coil. The BLACK Petronix wire is on the - side of the coil. There is nothing on the I side of the solenoid. So I think this is ok but not the preferred way to do this. Should I leave it as is or remove the 3 wire resistance bundle ?
Thanks
Alan
 

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