Ernie Harris
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2025
First, before we go anywhere I want to say that Mike and the folks at KW have been great. Of course so has TheJeepsterMan and VintageJeeper. That said, I have a 1957 CJ-5 and the wiring "harness" has more splices in it that a braided necklace. I mean literally, the wires that when from the turn signal to a terminal block only 1.5 ft away each had 3 butt connectors. The battery would drain from fully charged to dead empty in 3 days. So I decided I would wire it myself. I started to map it out and then I priced out wire - I would have spent about $400 on wire and connectors and a new purpose built harness from KW was only $450 so that decision was easy.
The harness came and it was really well made - great documentation. Mike actually called me to confirm the year. It was also pretty fast - less than two weeks. I learned a bunch of really valuable lessons though and thought I would share:
1. Even though you think something is original, it might not be. I had a Pollock ignition switch which seemed right to me but the terminals were blades and apparently they didn't start using those until the early 60's so the harness came with ring terminals. Sooooo, rather than cut up a new harness, I sourced a NOS ignition switch that was period correct. Another $65.
2. The original voltage regulator and generate were replaced with a new alternator and voltage regulator. This is where I really learned what I didn't understand about automotive electrical systems. I tried calling KW but I was sure they would be like, "Yeah no." and they basically were...I don't blame them though. What I did learn was that AI like ChatGPT can be surprisingly helpful if you know how to prompt correctly. (I work in a AI centric tech business so I have some experience there). Long story short, (no pun intended) I fed it the pictures of the documentation for the stock wiring harness and then photos of the voltage regulator and alternator. It then asked me to grab my meter and do a bunch of continuity and voltage testing in different configurations. Then, much to my surprise it spit out a modified diagram that showed me how to connect the devices I had to the harness and which wires would no longer be needed. I was skeptical at first but I wired it up - checked a bunch of stuff, thought about it a bit and boom, it worked perfectly.
3. Dietz turn signals are not all manufactured using the same internals even though the model number remained the same. Mine had a completely molded rubber circuit board so you couldn't see what wire connected to what and the colors of the wires didn't match anything I found. Once again, ChatGPT, a meter and some time and it gave me a great diagram that again, worked perfectly.
It's all wired up now and everything is working great - no draw on the battery and I couldn't be happier. That said, the moral of this story is don't be afraid to try something and don't be afraid to ask questions - that's what forums like this are for and even if you're shy, there's always AI
Warning - AI does make mistakes so you have to have some basic understanding of what you're doing or you'll melt some wires
The harness came and it was really well made - great documentation. Mike actually called me to confirm the year. It was also pretty fast - less than two weeks. I learned a bunch of really valuable lessons though and thought I would share:
1. Even though you think something is original, it might not be. I had a Pollock ignition switch which seemed right to me but the terminals were blades and apparently they didn't start using those until the early 60's so the harness came with ring terminals. Sooooo, rather than cut up a new harness, I sourced a NOS ignition switch that was period correct. Another $65.
2. The original voltage regulator and generate were replaced with a new alternator and voltage regulator. This is where I really learned what I didn't understand about automotive electrical systems. I tried calling KW but I was sure they would be like, "Yeah no." and they basically were...I don't blame them though. What I did learn was that AI like ChatGPT can be surprisingly helpful if you know how to prompt correctly. (I work in a AI centric tech business so I have some experience there). Long story short, (no pun intended) I fed it the pictures of the documentation for the stock wiring harness and then photos of the voltage regulator and alternator. It then asked me to grab my meter and do a bunch of continuity and voltage testing in different configurations. Then, much to my surprise it spit out a modified diagram that showed me how to connect the devices I had to the harness and which wires would no longer be needed. I was skeptical at first but I wired it up - checked a bunch of stuff, thought about it a bit and boom, it worked perfectly.
3. Dietz turn signals are not all manufactured using the same internals even though the model number remained the same. Mine had a completely molded rubber circuit board so you couldn't see what wire connected to what and the colors of the wires didn't match anything I found. Once again, ChatGPT, a meter and some time and it gave me a great diagram that again, worked perfectly.
It's all wired up now and everything is working great - no draw on the battery and I couldn't be happier. That said, the moral of this story is don't be afraid to try something and don't be afraid to ask questions - that's what forums like this are for and even if you're shy, there's always AI
Warning - AI does make mistakes so you have to have some basic understanding of what you're doing or you'll melt some wires
