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Who's good with wiring? Caught fire

carpeonnel

carpeonnel

1/2 ton status
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Sylvester, Georgia
Been many years since I've been on here and recently have been in the process of getting my late father's 82K10 back on the road. Sadly I had a fuel leak when I went to start it for the first time and burnt up the harness on the firewall along with everything else that was meltable in the area. Have replaced most things but I'm stuck on this harness. I'm far from a guru on wiring (especially if it extends past the capabilities of more than wiring a relay) and my attempts at finding a donor harness that matches and is in good condition have not been fruitful. Is there any wiring gurus that can assist me in what I need to wire where in order I can get this thing to where I can crank it again? Thanks!

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Honestly, if you can wire a relay you can fix this. However you need a road map to know what you had and what’s missing. Hit up eBay and buy a factory service manual for that year of truck. Sometimes they had a specific manual just for wiring schematics. I’ve got one for my ‘91 and I think an ‘87. They are wide and spiral bound.

Once you have the manual I would take the harness out of the truck (or what’s left of it) taking notes and marking what went where. Get some rolls of wire and some quality electrical tools like cutter/stripper and crimper and start mapping out what circuits need replaced.

Take it one circuit at a time and you’ll get it knocked out.
 
I agree with @ZooMad75 , it doesn't look that bad. I could be wrong but most of the damage looks to be between the brake booster and the distributor. The affected wiring is probably mostly related to the starter, alternator and power to the heater box. I'd bet @kennyw has the distribution block, any special wiring connectors and possibly a harness. The wiring could probably be simplified from what was originally there.
 
nvrenuf said:
I agree with @ZooMad75 , it doesn't look that bad. I could be wrong but most of the damage looks to be between the brake booster and the distributor. The affected wiring is probably mostly related to the starter, alternator and power to the heater box. I'd bet @kennyw has the distribution block, any special wiring connectors and possibly a harness. The wiring could probably be simplified from what was originally there.
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Yes it’s basically from the brake booster over. I could pull what’s left over the harness but it’s trashed I don’t know where half of them went but I still wouldn’t know what the heck I’m looking at, lol. If somebody had those pieces of harness I could cut and splice in it would be fantastic
 
I feel your pain, as I built back from a fire last summer. Best bet is to find another factory engine harness and swap it. Even if there a couple of differences from year/options, it will be way less splicing and less things to get wrong. You could totally cut off everything burned and splice each individual wire, but what colors will you use? Unless you have a lot of spare wire/harnesses on hand (I repurpose wire from extra car harnesses all the time), you'll either live with everything being a couple of colors or spending a lot on all the different spools of txl or whatever. A used harness is probably cheaper.

Before diving into repairing what you have, identify any connectors that were damaged and will need to be replaced. Whatever you do, approach this with proper soldering and heatshrink approach and don't even think of reaching for a box of crimp connectors. What you don't want is a "repaired" harness that's unreliable and has you chasing electrical gremlins later.

carpeonnel said:
I can get this thing to where I can crank it again?
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Don't go in halfway and try to move the vehicle with bare wires sticking out. The last thing you want is to go from bad to worse by destroying more stuff.

We don't have to tell you to check for leaks first and have an extinguisher handy this time.
 
There's quite a few squares in my local yard, I can go up this weekend and see what's available.
 
Blue85 said:
I feel your pain, as I built back from a fire last summer. Best bet is to find another factory engine harness and swap it. Even if there a couple of differences from year/options, it will be way less splicing and less things to get wrong. You could totally cut off everything burned and splice each individual wire, but what colors will you use? Unless you have a lot of spare wire/harnesses on hand (I repurpose wire from extra car harnesses all the time), you'll either live with everything being a couple of colors or spending a lot on all the different spools of txl or whatever. A used harness is probably cheaper.

Before diving into repairing what you have, identify any connectors that were damaged and will need to be replaced. Whatever you do, approach this with proper soldering and heatshrink approach and don't even think of reaching for a box of crimp connectors. What you don't want is a "repaired" harness that's unreliable and has you chasing electrical gremlins later.


Don't go in halfway and try to move the vehicle with bare wires sticking out. The last thing you want is to go from bad to worse by destroying more stuff.

We don't have to tell you to check for leaks first and have an extinguisher handy this time.
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Oh I changed out the carb where the leak was occurring. It had like a Holley Street Avenger carb that had a o-ring leak on the metal supply tube that connected the front and back bowls. My father used to drag race this truck and had a 650 Holley double pumper in storage he used when racing, so I swapped it on. This time though I will have somebody with me to watch for leaks instead of cranking by myself, lol.

The bad part is, I don't even know what plugs it had back there and what was actually being used. What I pulled out was melted blobs. About the only thing I can figure out is the oil pressure sensor and connector at the back of the manifold.
 
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kennyw said:
You can find factory wiring diagrams in the link of my signature.

Good original engine harnesses are hard to find. I may have one that is mostly there and worth repairing, but I'll need to dig through my crates.
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Yeah, this is what I've encountered over the months I've been looking. I can't find a year model that works let alone one in good shape. I've been tempted to contact Painless but I really don't want to spend a grand on a wiring harness but it ultimately may be what I have to do. An additional factor to contribute to why i hate wiring so much is that I'm pretty bad colorblind
 
Chickntrk said:
There's quite a few squares in my local yard, I can go up this weekend and see what's available.
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This is an 82 with basically no options. Can't remember if it's a scottsdale or custom deluxe but it's manual windows, manual locks, no intermittent wipers, floor dimmer. If you run across something that's similar, please let me know. I live in rural south georgia and haven't had any luck in my area
 
carpeonnel said:
Been many years since I've been on here and recently have been in the process of getting my late father's 82K10 back on the road. Sadly I had a fuel leak when I went to start it for the first time and burnt up the harness on the firewall along with everything else that was meltable in the area. Have replaced most things but I'm stuck on this harness. I'm far from a guru on wiring (especially if it extends past the capabilities of more than wiring a relay) and my attempts at finding a donor harness that matches and is in good condition have not been fruitful. Is there any wiring gurus that can assist me in what I need to wire where in order I can get this thing to where I can crank it again? Thanks!

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I would just replace the harness in the engine with a painless one. So this it will fix the problem of burnt up wiring.
 
This is the bulk head connector for an 82 v8 gas. With this and these https://a.co/d/85ntamc you can redo what you need.
Screenshot_20250303_073916_Firefox.jpg
The rest of the diagram is here

1982 GM Technical Manuals

1982 GM Technical Manuals Number Title ST-386-82 1982 GM CK LIGHT TRUCK Wiring Manual X-8232 1982 GMC Light Duty Truck Service Manual
ck5.com ck5.com


Edit better double check those terminals,sometime in the 80s they changed. Those work on my 77
 
carpeonnel said:
Been many years since I've been on here and recently have been in the process of getting my late father's 82K10 back on the road. Sadly I had a fuel leak when I went to start it for the first time and burnt up the harness on the firewall along with everything else that was meltable in the area. Have replaced most things but I'm stuck on this harness. I'm far from a guru on wiring (especially if it extends past the capabilities of more than wiring a relay) and my attempts at finding a donor harness that matches and is in good condition have not been fruitful. Is there any wiring gurus that can assist me in what I need to wire where in order I can get this thing to where I can crank it again? Thanks!

View attachment 498166

View attachment 498167

View attachment 498168

View attachment 498169
Click to expand...

would something like this work: https://www.amazon.com/EH03580-HAUT...cphy=9026173&hvtargid=pla-2281435177578&psc=1
 
Went to the JY today, they have an 84, 85, and two 87s all with good harnesses….im not versed enough to know what changed in all the years but if any of those will work let me know and I can get it sent to you.
 
Chickntrk said:
Went to the JY today, they have an 84, 85, and two 87s all with good harnesses….im not versed enough to know what changed in all the years but if any of those will work let me know and I can get it sent to you.
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87 would be TBI and not correct. 84-85 would likely work as long as they are the same engine configuration and carb.
 
I figured TBI probably wouldn’t work….the 84 and 85s are 350s with quadrajets, both autos. There is also a 84 with a 6.2 diesel which I figure won’t work either.
 
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