Engine compartment electrical upgrades - Let's see some pics!

[lizzyfur]

Hey guys, I'm in the process of doing a fairly substantial overhaul of the wiring on my M1009 but I'm having a hard time deciding on where to put things. I've removed the resistor bank and am going to swap the fusible link on the GP relay supply to a resettable breaker. I'm also planning on installing a combination fuse box and relay holder in the engine compartment. I'm thinking about moving the rear battery next to the front one, and fabricating a mount off the rear battery holder to house the breaker and fusebox. I'd love to see what others have done to improve the wiring under the hood for some inspiration! I'll add some pics of mine when I get everything wired up

 

[frank8003]

You want to improve stuff than the cheapest way is to protect the wiring from heat with
garden hose cut length wise. No fires, no grounding out., cheap no problems.
I got photo's someplace, have to find the photo's.

 

[reloader64]

My M1009 is basically stock, with a little band-aid work by the previous owner. Nothing egregious, just have to trace some wires when troubleshooting. Post some pics when you get it done! It might inspire me to clean up my wiring.
But probably not....

Scott

 

[Skinny]

I don't think garden hose has an electrical rating. I would also venture to say that if I opened the hood on something with garden hose as a wiring loom I'd probably run away.

Stick with what is called for...electrical loom.

 

[Rutjes]

I've posted these before, but here they are again. 12V conversion. 2x Optima Red Tops installed. New heavy gauge battery wiring. Big fuse between batteries and bus bar, forgot how many amps. We re-did the glow plug wiring. New glow plug relay and a fuse for each glow plug.



I don't have up to date pictures. Lots of cable management took place. Heat shielding for the glow plug wires has been added around the exhaust manifolds, etc.

 

[lizzyfur]

I've posted these before, but here they are again. 12V conversion. 2x Optima Red Tops installed. New heavy gauge battery wiring. Big fuse between batteries and bus bar, forgot how many amps. We re-did the glow plug wiring. New glow plug relay and a fuse for each glow plug.

View attachment 848000 View attachment 848001 View attachment 848002 View attachment 848003 View attachment 847999

I don't have up to date pictures. Lots of cable management took place. Heat shielding for the glow plug wires has been added around the exhaust manifolds, etc.

That looks really nice! Pretty similar to what I was thinking of doing. And I like the relay and fuses mounted on the resistor cover, it looks super clean. Has heat been an issue at all with them located behind the engine like that?

 

[Rutjes]

The truck hasn't been driven enough to tell, but I don't see why it would cause trouble. Plenty of people put (in-line) fuses inside the engine compartment. Relays as well. Some of the connector insulation, the ones on the glowplugs seem to shrink a bit due to heat. I see that as a good thing. Makes them harder to come loose due to vibration. By the way, the wires we used are rated for higher temperatures.

The truck is sitting at my company's warehouse/workshop and my friend is picking it up tomorrow. I don't think he left the keys this time so if I'm still around when he does, I will try to take some up to more (up to date) pictures.

 

[Ilikemtb999]

I moved both batteries up front off the front battery mount (smaller batts) and added an auxiliary fuse box under the dash but I’ve been thinking lately it needs to be under the hood on the drivers fender next to my winch controller.

 

[Skinny]

Literally everything in a modern vehicle is under the hood. Fuses, relays, entire engine harnesses, and ECM. Its all rated to be in there.

First thing I do is add an ignition switched relay out in the bay so that can feed a bus bar. That way as you start adding accessories it is all switched, fused, and self contained yet controlled so you can leave something on with the truck off.

Yiu can get into trouble fast and may have to redo stuff when you realize after a couple of add ons that the factory wiring won't support it.

 

[SteelNinja]

Rutjes - what relay are you using for the glowplugs? momentary-on? I guess I'm asking how its wired in so it doesn't stay on. I am seriously considering converting to 12v. Thanks for any help guys

 

[Rutjes]

The truck is sitting at my company's warehouse/workshop and my friend is picking it up tomorrow. I don't think he left the keys this time so if I'm still around when he does, I will try to take some up to more (up to date) pictures.

I missed the opportunity. Maybe next time he's around.

Rutjes - what relay are you using for the glowplugs? momentary-on? I guess I'm asking how its wired in so it doesn't stay on. I am seriously considering converting to 12v. Thanks for any help guys

The relay is still switched by the glowplug controller card. Re-use the original wires. By the way, we swapped the belt drive for a 6.5 serpentine setup to make it 12V.



200A relays. We used the 2nd one for a "doghead starter relay mod".

 

[lizzyfur]

For anyone who's interested, this is what I ended up doing this weekend. Left the batteries where they were (for now anyways), installed a 110A breaker for the glow plug circuit which is now powered directly off the front battery. Replaced glow plugs and relay. Cleaned up every electrical connection on the engine, replaced the plastic loom with aluminized heat shielding, and put braided sleeves over the glow plug fusible links.

Drilled the holes to mount my aux fuse box on the left side of the firewall right next to the wiper motor, since the plan is to use it mainly for the headlights. Still have to finish wiring that up though. There's a few wires I want to tie up little nicer once I get the headlight harness and fuse box done, but so far I'm happy with how it turned out.

Before:



After:

 

[reloader64]

Man, even the "before" looks neater than my truck.....

 

[lizzyfur]

Man, even the "before" looks neater than my truck.....

If it makes you feel better a lot of work had already gone into getting it to that point

 

[MarcusOReallyus]

Yiu can get into trouble fast and may have to redo stuff when you realize after a couple of add ons that the factory wiring won't support it.

Yeah, and the factory wiring won't support much at all, safely. In fact, the headlight circuit in particular is already overloaded.


One upgrade that I consider mandatory is some wire loom on the battery wires. Follow them some time - there are hot wires laying on the inner fender and laying across sharp(ish) edges.

I laid out some minor mods to mine in this thread. There's a good discussion on the GP feed and its current requirements.

 

[Skinny]

Yeah, and the factory wiring won't support much at all, safely. In fact, the headlight circuit in particular is already overloaded.


One upgrade that I consider mandatory is some wire loom on the battery wires. Follow them some time - there are hot wires laying on the inner fender and laying across sharp(ish) edges.

I laid out some minor mods to mine in this thread. There's a good discussion on the GP feed and its current requirements.

Probably a good idea and loom isn't exactly breaking the bank. I probably should go over the wiring again and out some inline fuses off of the battery.

I bought one from Deep Sea that has a hole for a lug attachment. Just stick that in the alternator post and then attach the lug to the fuse. Pretty truck little fella.

I haven't done a relay upgrade to the lighting circuit yet. I'm hoping the LED bulbs draw less current and make the work for the switch a little easier.

 

[Mad Texan]

I gutted the DUVAC wiring and cleaned things up...