Wiring harness questions

[dieselcrawler]

Hello all,

It finaly happened, the wiring harness in my K-30 work truck, originaly a CUCV 1028, is toast. I have had problems with the head lights all along, they would flicker, it was at the fuse block, where the fuse would plug in. I was able to by-pass it to get the lights to work, but temporarily.
So, to the point... I'm striping out a K-20 gasser truck, an '86, so it has the same switches in the same locations, (dimmer and wipers on the collum, no A/C, etc.) aside from the diesel spec. stuff. This I don't care about, I have manual glow plugs, and can make it work. The question is this: If I put power locks and windows in this truck at a later date, how does the wiring harness differ? Will I need to change it again, when I find a good wiring harness out of a truck that has the power options, and thus the wiring for them under the dash, or is that a sepirate "add-on" wiring harness that can be added to the basic harness easily? If it is, I have an '83 K-5 Blazer that has the power option wiring, but I would just need to strip it out...

Thanks for any input and ideas...

And for the football fans... enjoy the super bowl!

Greg

[BobND]

I can't give you any advice on the harness swap, except that at the very least, it's a LOT of work.

It seems to me, unless there are really major provlems with the harness, it would be easier to repair it than to swap it out.

For the fuseholder problem, what I have done is to unbolt the fuse block to access the wires behind it, and solder the leads of an "ATO-type" fuseholder in place, one to the lead from the affected circuit, and the other the the "buss bar" in the fuseholder that used to power the fuse in question.

http://www.electerm.com/gfx/fusegfx/fhato.jpg

[84 C2B2]

Being an owner of a CUCV M1009 I had a very similiar problem with my headlights. for years it would burn out the 25 amp fuse, almost melt the fuse block in that one location. i believe my problem was not using a special fuse (relay). i upgraded to power windows/locks and used some 'burb ans silverdao wiring harnessess from several slavage yards. i discovered that they all used a metal encased fuse (25 or 30 amp) in the lighting location Haven't had a problem since. Might find a few in a salvage yard.

This might save you the trouble of replacing the harness unless she has melted away. I also removed the blackout/no light swtiches and just followed the chevy truck wiring diagram. got tired of losing my pre-sets on my radio.

Jerry