VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 How were wires run to the rear of a 41 Chevy?

With my sons I am working on a 41 Master Deluxe. Currently the wires from the front to the rear are missing. I plan to place turn signals in the car. From my understanding this means I will need to run three wires to the rear of the car, tail light, right light and left light. What is the best way to run these? Should I go under the car? In the cabin? How was this done originally?

I'm just curious ! How are your boys holding up on this project ? Are they still interested as they were at the beginning ?

Dick

The wires to the rear were under the headliner on the left side. They came into the trunk above the wheel, the ones to the right tail light ran across the front edge of the trunk lid.
You may want to run them the easiest way, if you don’t plan on removing the headliner.

Both boys are doing well. Yesterday finished connecting the headlights to a replacement dimmer switch. Oldest did all the work wiring the switch under the car. Youngest is more interested in the items that you see results or quick progress in. When we mounted the seats each day there was visible progress in the car. Hard to say that for tracing wires and replacing them a few at a time.

Mice got the headliner and most the interior before I got the car so that is not in the way. Along the roof is convenient. I am thinking I may run a few extra just in case for the future. They are out of site there so it could not hurt.

That sounds like great progress. I assume that you have referring to the ‘41 wiring diagram in the shop manual or the old online Chevy manuals website.

Your comment about adding turn signals caught my attention. I agree with the need for and value of those.

You might already be thinking of this points. For the front turn signals you will either need to add additional lights or convert the existing parking light housings to a dual filament bulbs. You will also need to run additional wiring to the front. Unless you use a 7 wire turn signal switch you will need to add additional lights and wiring at the rear to serve as turn signals.

These are by no means “show stoppers. You just need to be aware of them and plan ahead.

Already have the lights wired in the front. The headlights work high and low beam and we wired the parking lights to be the turn signals but are yet to run them past the firewall. Put a new dimmer switch in the floor for the headlights but connected the old hot wire to it for now. When we change the headlight switch we will run a new power wire at that time. Also will run a new headlight indicator light wire when we re-wire the gauges.

Unfortunately most of the markings on the wires have faded away and the only way to tell what one goes where is to probe it with a multimeter. For this reason we are running only a few wires at a time. Knowing that the motor ran and a list of what was working we do not want to cut anything and forget to reconnect it.

The turn signal switch I am using has the wire diagram showing the brake light and tail light wire going into it. Out of it goes a tail light wire and a right turn and left turn wire. My understanding is that hitting the brakes will light up both of the tail lights at once using the right and left wires. I plan to also run the tail light wire too the license plate light.

Assuming you are not going to have a dome lamp, you’ll need to have a four wire harness going to the rear of the car. Wires will be the left signal/stop filament, right signal/stop filament, fuel sending unit, and parking light filaments. As indicated, the parking light wire will need split in two as it enters the trunk to provide a supply to the license plate light.

It sounds like you have a 7 wire signal switch. The 7 wires will be left rear signal/stop filament, right rear signal/stop filament, left front signal filament, right front signal filament, power from the flasher, indicator light from flasher, and connection from the brake light switch. As Rusty mentioned, usually the parking light sockets are changed to accommodate two filament bulbs, one for parking and the other for signal. Dual filament sockets can usually be sourced locally.

The attached pictures, while not exact, may be of some help. Mike

Thanks for all the help. I already converted the rear lights to dual filament. Bought the sockets and 6v dual filament bulbs from my local NAPA. I have the harness for the rear lights and plate light in, its just not connected to anything going to the front of the car. Thanks for the reminder about the fuel sender. I had forgotten that one.

Glad to read that the boys are still helping and learning about the perils of fixing up an antique vehicle.
Thanks for responding/

dick