Rewire a 1957 Bombardier C18 snowmobile

the old trucker

the old trucker

Active Member
I am helping a friend rewire his 57' bombardier C18 snowmobile. I need to know if this plan will be OK. Here goes..

First the motor & battery are in the back, with the dash, heater, wiper motor & radio & electric gauges up front, gas, oil, water & volt 12 to 15' apart. We have 2, 7 way trailer cord wires (6 - 14 gauge & 1 - 12 gauge, each one) run from back to front . I plan to run a heavy battery cable (1 awg) from the positive on battery to the front which will have a "HOT STRIP" ( a piece of 1/4" T, x 1" W, x 12" L copper strip, isolated from body. It will be "HOT" always. Sorta like a fuse panel.

I will bolt on a bunch of circuit breakers to this strip which will have a wire run to each individual switch & on to the lights, heater, etc. I will use a relay for the lights & heater. It's like the way Freightliner trucks were wired.. Sound good or should I change anything ??? Thanks in advance for your thoughts. Ohh, I also plan to use a Master Switch just after the battery.



The Old Trucker (OT.)
 
I would make sure the copper bus bar is protected from anything falling onto it. also I wonder if all the circuits forward, or the line to the copper strip should be protected ?
Is this a 6 volt system ? Need bigger gauge wire fir 6 volt I think.
Otherwise the layout sounds acceptable, is it flowing the original layout ?
 
shaune said:
I would make sure the copper bus bar is protected from anything falling onto it. also I wonder if all the circuits forward, or the line to the copper strip should be protected ?
Is this a 6 volt system ? Need bigger gauge wire fir 6 volt I think.
Otherwise the layout sounds acceptable, is it flowing the original layout ?
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The copper buss bar will be protected in a heavy plastic box with heater hose covering the main feed. All ciruicts forward will be in wire loom. It is a 12 volt setup & the wiring will follow the original layout as much as possible. I will fuse the "HOT " wire @ the battery & planned to use a master switch. Do anyone know what a "SHUNT " is & what it's used for ???

OT.
 
You're probably done, but my two cents here....I don't like circuit breakers in an automotive application, if you get a dead short, they'll trip and then try to reset, over and over. A fuse blows and you have to find out why, something to think about.
 
luckylucky said:
You're probably done, but my two cents here....I don't like circuit breakers in an automotive application, if you get a dead short, they'll trip and then try to reset, over and over. A fuse blows and you have to find out why, something to think about.
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No I am not started yet. Planning to do late this fall. I'm just trying to stay ahead of it all so when the time comes hopefully I'll have everything in place. Thanks for your tip, it sounds like a good idea.....

OT.
 
Don't use self resetting CBs, aviation uses a nice style. They pop and stay popped. You can also pull them to disable the circuit.
 
If you run a heavy wire to a front junction bar you can just wire as always from there through a Fuse panel . relays for the lights and heater are a good idea. If you're running a delco alternator run the sense line using at least # 10 wire from the junction block back to your monoplex plug . the excite wire you can just run its own wire the same as the sense line to the key. This way your power output will match what is going on up front = bright lights and fully charged battery.
DelcoWiring.jpg
 
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How is a horn wired ? When I tore everything apart all I noticed was one wire going up the steering column. It wasn't hooked to anything. Should that wire be HOT at all times ? When the horn is used should it go to ground on the column ??
 
the old trucker said:
How is a horn wired ? When I tore everything apart all I noticed was one wire going up the steering column. It wasn't hooked to anything. Should that wire be HOT at all times ? When the horn is used should it go to ground on the column ??
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Nope, not hot, that is the ground side of the switched part of a relay, it grounds in side the horn button and completes the circuit, closes the relay, honks the horn. Built that way so no power inside the steering column I think.:)
 
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