Hey guys, I have a stupid question. I'm going to make headlight mounts out of electrical conduit and I would like to hide the wires within the tube. My question is, how are the wires routed down by the frame after they exit the mount? Are all the wires run inside the fame or attached outside somehow?
That is completely up to you, some guys drill a hole and put a grommet in it and run the wires through the frame. I use wire loom and put clips on it to hold it along side the frame. It is easier to get to if you need to.
That is completely up to you, some guys drill a hole and put a grommet in it and run the wires through the frame. I use wire loom and put clips on it to hold it along side the frame. It is easier to get to if you need to.
That is what I used to mount my lights. I used a section of a 1/2" thin wall conduit sweep/ninety, a piece of 2" O.D. exhaust tubing that is 1 1/4" tall, a plug from using a 2 1/8" hole saw and a piece of 1/8" angle that I cut to fit under the mounting flange of the grill shell and reach the bottom edge of the frame. After deciding the exact amount of conduit that I needed I cut it off and welded into a hole of the O.D. of the conduit that I had drilled into the exhaust tubing. I then welded the hole saw plug to the top of the exhaust tubing and opened the mandrel size drill hole to accept the head light mounting bolt. I then drilled the piece of angle to accept the other end of the conduit and welded the conduit to the angle along with drilling four mounting holes in the angle, two on top and two on the side. I should add that the hole in the angle corresponds to a hole in the center of the top of the frame rail which allows you to route your wires into the frame. You could take the wires all the way to the floor of the body but I chose to mount a small terminal strip on the bottom of my front crossmember which in my case is directly behind the radiator. From that terminal strip the wires are routed very discretely behind the front crossmember to the right light they also run on the inside of the left frame rail right below the brake line to the lower left front corner of the body.
I hope that the attached pictures will help explain things better. If not, PM me and I'll try to do better.
Yes Jim, thanks for the pics and the great description! That definitely helps! BTW, I got the idea to use the pre-bent conduit from another older post you made. Thanks! Great idea!
And for those wondering how can you run the wire inside the frame rails? You drill the hole where the wire will go in and a hole where the wire will come out. The frame rail must be sealed other than these two holes. Now use the shop vac over one hole and feed a piece of string in the other. The vac will suck the string right out and then you can pull in the wires. If you are going to run 2-3 wires in the hole tape them together and pull them all at once.
And for those wondering how can you run the wire inside the frame rails? You drill the hole where the wire will go in and a hole where the wire will come out. The frame rail must be sealed other than these two holes. Now use the shop vac over one hole and feed a piece of string in the other. The vac will suck the string right out and then you can pull in the wires. If you are going to run 2-3 wires in the hole tape them together and pull them all at once.
Ron, I might add that to make it even easier, tie a little piece of cloth on the end of the string. That gives a little more surface area for the vac to work on to bring the string through.
And for those wondering how can you run the wire inside the frame rails? You drill the hole where the wire will go in and a hole where the wire will come out. The frame rail must be sealed other than these two holes. Now use the shop vac over one hole and feed a piece of string in the other. The vac will suck the string right out and then you can pull in the wires. If you are going to run 2-3 wires in the hole tape them together and pull them all at once.
Two all that pulls wire through the frame . Make sure you don't chap/srape or what ever you call it when pulling it through. You should never have a problem running the wire if its do right
Two all that pulls wire through the frame . Make sure you don't chap/srape or what ever you call it when pulling it through. You should never have a problem running the wire if its do right
Depending on your hole size you could wrap your wires in loom, tape the loom to the wire at the ends so it can't pull off, and pull the wire and loom through at one time. This would give you extra protection in case there are any boogers inside the tubing.
After you do Ron's trick, grab a couple of short pieces of fuel line, put some vasoline in them, slide them over the bailing wire that you've attached the string to and pulled thru. At the end of the bailing wire, where you have attached your electical wire, wrap the tied wires with tape and gentle but forcefully pull the wires (I put a loop at the end I'm pulling from to make it easier), the rubber hose will keep the sharp metal edges from cutting the wire going thru while the vasoline will reduce the amount of pull or force needed to thread the wires thru the rubber hose at the end....
After the wire is threaded thru, Install grommets, and put a little dab of black silicone to seal the wires....
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when pulling it through. You should never have a problem running the wire if its do right
