Bulkheads, pass throughs or whatever you want to call them, eventually those wires are going to have to pass through the firewall. A few criterias were in order. Weather proof, hidden and quick disconnect. The battery was kept 1 1/2" away from the fire wall to allow the wires to exit the firewall directly behind it, that takes care of the hidden part. The weather proof part wasn't really a problem, but with only having 1 1/2" to play with was. A very nice weather pack bulkhead is available utilizing 22 circuits, but is pretty bulky and comes straight out from the firewall. We needed one that turned down 90 degrees. and had a disconnect plug. An internet search turned up some nice billet ones but not with a disconnect.

It never seems to fail we often come to a situation in this build that either parts are not available or we want to do it a different way. So off to the drawing board. Using a 6 conductor weather pack connector as our starting point a holder was made from some aluminum stock laying around the shop. An extruded angle and some 1/2" square aluminum was used. A 3/16" radius was milled into the 1/2" pieces to match the radius on the connector with a 1/8" hole drilled into the radius to utilize the existing pins already on the connector to hold in place. The connector was sandwiched in between the 2 pieces and attached to the angle with 8-32 stainless socket head cap screws. The assembly

was milled square for future polishing. The wires will exit the top of the connector, turn 90 degrees, go through the firewall into another aluminum piece with 6 hole drilled through in the exact spacing as the weather pack connector. This piece will be mounted on the inside of the firewall and use the weather pack o-rings. 2 8-32 screws will pass through the outside piece into the inside piece sandwiching the firewall in between making for a good seal. 3 of these assemblies will be used to give us a total of 18 circuits and mounted just enough above the battery to be visible. No sense in making them totally hidden since they will be polished. Any unused ports will be filled with the weather pack

rubber plugs. The wiring can now be run behind the battery to underneath it where the starter solenoid, relays, mega fuse and terminal strips are mounted.

Finished up the tail light wiring by wiring up the new LED units, only to find out they were not working properly. I had originally grounded them to the frame. Jeffrey suggested running a ground test lead right from the battery and sure enough that fixed it. With our temporary wiring we had run the ground cable directly to the engine block but not to the frame. So it was trying to ground through the engine mounts. A braided ground strap from the engine to the frame cured it. Ironically the American Wire kit did not have provisions for a reverse light circuit. A feed was run to the shifter switch then to the rear. That would mean 4 wires would be passing through the body for lighting (tail, r. turn, l. turn

and rev.) along with fuel gauge for a total of 5. A 5 conductor weather pack connector was sourced for Custom Connector Kits and using their terminal crimpers, a plug was assembled where the floor kicks up for the rear floor behind the console. Continuing on to the lights a 3 conductor plug was added to each light along with an additional 4 conductor plug feeding them which in the event that a trailer harness is installed can be pulled apart and a T connector plugged in to go to the trailer plug. This way the body can be lifted off just by pulling these plugs apart. The T connector is a Hopkins #41125 for a 1988 to 1998 full size Chevy truck.

that can be purchased through Advance Auto or Amazon. These weather pack connectors are great and crimping on the terminals and seals is pleasurable with the correct tools. Next we'll show you how the wiring will be hidden behind and under the battery box and the bulkhead connectors that were fabricated to come through the firewall.