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Awesome to see a forum dedicated to this pimp truck... Can't wait to get mine up & running so I can cart my dirtbikes around on the flatbed. Due to the fact that the old wiring harness on this truck, which I recently obtained from my father, contained a bunch of cracked / frayed / melted wires, I replaced the entire wiring harness, bumper to bumper (yes, even under the dash), with one from a junkyard that was in good physical condition. The wiring harness I obtained came from an '81 with an Automatic transmission, while the truck I've got is an '81 with a Manual transmission. The problem I'm experiencing is that when I turn the key to "accessories" nothin comes on. At very least, I'm expecting something to happen with the heater blower motor, but nada... The headlights will come on, and I can use the turn signals when I turn the key to the 'On' position. Heater blower motor will not work when key is in 'on' position either. (tested blower motor to fused link, works perfectly hotwired) Everything from the wiring harness is hooked up and everything accounted for, save for the 6 wire harness connection that connected to the automatic shifter area on the rig I pulled it out of. I was able to get the engine to turn over when I crossed the two 10 guage white with black stripe wires on the "dangling" auto transmission harness. I'm guessing that this extra harness is an ignition kill switch mechanism for the auto tranny, but I've no idea which other wires need to be crossed in order to allow my accessories to work. Anyone who can give me any advice on this? I should also mention that with the old wiring harness, I would hear the relays on the fusebox kick in when I would turn the key to either on or acc positions, but now I don't hear those relays activate. I've got the Haynes manual for this truck, and the wiring diagram shows that this extra set of wires should be for the ignition kill, but I can barely make heads or tails out of the blurry diagrams. Help!

those six wires go to the inhibitor switch (nuetral safety switch for us older fellers). the BW wires (the top two on the diagram below) are the charging circuit and they are closed via the switch with the auto shifter in park only. the RL wires (the two lower right ones) are the reverse circuit and the Lg wires (two lower left) are the CRS circuit which is CA only. Looking at the wiring diagram for this it looks like the wiring could be converted to match your clutch start, clutch and accel switches.

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Thanks for the reply, that information will be helpful to know when I'm wiring the custom reverse lights for the flatbed. I went back to the truck at the junkyard today where I plucked the wiring harness from and took home the switch that plugged into that harness. Though I crossed fingers, toes and everything else crossable, I still had no luck getting the accessories to come on. Shouldn't the charge light at least come on when I turn it the key over to accessory? I can hear the relay kick on for the fuel pump when I turn the ignition to "ON", but don't hear the heater blower relay kick on. Here's something worth noting. On the old wiring harness, whoever owned it before my father had wirenutted the black heavy gauge black with yellow stripe wires together around the ignition. I don't know why they did this, I guess I will need to track down the permanent connection they made with a multimeter versus what's connected on the new wiring harness. Is there a possibility that the ignition switch is faulty then if they had those wires permanently crossed? (light bulb just went off in my head) Maybe I'll go yank the ignition switch & test continuity. I'll post back with my results.

sounds like a good possibility

ok, I guess I'm just an idiot, or didn't know better... one of the two. I tested the ignition switch and all works perfectly. I traced the Blue accessory wire to the fusebox, and from there found that the only items the accessory line powered were the radio wiring, and the windshield wiper / washers. So everything is cool on the "Accessory" angle. Which means that I'm gonna have to trace the harness connecting the heater blower / selector switch. Just because it was the most accessible tonight to get to, I yanked the resistor and that checks out ok. So next would be to figure out why the load isn't being placed to fire the blower relay switch. I've got a feeling though that I'm gonna trace down every wire leading to / from the relay & resistor only to find that it's something simple. Ah well, it's a fun little project nonetheless... considering the truck has been sitting outside unprotected since 1998... and runs!!! ^_^ Is there anything more obvious for me to check other than the blower relays, resistors, switches, and that the blower itself actually works? (all of which are golden thus far)

diagnosis in the service manual for blower motor inoperative is as follows:

1. Check the fuse
2. Check the wiring for open circuit and loose connections
3. Disconnect the switch wiring and make a continuity test as follows:
W/Heater
SCE and Hi at HI position
SCE and M at M position
SCE and LO at LO position
W/Air conditioning
SCE and Hi at HI position
SCE and M2 at M2 position
SCE and M1 at M1 position
If a continuity exists in th eabove cases, the switch is normal
4. If no trouble has been found through tests (1), (2) and (3), either the resistor or the motor is defective and should be checked and corrected or replaced.

Awesome, thank you very much... I hope to have this all wrapped up tomorrow... just in time for the carb to return from getting the auto-choke put back on (was missing all of the parts for the auto-choke, had to take it in to someone to let them scrounge around to find replacement parts... time to buy a weber if it's not done right.

hopefully you'll be able to get it fixed and get your spiffy carb back on and it'll be running sweet.. keep us posted.. and you're welcome

I haven't dealt with an 81 LUV yet, but all the 78-80s I have had the heater blower motor will not spin with the motor not running. Just turning the key on will not do it. If you don't have the truck running yet, don't worry about the blower motor until you get the motor started and running.

77 and older trucks do fire up the blower motor with the key to ON, but I doubt they switched things back to that setup in 81.

Well that makes me feel a bit better then, I'm hoping that the 81 is no different than the other years you worked on in that it wont turn on without the engine running... kinda makes sense as it's pointless to have the fan blowing to heat the truck without the heatercore being used. I guess my next course of action on this will be to rip the seats out again and attack the rust on the floorboard with a whirewheel. When I got the truck, there was an inch or so of water on the passenger floor with grass and moss growing from the carpet. The old carpet promptly came out as I didn't think it necessary to have a traveling garden. Question, if I removed the blower motor, the instrument panel, and anything else electrical, would I be pretty safe to take a hose to the inside of the truck to blast out the grime? It's pretty disgustipating in there right now, and would take forever to do by hand.