Got a few things done today while sorting out the electrical system. Spent most of the afternoon chasing down the things I needed to do that, however. It’s taking so long because I can’t see putting all this nice stuff in there and hiding it with a rat’s nest of wiring (yes, I have new valve covers, but I’m not ready for them yet). I had to give up as the sun was getting ready to drop and the skeeters were starting to figure out where I hadn’t applied the bug juice.

Here’s how it was when we left it a few weekends ago. Gotta pull the spark plug wires and re-tip them, since we tossed on the tips just to hear it run without cutting them to fit (which takes a lot longer than you’d think). Still looks like quite the mess with all the hoses and wiring not yet sorted out.

Had to pull the alternator to see if the factory harness would plug-in (the terminal wound up hidden away in the depths under the A/C compressor – which can’t be seen from anywhere)… and it does, so at least I don’t have to re-wire it. The rest of it is the factory harness after my progress so far on rehabbing the circuits I still need. So far, I’ve completed the transmission pigtail (4 wires), the temp sensor lead, oil pressure sensor lead, and the extensions of the coil wires on the Edelbrock harness. Still have the starter solenoid, neutral safety switch, and alternator circuits to go, then figure out what to do with the Duraspark plug I no longer need.

The extra challenge I have putting this all back together is finding places to relocate the things normally found on the inner fenders because of my swing-out fender mod – I can’t be unhooking those things every time I need to open up the fenders, after all… and having an extra 3 feet of cables on things like the starter solenoid isn’t an option. The starter solenoid was mounted to the diagonal brace of the battery tray before (the holes in the first pic), but now the heater hoses and V8 valve cover are a bit too close for that. Probably wind up under the battery tray on the firewall… might have to make a new bracket for that, or maybe put it toward the top of the firewall next to the Edelbrock ECU (that might wind up going there). We’ll see what works best.