Taking apart the Kerr Industries upfitting
Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 8:25 pm
I'm finally starting to get ambitious enough to tackle tracing out and stripping the after-market upfitting that was done by Kerr Industries. I've had several wiring bundles in the car since I've had it and pretty much just left them intact without disturbing them so far. Most of the wiring centers around the right side trunk area near the aux. battery. After inspecting some of the wiring this afternoon, it looks like I have either LED's or strobe lights in the reverse lights that I think are still in the assemblies. I am going to have to spend a day tearing down the car figuring out where everything is going and what still works/what can be pulled. Only way to really do it is to open up the side channels on both sides and start pulling & tracing wires, cutting tie wraps and tape, and generally taking it all apart. When I figure out what's left intact and what could be useable down the road for car shows/displays, I can work on a system to hook it all back up.
Today I finished a project that I've been procrastinating on for a while, finished hooking up the rear flashing lights in the trunk lid. They were originally red & blue when I got the car, I pulled the lollypop pancake LED lights that Kerr installed and ordered amber LED's of the same diameter to install in the place using the original brackets. The new lights are thicker but work very well, they're the same amber flashing lights (that will do 16 programmable patterns BTW!) you see on the back of garbage trucks flush-mounted. What's important is I can now use them for car shows or for special events where I'm providing emergency communications (since I'm also an amateur radio operator) and I reactivated an OEM option the car came with.
Putting the new lights in was a little of a challenge, I had to drill out the old mounting rivets attaching the original light brackets to the trunk lid in order to remove the old lights off the brackets. As a result, I was faced with putting new studs in to mount the lights to and drilling the old brackets with two holes each to mount the new lights onto. I did the sticky-finger trick to get the new stainless steel screws and lockwashers into the holes in the trunk lid interior sheet metal (wrap your finger with electrical tape and guide the screws into the holes, the stainless screws I used are non-magnetic so a parts trapper wouldn't work to guide them into place), then after attaching the lights I used small stainless wingnuts to secure it all in place. Everything is properly wire loomed and it really does look factory. I'll have to take a video of it running and post it somewhere.
Next thing I want to tackle is figuring out why my headlight & tail light flashers don't come on when the appropriate wire in the upfitting harness is grounded. I'm just going to have to take an ohmmeter and start tracing continuity. I'll apply appropriate inputs right at the relay center for the option (behind the right headlight) to see if I can get anything to happen and then go from there. While I'm in the front working I'll check to see if any strobes or LED's were upfitted into the headlights/turn signals, etc... I do have a Whelen strobe supply, but for some reason I think it's LED's. There are only two conductors coming out of the trunk lights with red/black 16 gauge power zip cord. Strobe installations are typically three conductors unless it's installed as power supply-on-bulb, which is very rare.
Also I need to trace out where the siren speaker wiring terminates at. I have a telco-style fox & hound that will come in handy for the wire tracing. If the speaker wiring goes to the front right corner of the trunk where everything seems to terminate at, I've got an old Code 3 amplifier that I can mod to provide airhorn only. That would be a good install where the controls are non-accessable, I can get to key on/off power in the police electrical center to power the amp. So all I'd need is two conductors and a small momentary switch.
I never did figure out exactly what equipment GM had in the car to control everything. There was no sign of any control module drilled into any of the interior trin pieces, so I'm surmising it was either a hand-held controller (maybe wireless) or trim pieces were replaced before the car was sent through the auction.
Anyone else have the massive bundle of wires in the trunk or was any equipment left in?
Eric
Today I finished a project that I've been procrastinating on for a while, finished hooking up the rear flashing lights in the trunk lid. They were originally red & blue when I got the car, I pulled the lollypop pancake LED lights that Kerr installed and ordered amber LED's of the same diameter to install in the place using the original brackets. The new lights are thicker but work very well, they're the same amber flashing lights (that will do 16 programmable patterns BTW!) you see on the back of garbage trucks flush-mounted. What's important is I can now use them for car shows or for special events where I'm providing emergency communications (since I'm also an amateur radio operator) and I reactivated an OEM option the car came with.
Putting the new lights in was a little of a challenge, I had to drill out the old mounting rivets attaching the original light brackets to the trunk lid in order to remove the old lights off the brackets. As a result, I was faced with putting new studs in to mount the lights to and drilling the old brackets with two holes each to mount the new lights onto. I did the sticky-finger trick to get the new stainless steel screws and lockwashers into the holes in the trunk lid interior sheet metal (wrap your finger with electrical tape and guide the screws into the holes, the stainless screws I used are non-magnetic so a parts trapper wouldn't work to guide them into place), then after attaching the lights I used small stainless wingnuts to secure it all in place. Everything is properly wire loomed and it really does look factory. I'll have to take a video of it running and post it somewhere.
Next thing I want to tackle is figuring out why my headlight & tail light flashers don't come on when the appropriate wire in the upfitting harness is grounded. I'm just going to have to take an ohmmeter and start tracing continuity. I'll apply appropriate inputs right at the relay center for the option (behind the right headlight) to see if I can get anything to happen and then go from there. While I'm in the front working I'll check to see if any strobes or LED's were upfitted into the headlights/turn signals, etc... I do have a Whelen strobe supply, but for some reason I think it's LED's. There are only two conductors coming out of the trunk lights with red/black 16 gauge power zip cord. Strobe installations are typically three conductors unless it's installed as power supply-on-bulb, which is very rare.
Also I need to trace out where the siren speaker wiring terminates at. I have a telco-style fox & hound that will come in handy for the wire tracing. If the speaker wiring goes to the front right corner of the trunk where everything seems to terminate at, I've got an old Code 3 amplifier that I can mod to provide airhorn only. That would be a good install where the controls are non-accessable, I can get to key on/off power in the police electrical center to power the amp. So all I'd need is two conductors and a small momentary switch.
I never did figure out exactly what equipment GM had in the car to control everything. There was no sign of any control module drilled into any of the interior trin pieces, so I'm surmising it was either a hand-held controller (maybe wireless) or trim pieces were replaced before the car was sent through the auction.
Anyone else have the massive bundle of wires in the trunk or was any equipment left in?
Eric