How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[M.Morren]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

David.

I just realized I didn’t take a picture of the mounts I made up. Basically it’s 2”x 1/8” thick flat stock. Ends are bent 90deg on both ends. This fits across the width of the wooden body. Two woods screws on both bent ends screw into the lamp. This bracket would get bolted to the roof sheet metal then the lamp inserted and the wood screws screwed in. In my case I needed to make another piece that fit over the canopy tubing. I made up a stamping die and pressed some out in the shop press. The top stamped piece fits around the canopy tube and then two bolts are used to secure the top piece to the lamp bracket.

As for the lamp, yes there are few different holes in it.

The red circle is for the power in wire. It goes directly to the push/pull switch. It has a quick connect GM connection.

The green arrow is where the push pull switch mounts.

The blue circle is a socket accessible only from the outside of the lamp. It gets wired to the switch. I believe it was used to fit the plug from a trouble light or provide remote power to another lamp or some other accessory. I’m not sure if it should always be live or only live when the light is on.

The yellow arrow is the lamp socket.

The red arrow is a screw that holds the tinned metal reflector in place. It goes right through the wooded body and has a double nut on the backside. This also acts as the hookup for the ground to complete the electrical circuit.
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Hi Jordan,

I think I found out how the socket was supposed to be wired. According to a schematic in the MACH-ZL manual, the output wire from the switch goes to the lamp and the socket. So the socket is only powered when the light is on.
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It looks like that this was not always the case though. The NOS dome lights that came with my truck both have a short cable that plugs into the socket. So it looks like that the socket could also be used as input for the dome light (easy to do, just connect the socket wire to the input of the switch)
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One question: How did you find out that these use an ARK-LES push/pull switch? It looks like that the NOS lights did not come with switches.

[Jordan Baker]

Interesting find with the wiring diagram. It makes sense that the plug socket wouldn’t be live unless the switch is on. I’m not sure how the pigtails worked or what the purpose for them was being so short.

As for the Arkless switch. I picked up a few take off lights from a few different sources and they had those switches. The switches had been over painted with paint matching on the wooden base. I found the rest of my switches on eBay.

[M.Morren]

Dove into my manual again and found that the switch wasn't even mentioned in the parts/equipment list. It was added manually in this one.
Equipment list mach-zl dome light.jpg

I also found some more proof of the originality of the ARK-LES Heavy Duty switch. A switch, which closely resembles the one you found, was drawn In one of the 3 "Location Of Equipment" drawings. (on the left side of the dome light)
location of equipment mach-zl dome light detail.jpg

This is enough evidence for me to start looking for them.
Thank you for sharing the info on the switches (And everything else in this thread!)

[Jordan Baker]

It’s been a long time posting any updates on this truck. Partly it’s been that most of the truck is done and there is just small details to work on. However 2022 has been mostly spent on building a new home for the vehicles. I’ll post a separate thread on the shop shortly. But for now a teaser……

[Bob Carriere]

....looks like 30 x 50 with a full second floor.

Make sure it is fire proof!!!!

[Jordan Baker]

This past year and a half the truck has not been out much. The last time it was out, the carb gave a lot of issues. So tonight I decided to pull it apart for a rebuild. Well I’m glad I did, as the bowl and passages were full of rust flakes. The lower body was totally stripped down. This is now currently soaking in a tub of Evaporust. Hopefully this will get the passages cleaned up

[Jordan Baker]

After soaking the lower body in evaporust over night I’m happy to report that the majority of the rust is gone. This morning I took the parts over to a friend’s shop as he has a vapour blasting cabinet. He uses it for rebuilding snow mobile and motorcycle engines. The parts cleaned extremely well and the top parts look like NOS parts. The only down side is that the cast lower bodies flash rust. However I’m doing another 24hrs in evaporust.