Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

It's a 1988 7.4L with a bravo 1. Just dropped a recently rebuilt power plant in that sucker, and now I'm trying to get all the wires hooked up, but I'm red/green/brown colorblind, so tan/blu looks like tan/pur, and gray looks like tan to me. I got the bilge pump, coil, trim pump, and blower to go, but I need the oil and water temp senders functional, and I'd really like the oil and water switches hooked to that alarm. The wires on the engine harness aren't right. I guess the hack that was doing sabotage in the name of maintenance before me figured any old switched 12 volts was good enough for whatever needed 12 volts, so the wrong colors are on everything. Also, this engine has an electric choke on an Edlebrock 1410, mounted on an AirGap intake that had a wire tie holding the choke open, and no 12v source or ground. I see that it needs a switched 12 volts, and Edlebrock says NOT to use the gray coil wire. Why would the PO not hook up the choke? I'd like some chokeage. Do I have to make manual linkage, or will the electric one work?

Re: Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

and Edlebrock says NOT to use the gray coil wire.

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That is because Gray, goes to the tachometer.

You need to find someone that isn't color blind to help you tag the wires and your wiring diagram with numbers, letters, colors or something.

Re: Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

If memory serves me, on old chevys they used to hook that choke wire into the alternator stator circuit. That way there was only voltage supplied when the engine was actually turning. Man that was a long time ago.

Yes, you must get someone to assist you labeling wires. My prefrence would be someone in a black or white bikini, but that's just me.

Re: Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

That way there was only voltage supplied when the engine was actually turning. Man that was a long time ago.

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Actually, Volvo does that today. The wire to the heating coil of the electric choke comes off the AC Tap terminal of the alternator. No direct DC draw for the choke.

Re: Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

I was afraid of that. It just means hangin' around scratchin' myself, waiting for somebody to show up. Oh, yeah - on the previous engine, somebody had run a gray wire from the ignition switch to the coil +. I'm gonna use it for the choke, 'cause on this engine, the purple wire is a switched 12v, (actually a switched 10 or 11), and I'm seeing something about a resistor wire, so I think it's probably right. The gray wires on the negative side of the coil go to the Thunderbolt IV, and the harness, presumably to the earlier mentioned tach. I'm also bugged by it that the up trim switch doesn't work, but down trim and trailer up do work. The trim gauge stays pegged, voltage or no, so I think it's a dead gauge. Don't even have the sender connected. I should be able to get my normally color visioned helper to hit the up trim switch and get continuity at the blu/wht and ground back at the pump's harness connection if the switch is good, huh?

Re: Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

You could take pictures and have someone label the pictures for you and post them back.

Re: Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

Been there, done that... I have the same albatross and I always take several photos of the wiring where ever it peeks out and get my wife to match up colors for me. The biggest problem is that older harnesses have faded and you have to cut away the loom to find the original colors. It seems to me that a lot of the technology in this day and age is too dependent on good color vision and 9% of the male population starts out behind the pack and cataracts just makes it worse. One trick I sometimes use is to illuminate color coded stuff with a black light. The shifted colors often give up their secrets. I've never used them but a geologist friend of mine kept colored photographic filters handy for interpreting topo and minerals maps. One more suggestion and I'll shut up: there are programs that shift colors on a computer screen for folks with color blindness. If you put a picture on the screen and activate the program you can see, for instance, the difference between blue and purple or brown and red.

Re: Any tricks for a colorblind electrician?

I have a set of 12 foot leads with clips on the end for my ohm meter. It helps me trace wires. ( be sure to turn battery off)