Bantam Wiring Harness Project

"Using the WWII MB/GPW Plug and Socket"

by Gale Breitkreutz (RIP 1952-2020)

WW II MB/GPW trailer plug wired for 4 wire - stop, left turn, right turn, and ground.  (turn signals are optional)

Front view, plug back along left drawbar.

Harness as it passes through the 2nd cross member. (the grommets are available at Ace Hardware)
 
You can now see the tail lamp harnesses passing through the center cross member and the main harness and ground eye hanging.
This is where the main harness connects to the taillight harnesses, this is between the 2nd and 3rd frame cross members. Note the ground wire attached to the loom mount. (just ignore my 1x1 extra floor supports)
Left and right tail lamp harnesses passing through cross member. Left tail lamp is passing through the left frame rail. (notice optional right tail lamp harness routing along the cross member)
 

Optional right tail lamp harness passing through the right frame rail.

This is a trial fitting of a Model A tail lamp. (see Arrow Tail Lamp Alternative tail lamp project)
The finished Model A tail lamp. A very nice and readily available alternative to the Arrow Tail Lamp.
The finished look of the WWII trailer plug and socket.
Here is the WW II connector socket that I mounted in place of the cover on my CJ2A.

If you look at the diagram, the measurements in the shaded circles are for the various sections of the harness.

The front one is measured from a hole in the left drawbar where the harness was clamped. This length will be different depending on the trailer socket location.

I used a MB/GPW plug and socket so it's that long to reach over to the left side of the Jeep.

The next measurement is from that clamp location to just in front of cross member #3, this is where I made the connections, I used a 2 into one to join the taillight wires to a single wire, then used a 3 into 3 to join the rear harness to the front. (plus I added a ground wire into the front harness and terminated it at the junction point as well).

The other 2 measurements are from the individual lights to the junction points.

The measurements that aren't in circles are the measurements of the frame (just in case anyone is interested).

I chose the wire colors to match the harness in the Jeep. I got that from Walck's. I did make one change, the taillight wires from Walck's had yellow with a black tracer to both taillights, the instruction sheet said that if the lights blinked on the wrong side, swap the wires. (I thought that was stupid) so I differentiated the sides by substituting a solid yellow wire for one side. The wire is 16ga which I got from Walck's as well as the connectors, the price on the wire was $.50 a foot. I was also able to get the little "solder in" terminals for the taillights so I didn't have to splice into them.