I recently had my alternator catch fire while my truck was parked out front of a bar. Power steering fluid leak caused the alternator to short out and subsequently catch fire. I wasn't there, so I could not catch it early enough. The fire department was dispatched and they were able to save the truck. Although my complete wiring harness is fried...end to end. Quite a few of the plugs did not burn, but the main section of wires is scrap.

My question is will a 76 wiring harness for an automatic work for a 77 with a manual? I have found a donor truck at the pick n pull that has a complete wiring harness. I have taken most of it apart, but I stopped because of a few issues I see. One is that its an automatic so it has a neutral safety switch. Can this be bolted to the firewall and set to "park" so that it will always start? The other is that on the schematic, I see that the item labelled "combination meter lights" appears to be in a slightly different spot, still with the same color wire. The other would be the "solenoid valve" which is in the 77 schematic, but not in the 76.
Other things on the schematic show certain lengths of wires slightly different, but mostly the same.


My other issue is the alternator. The previous owner of my truck turned it from a 77 2wd and put it on a 87 4wd chassis. It had the round plug later model alternator and he had spliced it into the wiring harness properly. I feel like this could pose an issue, but if I splice it in the same way, that shouldn't be an issue.


They had a 78 which would have worked perfectly, but as is my luck lately...it was being crushed into a cube when I got there.

Any response would be great.
Thanks,
Dave