VintageKustom.com: Repairing Kustom Amps » 2 prong cord to three prong

2 prong cord to three prong [message #24567]

Sat, 30 January 2016 10:58

bproctor
Messages: 11
Registered: December 2015
Location: BOSTON

Junior Member

First off,
I am sure this topic gets brought up a lot, so I apologize.
I have researched this a bit and have some questions about the process.

Here is my plan:
Buy 14 gauge , 3 wire cord.
Remove lug from death cap, remove death cap, solder this lug to the ground (which will be the longest of the three cords), and install the ground on the chasis bolt where the death cap was installed.

Install cord strain relief.

Now, it gets tricky:
Some folks say attach white and black to the original locations.

1. If I do this, I assume i will still have the ability to switch polarity. Is this a good thing?
2. I am a little worried about the solder and the fuse. Could I connect the new cord to the old cord leads using wire nuts or is that not smart given cord strain?
3. I have heard that people simply wire the white to the white transformer lead and change the wiring on the switch so that both pulls have the same effect. This seems easy to screw up as both my transformer wires are black and the DPDT switch seems a bit complicated.

In short, I would love to simply attach wire nuts to the old leads, install the ground, install the cord relief and call it a day, but is this a good idea?

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