Wiring

[roadrunner69]

Well put power back to the Bird last nite. After a couple of months
of rebuilding the butchered up dash and engine harnesses everything
works except the dash and dome lite. Knew I should of changed
the dash dimmer control. Oh well. A lot of time and patients to
save $500 for the dash harness. Took 2 and made a good one.
The engine harness redid it and rerouted some wires to make
it look neat compared to what it was. Heck even the reverse lite
on the dash works, YEE HAA. Well all I got to do now is finish
bolting dash up and glove comp and put radio back in. But it sure
does look better with the dash back in. At least the harness is
neat and run where it is suppose to be not hanging everywhere.
Never did find the wires that went to the amp gauge???
Replace bulkhead and put on a starter relay for a 4sp and got rid
of the ground wire they had for the one that was for an auto.
Next project, to see if it cranks since I redid the engine harness
with some modifications to it. The car was changed to a 70
charging system from a 69.
At least now when you open the hood you dont see a bunch of sliced
green wires running everywhere. All correct harness and plugs.
Oh yea did I tell you I hate messing with wiring harnesses!!
One good thing was it gave me an excuse to buy a good ohm
meter.

 

[69hemibeep]

Sounds like your making some big progress I wish I were that far along :toetap: Before Basketcase chimes in how bout some pics

 

[Basketcase]

:toetap: :toetap: :toetap: :toetap:



I would rather pull the entire driveline then mess with wiring.

 

[Big John]

I love seeing threads like this. Fixing what is there rather then replacing it is more what the hobby is about.

I had a late friend that repaired wiring harnesses. He was a GE electronic tech that was familar with how GE built all their harnesses for Radar and Sonar. He would take a piece of plywood and lay the harness out. Then he would take finishing nails and nail them into the plywood holding the harness in position. Then he ould use a marker to lay out the pattern of the harness.

From there he could strip off the tape and repair sections of wire without getting confused.

If you've ever been in a factory where they make up wiring harnesses by hand, that's the way they do it.

 

[Hoosier Bird]

I don't mind wiring too much, I've done quite a few. Not my favorite thing though.

 

[roadrunner69]

Well I had 3 wiring diagrams to help. I guess the one that
was the most help was the one from ebay that was color
coded and laminated. It was time consuming but the money
saved goes into the headliner and probably new wheels
and tires for the front. It has 8" with 60'S on the front and
going with either a 6 1/2 or 7" with a 70's series tire. I think it
will look alot better with that setup then 60's on the front.
Of course since the previous owner cut the lips on quarter panels
I'll leave the 10" with 50's on the back. It looks good with them
big tires under it.
Pete

 

[Roadcuda]

I hate doing electrical too. I do some for my model railroading and it can really confuse me sometimes. I remember another time when I had an electrical problem in a truck I was driving. It took them 2 1/2 hours to find a cracked tail light housing causing the short! Pete, is that diagram you have the one from Classic Car Wiring? That's what I have and it does help find the right wires. And John, that comment about "fixing what's there rather then replacing it," should be told to our parts chan.. I mean mechanic at work. That is most always his solution to problems, change the part. Just recently we were having some tranny problems with a forklift. His first comment was that it was blown . Six quarts of oil took car of the problem! :huh:

 

[69hemibeep]

Its not bad work as long as I dont have to lay upside down under a dash

 

[roadrunner69]

Yes Classic Car Wiring is one of them.
A lot of people would replace the wiring since a lot of them
are plug and go. I did not want to spend that kind of money when
I could fix it myself. Just took a little time to round up another
harness to use. I would of never of done it laying on my back that is
why I just took it out and had it laying on the floor. Then you can
trace the wire, (if it is there) and replace it with one from another harness.
If a harness has had a lot of heat and melted wires then
sometimes it is best to bite the bullet and order one. Just be careful
when buying harnesses off ebay, they advertise them to fit 68 to 70
B bodys. They all won't interchange unless you trace out the diffence and modify it.
The first one I got was suppose to be for
68 to 70 RR/GTX B bodys, it was for a 68 Charger, could of made it
work but it was to nice of a harness to cut up so I resold it and found one for a
69 RR that had some minor issues but between the
2 I have a perfect one. Plus with it laying on the ground you can retape it up a lot easier.
It just time consuming and you cant get in no hurry. But when you
get done and look at it Hey Alright.

 

[Big John]

Its not bad work as long as I dont have to lay upside down under a dash

Yep... I feel the same.

Being the son of an Electrician, I learned a lot from my Dad about wiring (and a lot of other things). I don't mind doing it as long as I'm not all crunched up under the dash with a flashlight in my mouth.

 

[69hemibeep]

Its not bad work as long as I dont have to lay upside down under a dash

Yep... I feel the same.

Being the son of an Electrician, I learned a lot from my Dad about wiring (and a lot of other things). I don't mind doing it as long as I'm not all crunched up under the dash with a flashlight in my mouth.

I just cant do it anymore, its like i need bifocals on the top of my glasses if your over 45 you know what I'm talking about

 

[ACME A12]

Its not bad work as long as I dont have to lay upside down under a dash

Yep... I feel the same.

Me three. I'm just not a limber as I used to be... On those occasions where it has not made sense to remove the dash/harness/or both I have at least removed the seat or seats just to make it a little easier to lie under there...

I did a similar cut/splice/repair job on the harness for Tam's Swinger. I did not care for the original '70 Dart dash and wanted factory A/C controls in the dash also. I swapped a '71 Duster dash in it, and then used the best sections of each harness to get what I wanted. Here's a pic of the finsihed product if you guys are interested - ignore the paint chips in the dash frame - they've since been repaired. The car came back from the body shop with the windshield and the dash frame installed and we buggered up the dash frame a tad getting the A/C & heater unit back in... Lesson learned on that installation sequence...

:brickwall:
Ray

 

[Hoosier Bird]

Its not bad work as long as I dont have to lay upside down under a dash

Yep... I feel the same.

Being the son of an Electrician, I learned a lot from my Dad about wiring (and a lot of other things). I don't mind doing it as long as I'm not all crunched up under the dash with a flashlight in my mouth.

John, all you have to do is flip the car upside down and sit on the inside of the top. No problems........

 

[Big John]

[quote="Big John":3ukl6jb2]

Its not bad work as long as I dont have to lay upside down under a dash

Yep... I feel the same.

Being the son of an Electrician, I learned a lot from my Dad about wiring (and a lot of other things). I don't mind doing it as long as I'm not all crunched up under the dash with a flashlight in my mouth.

John, all you have to do is flip the car upside down and sit on the inside of the top. No problems........[/quote:3ukl6jb2]

LOL.. I took the dash out while the car was on the rotisserie and on its side... .

 

[Hoosier Bird]

I stripped all the interior out of my 57 because I got tired of standing on my head.......

 

[Plymouthfan]

My dash harness is near perfect. No cuts, splices or missing wires!

My engine harness on the other hand was a different story. Tons of splices, lot's of dry rotting and hardening. I replaced the that harness with a new one from Evans (top notch people and products). Engine harnesses are fairly cheap compared to dash harnesses and since i was spending the $$$ to do the engine compartment, I figured, might as well spring for new wiring. Besides, I upgraded to the 70 charging system at the time.

Fit like a glove!

 

[Basketcase]

dang Chris that sure looks nice!

 

[69hemibeep]

My dash harness is near perfect. No cuts, splices or missing wires!

My engine harness on the other hand was a different story. Tons of splices, lot's of dry rotting and hardening. I replaced the that harness with a new one from Evans (top notch people and products). Engine harnesses are fairly cheap compared to dash harnesses and since i was spending the $$$ to do the engine compartment, I figured, might as well spring for new wiring. Besides, I upgraded to the 70 charging system at the time.

Fit like a glove!

I got a new one from Evans also, its in a box waiting on a car :toetap:

 

[John69RR]

I agree with you Dave, that looks great. I remeber when I first tried to run my car after towing it home. Wires were spliced, cut and just plain open ended both under the dash and in the engine compartment. Glad those days are behind me. I replaced the engine harness and was able to disect the dash harness and found most of the butchering was related to radio/speaker installation.

 

[SomeCarGuy]

I just want to throw out there that for the engine harness- BUY THE YO PART.

That is one kick tail harness for about 120 bucks. I have used several, you can even spec on that has ECU box factory wiring setup even if your car did come with it.

I had a engien harness a couple years ago that almost burned my Challenger to the ground at a stop light.

Just too much heat under hood to risk old stuff there.