Nearly a complete re-wire.

[AzPete]

Well, we did it.......Midlife had most of the harness I needed, I had the rest and we both had the time. Two days worth of time.

First, we removed all the engine bay and dash wiring. The PO had an interesting system to say the least. Dash lights on with the key. Brake lights work only with the key on. All power went thru the ign. switch. Battery voltage was 12.5 v, power to coils was 10.5 v. Hmmmmm.

Bundles of wires twisted together at the bare ends, no solder, just taped up. Made no difference if it was power or ground. One color of wire ran throughout the car, no labels anywhere. Found a bundle taped under the dash and to our surprise, it was a new gauge harness. He made his own and left the new one untouched.

While Randy tinkered on the replacement harness, I played under the hood. We got many things accomplished this way.

The refurbished dash harness needed to be adapted for the new dash lights along with the feeds for the Auto Meter gauges that were in the car from the PO. Ended up splicing in the ign. switch as the one in the car would not unplug from the harness. I had a light switch that had a striped shaft threads so I used one Randy had in stock. Got the washers wired but not plumbed. Had it all assembled on the bench and then put the entire harness in thru the inst. cluster hole. Got the 5" tach wired in, the after market radio, and the gauges with very little in the way of problems.

Checked it all out and then the magic....hook in the battery. No smoke.......we must have done something right. A few minor changes and all went well.

First big woops, put in gear, car dies. Disconnect our wired in NSS and jumper around for another day.

Second big woops, elec. choke does not open. Will fix in the morning. Just took power from the wrong spot.

Third big woops, forgot to connect the speedo cable after dash being in and out a couple of times. Can do that in the morning but the GPS works good for tekp. use.

Nice to have a full 12.5 - 14.5 volts all the time. Dash lights now have dimming and work thru the switch properly. Headlight seem better also.

I must thank Midlife for the rework on the harnesses plus the assistance for the last two days in working this car over. I also did a good job of getting rid of all his elec. connections.

And last but not least, we managed to empty some of the adult beverages that were chilling all day. Ahhhhhhh

Thanks Randy.

 

[Midlife]

The choke lead power was taken from the I lead at the solenoid, as the main harness doesn't have the resistance wire. This lead is the only lead that is hot only when the key is in RUN position. This should be the right wire; perhaps the choke has two leads on it and we used the wrong one?

The ignition switch is a doozy: it simply is not a factory original switch, and the connector simply would not come out of the switch itself. We had to cut it off and splice it into the factory harness.

The headlamp switch was not in the right position (wiper position), and held in place by a door key cylinder sliding retainer clip! The bezel for the headlamp switch itself had buggered threads so bad that it and the switch could not be used.

The gauge harness was not wrapped with the underdash harness, but rather with the PO-made gauge harness, and covered with wire covers. It was plugged into a remnant of the original underdash harness plug, so why duplicate it? Why even have it installed if not used at all? Strange...

The hardest part of the installation was the insertion of the firewall plugs into the firewall, but everyone knows that...

It very much helped that I had so many underhood and underdash harnesses to draw from to retain correct pins, plugs, and wiring. Not once did we have to run to the parts store. Now I have a job cleaning up the Garage Majal and sorting through the remnants of Pete's old stuff to see what, if anything, is worth retaining.

 

[AzPete]

Speedo is now hooked up. That should help on things a bit.

The choke was a minor goof. It got wired to the "S" terminal instead of the "I" terminal. I did a temp. in the rain this morning and will repair it correctly on Tues.

Still have not sorted out the NSS but will figure it out also on Tues.

Yes, I forgot that the wiper switch was held in with a door lock clip and in the wrong positions. That was interesting.

We would have needed to make a couple of trips to the parts store if it was not for Randy having the old harnesses to pick from. Moding this harness as we installed was not a task to do unless the car is right there.

Now, I did not leave you with a mess did I? I thought we had it pretty well cleaned up. If I did, I did not mean to.

 

[Midlife]

No, no mess, except a few tools lying on the bench and a pile of old wiring to go through. I won't mention the beer bottles arranged in a ten-pin arrangement...

 

[AzPete]

Beer bottles????? Did I miss that part? lol

 

[daveSanborn]

Mid, IMO, you're selling your harness restoration services way too cheaply. At the prices you're charging for these harnesses, I don't understand how you're even breaking even?

 

[Midlife]

Mid, IMO, you're selling your harness restoration services way too cheaply. At the prices you're charging for these harnesses, I don't understand how you're even breaking even?

What's there to break even on? My real expenses are shipping out and a bunch of shrink tubing, crimps, and odd bits of wires, which I scavenge from unrestorable harnesses or from hook-up wire. I've also spent funds on buying harnesses that can be restored or scavenged (I have about 35 in my inventory). Most of the charges per harness go to labor. I typically spend anywhere from 4-10 hours on a harness, depending upon its condition. It's not like I'm trying to make money with this; rather, it's a way to keep me busy and help out the community and put a little cash in my pocket. I'm not a money-grabbing bandit; it's a hobby, dammit!

That said, I did have to buy some rather expensive resistance wires which cannot be readily scavenged, so I am about $1k in the hole. I need to sell some harnesses!

 

[Midlife]

Beer bottles????? Did I miss that part? lol

Yes you did...mostly gutter balls were what you threw. ~rey

 

[AzPete]

Yea, but they went soooo straight that way. ;D

 

[daveSanborn]

Mid, IMO, you're selling your harness restoration services way too cheaply. At the prices you're charging for these harnesses, I don't understand how you're even breaking even?

What's there to break even on? My real expenses are shipping out and a bunch of shrink tubing, crimps, and odd bits of wires, which I scavenge from unrestorable harnesses or from hook-up wire. I've also spent funds on buying harnesses that can be restored or scavenged (I have about 35 in my inventory). Most of the charges per harness go to labor. I typically spend anywhere from 4-10 hours on a harness, depending upon its condition. It's not like I'm trying to make money with this; rather, it's a way to keep me busy and help out the community and put a little cash in my pocket. I'm not a money-grabbing bandit; it's a hobby, dammit!

That said, I did have to buy some rather expensive resistance wires which cannot be readily scavenged, so I am about $1k in the hole. I need to sell some harnesses!

It's a hobby until the word gets out and 50 harnesses show up next week..... LOL.

I honestly feel that you've found yourself a nice little niche in the market and could easily turn this into something a little more than a hobby.

 

[AzPete]

Just as a follow up, all minor problems were fixed this am and the '66 is now in good elec. shape.

Thanks Randy.