adrenaline-guy

I have reached a point...I know I should probably do it, but I am tired of spending money. The wiring was semi-servicable before, but it had a bunch of crimp connectors, splices, corroded leads at the fuse box, hot wires with exposed insulation, all that jazz. The taillights/brake lights worked intermittently, making it so that others couldn't always see me at night. It will cost around $400 for a new dash harness to replace the existing rat's nest and $200 for a rear harness, but I am afraid that once I get in there, it will take forever to straighten everything out. Please tell me it is easy and it will take no time at all, it will save my 65 from electrical fires, I'll be SO glad that I did it while it was apart, the wife will give me more lovin', all that stuff. Embellish if you need to. Thanks in advance.

ctjackster

someone please post a picture of a burned up Corvette. That should do the trick.

Tossin

There's all the reason you need right there.

~600 for wiring plus time in replacing vs. fire which destroys the car?

You might want to replace ALL the wiring at once, too (engine and forward lighting harness, etc.) for peace of mind.

Plastic Pig

Akkkkk.

kenEDMUNDS

Just Do IT! It is not that big of a job. A saturday afternoon. You already have the cluster out, now pull the steering column, remove the pedal assembly (it makes it easier to access everything and you can check it for cracked stuff and lubricate it). It comes out with 2 bolts under the dash and 4 nuts under the hood. A 10 minute job. Now just start unplugging connectors, watch how the harness lays relative to the wiring that goes through the firewall for the wiper motor - you will need to remove the plastic connectors from the wire before you feed them through the firewall-take notes!. Now is the time to replace all the bulbs also. There are a lot of choices now for brighter bulbs. With new wiring and new bulbs you will be wearing sunglasses at night.
Good luck.

adrenaline-guy

That's the stuff I'm talkin' about. I like to hear "10 minute job". It at least gets me started. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...

Harps

Duntov....my eyes....

adrenaline-guy

Dang.

ctjackster

ok, to be honest maybe not a ten mintue job, but with your dash out already, perhaps . . . . (pull the glove box too for the job, gives good access to the center switches and clock)


as for the pics, worth a thousand words - Bob always comes through with the pics (and the speeling crits too)

Tossin

I think kenEDMUNDS was referring to 10 minutes being removing the pedal assembly, not the entire job of replacing a harness.

Regardless, does it matter if it takes 10 minutes or two weekends as long as you're making your car safer?

Plastic Pig

First midyear is a wiring fire.

According to the story that burned to the ground midyear fire was the work of an angry wife.

Moral of the story, change your wiring harness and be nice to your wife.

tentuna

That sight brings a tear to my eyes, reminds me of my car 3 years ago down to bare glass, pads out, door panels out, headliner out. Now it is better than the day GM finished it.
You only want to do this once, so do it right, for $400, it's something that will save this job from ever being done again and a possible car fire the only worse thing that could happen.

jackhays

I had the same issue on my 65 coupe and finally pulled the trigger and ordered all new harnesses.
I found several issues with my old harness when I pulled them out that I did not expect.
Peace of mind.
BTW, when I started the taillight harness I thought it was all out back. Not true. The cable runs through the rear bulkhead and all the way to the dash harness and plugs together clipped to the cross brace. Also has the antenna plug.
Get a new rear grommet while your at it. Forget the fuse seal as it comes on the harness already.
When I unplugged the engine and headlight harness to install the dash harness I was glad I bought them all as the conectors were green and cruddy inside.
All harnesses cost me about $800.00 but worth it IMHO. I'd do it again.

Harps

I did my engine and interior harness' recently, and it really wasn't all that bad. For me, it was the piece of mind to get it done and feel safe about driving the car that motivated me to get started.

That, and my buddy Youwish (Dave) egging me on to do it.

I did it the hard way too. I didn't pull anything but the cluster, left the steering, pedals, seats, floormats, etc. all in place. Atleast you have more room to lay down and work.

Here's what mine looked like in middle of the replacement:

Corbrastang

If you are going to spend money on one thing i would recomend at the very least replacing the dash harness. both my 65 and my fathers 64 dash harness caught fire. Very melted-we got lucky that it didnt spread. After that, 800 bucks didnt seam like a whole lot for new wiring.

kenEDMUNDS

YEs-ten minutes for the pedal assembly!!

bweaver999

Letric Limited has pretty much all wiring for about $900:
http://www.lectriclimited.com/mainpage.htm

Mid page they also tell you why.

Consider DocRebuild harness guide, easy color diagram:
http://docrebuild.com/oosoez.html

You are looking at 2-3 days easy for all wires. Likely some time to debug things that are not working after but once you get everything working, you will be glad you did it. Looks like you are halkf way there with the cluster out already.

Grey Ghost

Do it ! It's only a few connections, everything works afterwards and its a good piece of mind. Several of us have replaced ours. If you have any questions, just post 'em. I like the shop manual picture of the instrument cluster and wiring harness. But, there are some VERY nice pictures on this forum of the cluster. Save your old harness, people need bits/pieces every now and then off of one.

6T7L71CPE

I just got mine back on the road after a complete LL harness and lightbulb set. I got tied up in a few while I'm at its. Funny thing, the car starts better! Take digital pictures of everything BEFORE you take it apart.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ighlight=SMOKE

nassau66427

The job is a serious pain in the a$$. It will take you much longer than you think. While you are at it, do ALL the wires. Tell the wife that you are doing it out of concern for her safety, and she will "love you long time"!