67's

How difficult is this? Can you give me an appoximation of the time involved and any easy steps you can thnk of from your own experiences.

Thanks,
Tom

ORVette

I pulled out my harnesses when I had my motor out to detail my engine compartment. It was pretty easy. Just take your time, label stuff, and take a few pictures of everything before you start(believe me!). Also, while they were out I decided to re-wrap them and clean up some cobbled ends from the last owner, but be carefull. Leave as much length on all the leads as possible. I cut myself short and had to do some creative routing and stretching to get all my light sockets to their locations. Live and learn.

Easy Mike

Follow ORVette's advice but order the AIM for your year BEFORE you dig in. The AIM illustrations show where every thing goes and how the harness is routed. The wiring diagram has the wire colors and gauges listed. Turst me. Been there. Done that.

Approximate time: 3 beers, sippin' slow.

:)


[Modified by Easy Mike, 2:45 PM 11/27/2001]

Chris Fowler

Is that time engine out or engine in?

trs77

This is not difficult at all, but getting at the connection on the firewall beneath the brake booster might be a pain with the booster in place. Mine was off when I did this job. There is a bolt that holds the two harnesses to the firewall connector (which is actually the back of the fuse panel). May be easier from below. Either way, with the booster in place, that will be the only real difficult part of the job.

You will need to get at connections from both above and below the car, so having the car on stands is also a must.

I would plan a few hours to do this job.

I wouldn't be too concerned with labeling as every connection is unique and pretty logical.

I also concur with the above advice. Having the AIM is a MUST. It has excellent illustrations for routing the harnesses. Mine were out for weeks while I was restoring my engine compartment. Without the AIM, I would have completely forgot how to route them. I replaced them with new harnesses from Lectric Limited. Perfect fit and detail. I also went a little better than stock by using that black plastic tubing on most sections (my stock 77 only had the black plastic wrapping).

You know... there is another key harness in there and thats for the heater and a/c. This one is much more difficult as you have to remove the air distributor box and all the ductwork inside the car to replace it (just like a heater core job). If you have removed your A/C, like I did, you can substitute a "heater only" harness, which is much cheaper but same PITA (email me and I'll tell ya how I did it since it also requires a new heater resistor on the inside of the car instead of outside in the evap case).

Hope this helps a bit.

67's

Guys,

First off thank you all for responding.

I will be using my AIM, and wiring diagrams, I also have the service manual so I am going to be in pretty good shape there. I did the main dash harness in about 2 hours, that was with no labeling of the old incorrect wires just using the wiring diagram. So this sounds like about the same amount of time if I am reading you guys. The only problem is the car is an A/C car so any hints on that part of the process will be apprecaited, although the pass dsah and ductwork is still out of the car.

I am going to do it with the engine in, althought this might be a good time to pull the engine and detail the compartment.

I have found it quite easy to remove the bulkhead connector, just remove the tin splash shield below the side vents and it is a stright shot from the bottom.

The reason I have to do this in the first place is my new dash harness, apparently the wiring harnesses were replaced with a later shark whips, so the bulkhead and fuse panel connectors do not line up :reddevil :reddevil :mad :mad

Thanks for the replys, and any help you may think of later,
Tom