stinger77

Hi, im in the process of replacing the center console of my car, and the guy who had it last made on hell of a mess under there. Currently, i have a few wires that are clipped. Im fairly certain that one of them is a ground which goes to the clock, but I’m not sure. the wire is black, and thicker than most under there. Also, the radio was hard wired into what i believe is the hot wire (orange) for the cig. lighter, however the cig lighter was disconnected as well…. Iv had a power drain on the battery since i bought it, and now I’m starting to see why…. any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you.

Peterbuilt

Some pictures might help figure out which wires go where.
This might help:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...TUxMDNiMTY3Nzk

nz corvette

Hi, my 77 had a battery drain too, I finally traced it to the interior light dimmer relay, which is located under your dash pad just above your tacho
You can check this by disconnecting your interior light door switches which are behind the LH and RH kick panels
cheers Dave NZ

Roco71

I do not think that the 77 is a whole lot different than a 71 as far as the lighter and clock go. On my 71 the clock gets its ground from the temperature gauges center black wire it grounds all of the gauge cluster. The lighter wire is orange (single spade) it gets its ground from a black wire that has a "ring" connected to it that fits around the lighter. There is a black ground wire that connects to the heater and A/C control by way of a spade.
I hope this is some help.

DUB

1977 gauges and a 1971 are completely different on how they are wired. Not even the same at all.

The big black wire can be the ground for your cigarette lighter...which has a very large eyelet that gets attached when the lighter housing gets installed to the console plate.

Good photos of what you have going on would be great help.

DUB

Roco71

So the clock and cigar lighter are not powered by a orange wire?

0Willcox Corvette

The clock and lighter are powered up by the same orange wire circuit.... just in a different manner..

The orange wire powers up the lighter just like all other cars. But the clock power, while on the same orange circuit is in the PCB unlike your car Rocco.

The OP's question about the clock ground.. The clock ground is picked up through the pcb as well.. there isn't a wire out of the pcb connector that is a ground as in other year cars with the grounding terminal.

In most cases.. the ground for the lighter as Dub stated, is on a ring pictured below.


The clock ground is picked up on the 77-82 cars from the pcb as show below.

Roco71

My apologies to the OP I hope I did not get you sideways. I can't read or write very well.

stinger77

Okay that makes a lot of sense. see, i have a random black wire that wasn’t connected to anything. I thought it might be for the clock, but after looking at the images you posted, i see that it is not for the clock. the cig lighter has the ground attached, but what i believe is the orange power was clipped and wired into the radio instead. Ill see if i can snap a pic of the black wire in question, since now that i know it does not go to the clock directly, i have no clue where it goes. Its rather short, and thicker gauge than most of the other wires user there. It comes out of what i believe is the main wire harness that comes from the fusebox ( if that helps at all)

DUB

Where is this cut "black wire" in question located EXACTLY.

Writing that it is coming from the fuse panel is obvious...but where is it cut....i.e. under the radio...under the shifter console...by the fuse panel....under the steering column....by the hood release handle....where????

DUB

stinger77

These pics are of the three wires that are unaccounted for. Sorry they are sideways :/

So here is what i think they are for:
The previous owner removed the original radio, and i have a feeling that the yellow, grey, and thick black wire are from the original radio. The current radio is tapped into the cig lighter power. I hope these pics help figure out what these wires are for. thanks.

0Willcox Corvette

You are correct, the original connector used gray, yellow and black. So.. gray we know is a dash lamp (or radio lamp). You can test this by pulling the headlamp switch on and seeing if it picks up power. The yellow would be the power to the radio and is switched when the key is turned on.. so you can test that as well.. I'll bet if two of the three are correct, the third wire probably is the black for the old radio connector. It looks pretty large and I don't have a 77 schematic here to look at to confirm it. Maybe Dub will know for sure.

On another note.. that twist cap wiring would be something I'd yank out in a heartbeat...

Willcox

stinger77

Thank you for the conformation. Yeah those twist caps are the result of the old owner. Im working on getting all the wires back into their original spots. what a mess haha.