Well I started rewiring my car. I did the forward harness first. It looked the easiest and I wanted to keep my confidence up. I started the rear harness last night and I routed it from the dashboard to the back of the car. Now I'm kind of stuck.
Anyone have any advice on getting this harness through the back of the car? Should I try to "shove" the clip from the outside in and pull the harness to the dashboard? Or is there a way to get all those light plugs through the car from the inside.
Any advice is appreciated.

 

ok, I just checked and you have a 63, correct?

Assuming nothing is hugely different on my 65 (on which I replaced every harness, including the rear) it was easisest to to feed it through the rear bulkhead from the rear, but I suppose you could get it through from the front side, doing one set of tail light plugs at a time. As for the big grommet (did you buy a new one or are you re-using the old one?), cut a slice from the outside to the harness hole in the grommet, pry it open and slip the harness in - when installed, the plug will seal up just fine.

 

Ah so there is a grommet in there somewhere. I couldn't get my fat head in there far enough to see one. Maybe I should look from underneath the car. I think I'll go the other way like you did.
Did you have to pull the bumpers off to get the rear lights wired?

 

no, but I have sidepipes, which makes access back there much easier. Still, you wire those from behind, so I would not see any reason to remove the bumpers. You also have a fuel tank sender hook up back there, and of course the antenna wire needs to be dealt with in the grommet too.

One hugely helpful item you want when re-wiring is the AIM for your car - it shows the original wiring path that you want to follow, the location of any clips or grommets, etc.

 

I have an AIM I didn't think to look there only at the laminated wiring diagram I have. Thanks for the tip ctjackster I'll look through it tonight.

 

You don't need to remove the bumpers, although I would suggest you remove the rear valance panel which will provide much easier access.

 

If you remove the bright tailpipe extensions, you can drop the rear valance panel; then remove the spare tire carrier, and you'll have good access to the back of the taillights and routing of the harness across the rear panel.

 

You probably don't need to remove the bumpers but it will make getting the valance off a lot easier. With the bumpers and spare tire carrier in place there is not much room to maneuver it out. Removing the valance makes it a lot easier to see where things go.

 

Here is a pic of the grommet in question. This is from my 65 which has a rear blower not shown here. I can't recall whether the body connector on the rear harness fit thru the hole. I think I passed all the sockets etc. through from the inside. Note also the antenna cable passes thru the grommet as well. As mentioned above, I slit the grommet to allow passing the harness bundle and antenna cable thru their respective holes.

DZ

 

I'll see about getting the valance off. I think my exhaust extensions are welded on so I'm not sure I can get the valance off without removing the bumpers.

DZVette you must have a coupe cause I can't even see the grommet in the back of my convertible. Thanks very much for the picture now I know where to look. It doesn't look too bad from that angle.

 

pull the carpet back from the rear d-side corner . . . .

 

I pulled some of it but its glued down tight maybe I just need to pull it out some more

 

 

This is what the grommet looks like on my 67. I believe it is the same as yours.
Roy


Rear wiring harness.

 

uhhh, your ground strap is loose

 

That's a fun area to work in if you have a convertible. The deck lid spring being in the way adds a challenge of which coupe owners are deprived.

 

Ahhh, but I bet convertible owners are deprived of the fun of trying to re-install that freakin exhaust blower - mounted with 3 screws waaaay back out of the way, on movable (always in the wrong direction) mounts.

 

Amen to that!

DZ