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I started to replace my wiring harness behind the dash and the engine today on my 1968. Pulling it apart seemed very easy but I get the feeling putting it back together will be the difficult part. I bought both harnesses from Lectric Limited. My gauge cluster for both my speedo and tach are cracked. Is it better to just replace it or try to rebuild them?
You can order new repros or try to source good used ones. However, the used ones may be prone to cracking as well due to age.
Others on here may have experience in refurbishing damaged pieces, but I have not tried. I bought good used ones for my 74.
Best of luck. I did a same thing on a '68 Nova back in the day. Thought I might go crazy at the time. Took my time & a lot of deep breaths and finally got it back
together.....would not want to do that job for a living.....
So since I m replacing the entire harness, I started to label the plugs as I removed them but then realized it is all coming out anyway. Is there any reason that I cant just cut the wires and remove it all as opposed to trying to take the old harness out in one piece?
I took a different approach to this (doing a resto-mod): I built my own harness for lights with LED's and used modern connectors, then took the light + and put a connector to this that would mate to my new harness. Then identified what wires I would remove and pull them all off. Also running aftermarket gauges with my own harness on that, so did the same to those wires. I've removed all the vacuum system under my hood, Vintage Air AC, electric headlights, and aftermarket gauges under the hood - so I'm going to be able to remove a lot of wires from the factory harness as well and just used made I need and add new wires where needed.
You are correct, putting it back together is a royal pain in the butt. You have limited area to fit the harness in since the pedal support hardware is in the way you have to be very careful putting it together without forcing the panel. If you are lucky it will go the first time, or maybe on the 20th time. Since the harness goes under the speedo over the steering column and then under the tach it is a tight fit. Since you have a new harness, it might be easier since it should be more flexible than a 55 year old harness. What I did was to bend in the harness where the steering column goes, put a ty-wrap around it and left it for a couple of days so that it would take a set. Then cut the ty-wrap just before installing the panel.
Depending on how bad the cracks are you might be able to repair it. I cleaned the area with acetone and then put some super glue into the crack. Then reinforced that area with some plastic epoxy. If you can get the panel to go back in without forcing it you will probably be fine.
Since you are in the area you might want to replace all of the bulbs since they have probably been there for a long time. I tried the local parts stores and all of the bulbs they carried were made in China and the pins that are supposed to hold the bulb in the socket are malformed and the bulbs can fallout of the socket very easily. Usually when the bulb in inside of the gauge and then you have to open the gauge to get the bulb out. I went to the local Chevy dealer and asked if they still carried replacement bulbs. They did but would have to order them. Took about two days. The bulbs come in a box of 10 and they were much cheaper than the China bulbs. I bought two boxes so that I could replace the bulbs in the center console also. The GM number was 9417863 and they fit in the sockets perfectly. You want to check all the dash lights as your putting the panel back in to make sure none of the sockets has fallen out. Your vocabulary will probably be colorful while you are putting it back together.
Were your speedo and tach working really well? If they have never be serviced, then now is the time. Mine had never been touched on my 73, so I took them to a Professional Repair Shop. A lot of guys do the work themselves, but going in, I knew that putting the drivers side dash would be a nightmare, and I wasn’t going to take a chance on my sometimes iffy repair skills. Of all the work that I have done on my car, the reassembly of the dash was horrific. You were smart to remove the steering column. Also inspect the 50 year old bulb sockets, mine are original and one of them popped out after reassembly, there ain’t no way I am going back in there. Good Luck
The speedo and tach were working fine but I might as well get them serviced. Im also going to replace the cables as well and I already purchased a steel reinforced oil line so it doesnt leak in the future.
I just finished my 70 with a restomod harness from American Autowire.
I didn’t want to use stock since I nodded things such as electric fans, higher voltage alternator and electric conversion of lights and wiper motors
while I was at it I converted to Dakota digital gauges. Easy and way better than the original analog gauges. Very easy to wire up as well
You are correct, putting it back together is a royal pain in the butt. You have limited area to fit the harness in since the pedal support hardware is in the way you have to be very careful putting it together without forcing the panel. If you are lucky it will go the first time, or maybe on the 20th time. Since the harness goes under the speedo over the steering column and then under the tach it is a tight fit. Since you have a new harness, it might be easier since it should be more flexible than a 55 year old harness. What I did was to bend in the harness where the steering column goes, put a ty-wrap around it and left it for a couple of days so that it would take a set. Then cut the ty-wrap just before installing the panel.
Depending on how bad the cracks are you might be able to repair it. I cleaned the area with acetone and then put some super glue into the crack. Then reinforced that area with some plastic epoxy. If you can get the panel to go back in without forcing it you will probably be fine.
Since you are in the area you might want to replace all of the bulbs since they have probably been there for a long time. I tried the local parts stores and all of the bulbs they carried were made in China and the pins that are supposed to hold the bulb in the socket are malformed and the bulbs can fallout of the socket very easily. Usually when the bulb in inside of the gauge and then you have to open the gauge to get the bulb out. I went to the local Chevy dealer and asked if they still carried replacement bulbs. They did but would have to order them. Took about two days. The bulbs come in a box of 10 and they were much cheaper than the China bulbs. I bought two boxes so that I could replace the bulbs in the center console also. The GM number was 9417863 and they fit in the sockets perfectly. You want to check all the dash lights as your putting the panel back in to make sure none of the sockets has fallen out. Your vocabulary will probably be colorful while you are putting it back together.
I appreciate the picture of how you routed the harness because I wasnt sure if my old harness was routed correctly after all these years.
I just dropped my gauge clusters off today for a rebuild.
You are correct, putting it back together is a royal pain in the butt. You have limited area to fit the harness in since the pedal support hardware is in the way you have to be very careful putting it together without forcing the panel. If you are lucky it will go the first time, or maybe on the 20th time. Since the harness goes under the speedo over the steering column and then under the tach it is a tight fit. Since you have a new harness, it might be easier since it should be more flexible than a 55 year old harness. What I did was to bend in the harness where the steering column goes, put a ty-wrap around it and left it for a couple of days so that it would take a set. Then cut the ty-wrap just before installing the panel.
Depending on how bad the cracks are you might be able to repair it. I cleaned the area with acetone and then put some super glue into the crack. Then reinforced that area with some plastic epoxy. If you can get the panel to go back in without forcing it you will probably be fine.
Since you are in the area you might want to replace all of the bulbs since they have probably been there for a long time. I tried the local parts stores and all of the bulbs they carried were made in China and the pins that are supposed to hold the bulb in the socket are malformed and the bulbs can fallout of the socket very easily. Usually when the bulb in inside of the gauge and then you have to open the gauge to get the bulb out. I went to the local Chevy dealer and asked if they still carried replacement bulbs. They did but would have to order them. Took about two days. The bulbs come in a box of 10 and they were much cheaper than the China bulbs. I bought two boxes so that I could replace the bulbs in the center console also. The GM number was 9417863 and they fit in the sockets perfectly. You want to check all the dash lights as your putting the panel back in to make sure none of the sockets has fallen out. Your vocabulary will probably be colorful while you are putting it back together.
Excellent advice.....I just went through this a few months back on a 72'......super old gauge buckets just broke apart in several places.....I used plastic epoxy as well.....make sure you rough up the surfaces of the adjoining pieces as you epoxy them together.....
The zip-tie tip is an awesome Vette hack.....
Harness replacement
