While I am wrestling with all the other wiring issues in my other thread, I am looking for advice. I have located the correct rear courtesy lights for my 68 that go in the sail panels. Hard to find pieces I found in Calif. The wiring is attached and the connecting piece is on the driver side. Now I need to know where to wire to from this 2 prong connector as there is no wiring in place. Do they operate from the doors or from the headlight switch??? Thanks for any help Paul

 

The orange and white wires run from the lamp sockets... to the front to rear connector located by the kick and fuse panel. The orange circuit is a hot all the time circuit and runs from the front to rear connector to the fuse block. The white wire on the other hand is the ground for this circuit. It runs to both courtesy lamp switches (makes ground when you open the door) and to the headlamp switch for when you rotate the switch to the "courtesy lamp" position.. (all the way counter clock wise. The lobe on the switch actually grounds out the white wire circuit to the metal bracket made on the switch.

But.. for it to work with the headlamp switch you must have the grounding strap attached to the switch when installed....

Make sense.. if not post again, I'm sure I have more pictures.

 

Got it. Is the front to rear connector available to buy as mine has none. The wiring I have starts at the passenger side housing and goes over the roof trim to driver side and has a connector of the orange and white wires and then ends. I need to find the wiring to connect to the pig tail and back to the fuse panel. or do I just make my own connector?

 

The two connectors were a locking style connector that looked like this. They are not available new, I have them at the links shown below.

You'll find them here:

 

Great thanks I'll call tomorrow and get what I need. You are a great resource Paul

 

My pleasure Paul..

 

I'm posting this in here so that others that look at this tread will be previliged to the same information should someone look at this years down the road: This is an emailed reply sent to the OP.

The white and orange wires behind the kick panel are the same two wires used for the courtesy lamp in the rear. All wires from front to rear of the car must pass through the front to rear main connectors (the two I gave you the links to). The courtesy lamp harness did unplug from the rear harness too…

So in a nut shell… the orange and white passed through the front to rear connectors and then the rear harness had a jumper plug… The rear lamps (on a coupe) used a jumper harness to flow out to the lamps from the rear… Shown below.

When testing... what you must remember... is that there are multiple switches that control the grounding of this circuit (white wire).. 1) left door jamb switch, 2) right door jamb switch and 3) the headlamp switch. So.. with the doors closed and the lamp switch in a normal position... the white wire should not be a good ground. Only when you open up a door or turn the switch all the way to the left should this wire be grounded. What's the best way to test this... put your test lamp between the two wires.... and the test light would operate just as a courtesy lamp.

You probably have the two connectors; they snap together making it possible to remove only the rear harness or only the front harness.





There is not supposed to be a fuse in this circuit which tells me someone has had an issue with it in the past.

 

Ok Think I have it now. But if I dont have the connectors(pics) then I would need to purchase them to make this all work. Will I be all right leaving the in line fuse in or should I rework the wiring to avoid whatever the problem may have been? The door jamb switches were broken off as well so I am replacing them tonight so hopefully I can get these all repaired.. Your earlier advice got the dash light and other issues taken care of Thanks again

 

Good deal so far.. Tommy sent me a text today.. I told him to have you message me or post... but not to buy anything until you knew if you were missing something. No sense in buying parts you don't need and I'd almost bet money you have both of the front to rear connectors.

The fuse.. you could leave it in there providing it is of sufficient amperage to carry the load. Me personally, I'd pull it out and solder a new wire in it's place. It's not needed and was probably installed because it was easier to reach than the fuse panel.

I've not checked, but look at the fuse panel... I think it's 20 amp, if you are going to leave the fuse in place.

Willcox