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Found and secured a donor headlight wiring harness for a 84 corvette to solve the wiring issues under the hood of my car but now have another problem. First of all I spent 200 dollars for a used donor headlight wiring harness for my car. If any of you have 1 cheaper let me know i can still back out of it. I also now find out that the harness goes into the fuse box at the firewall and not into the switch in the dash which means i have another problem. There is a toggle switch hanging out of the bottom of the dash which is supposed to rotate the lights up and down.( of course it doesnt anymore but it used to) What harness or wiring will I need to get under the dash back to factory specs? The headlight pull switch works as normal but the driving lights toggle next to it does nothing. the sockets for the driving lights are always on and there is no way to turn them off. Please help me here I need this fixed.
wiring harness is only available from a donor car. as far as what is needed under the dash if anything I dont know.. It is the reason I am posting this, for information.
Last edited by warrior4jesus; Mar 3, 2017 at 06:36 PM.
Found and secured a donor headlight wiring harness for a 84 corvette I also now find out that the harness goes into the fuse box at the firewall and not into the switch in the dash. The headlight pull switch works as normal.
I'm a little confused. The headlight wiring harness would be the wiring for the headlight bulbs, which is different than the wiring for the headlight doors. If the headlight pull switch works as normal, I'm not sure why you need a new headlight wiring harness.
Can you be more specific as to what your problem is?
It sounds like you're tackling a major re-wire job, which may not be necessary. Do you have a Factory Service/Shop Manual (FSM) including the Electrical Section (Section 8)?
P.S. There is no fuse box at the firewall. It is in the dashboard. All wiring in the engine compartment goes to the firewall connector (C115), which is located between your battery and your brake booster.
I'm with "HRR" here on this. You need to explain more thoroughly your issue with the operation of the headlamps.
Don't buy anything yet!
Here's a snapshot of where the harness you've located(not bought yet hopefully) originates under the hood.
This is a "typical" forward lamp harness from an earlier C4 (not an '84). If what you've located doesn't look like this then you certainly don't want to buy. HRR referenced this as C115. Everything including h/l door function and "all" lighting would be in this harness. Directional, s/marker, park, fog and cornering.
Problem..... irregular voltage readings inside car on volt meter. Problem rats nest wrong colored wires butt splices and connections made with twisting 2 wires together and taping them. It's a mess it's a horrible stinking mess. There is a added toggle switch hanging out of the bottom of the dash that used to activate the headlight motors before I washed it last summer. Now it only rotates up and not down. The driving lights (the ones in the front bumper white not amber) are hot constantly and the switch in the car next to the headlight switch does nothing. It's a mess but I have too much invested to walk away now. So I am buying a harness that goes from all forward lights and other various locations to the fuse panel in the firewall to eliminate all the messed up wiring under the hood. I'm not a mechanic when it comes to wiring and it's cheaper than paying one to find and fix the problem when it could be anything. But this is the first step. I will include pics of the rats nests to help you understand why I'm not trying to fix it vs replace it. When I first bought it and it worked like it was supposed to the way to work the headlights was as follows. pull out headlight switch in car. flip toggle switch hanging from under dash and as soon as they finished rotating turn the toggle switch back off. to turn them off push headlight switch inside car to full off posistion and then flip toggle switch hanging from under dash and as soon as they stopped rotating turn it off again. like I said I washed it and it now only flips 1 direction...... Up I dont currently have any driving lights in right now as they are always on and I cant figure out how they would stay in the hole going to the lens but I do know because I plugged some into the socket and they are always on if the headlights or parking lights are on. It's such a cluster I just want to scream. But I will get it fixed i just dont know how long it will take. 1 day at a time and 1 step at a time. I really hope you guys can help me as much as possible I will try to give any additional or re angled pictures you want. I will give out my phone number I will do whatever it takes to "Make my Vette Great Again."
Last edited by warrior4jesus; Mar 4, 2017 at 11:31 AM.
Can you put your hands on the "forward lamp harness" before you do the buy? I believe you need to confirm which headlamps are actually in your car, maybe everything done to yours was done to whack with later production headlamps.
It might be very wise to remove your battery and compare your C100 "firewall connection" to those in this thread. look at the snapshot posted by "JoeC" - that's an '85 and yours should be identical to it. Is there any issues with the engine harness? Are you aware of any multiple cut/splices to it?
No It is in another state I am buying it from a corvette salvage yard. I do not have a FSM. I just replaced the battery and I dont intend to take it apart again anytime soon as for whatever reason my panel is not slotted on the bottom and it's a huge pain in the **** to get it out. Anything else I can take pictures of to verify w/o taking the battery out? I have thought that it's a newer harness in there because the driving lights sockets dont seem to match up. I would be willing to skype/facetime with someone and use my phones camera to show anything that they wanted to see.
Last edited by warrior4jesus; Mar 4, 2017 at 12:22 PM.
I believe you need to confirm which headlamps are actually in your car, maybe everything done to yours was done to whack with later production headlamps.
Boy, that wiring is a mess! Let's take one step at a time! Confirm whether you have early or late style headlight motors by looking for the manual actuating *****. The early style motors have the actuating ***** on the bottom of the motors, while the late style have the ***** on the top of the motors. Which do you have?
Here's my '84 headlight motor. The **** can't be seen in this photo.
No It is in another state I am buying it from a corvette salvage yard. I do not have a FSM. I just replaced the battery and I dont intend to take it apart again anytime soon as for whatever reason my panel is not slotted on the bottom and it's a huge pain in the **** to get it out. Anything else I can take pictures of to verify w/o taking the battery out? I have thought that it's a newer harness in there because the driving lights sockets dont seem to match up. I would be willing to skype/facetime with someone and use my phones camera to show anything that they wanted to see.
The next time you remove the panel make sure you actually slot it for easy removal. I do think it would be wise to remove and inspect. If the harness from a donor was removed intact there could be a tape around the harness near the bulk-head
and maybe a 4 digit number on it. If that's there you want it. I'd be very reluctant to buy anything that didn't have the tape and 4 digit #. I have a very old tag to harness identifier if they can give you the number. No guarantee it's in my chart but there's maybe 5 tags that reference it to a proper harness. I have a very old SPO publication I had scanned professionally and run through some very good OCR software and does pretty well.
A forward lamp harness when laid out on the ground I'd think would have all 3 relays for the headlamp doors, the connector to each headlamp and headlamp motor, 2 fog sockets, 2 park sockets, 2 s/m sockets, 2 cornering lamp sockets, a connector to the horn behind the left H/L, the cruise servo connector and maybe more. The ring terminals for both grounds would be there also.
I wouldn't want to get into this repair attempt without the FSM.
The next time you remove the panel make sure you actually slot it for easy removal. I do think it would be wise to remove and inspect. If the harness from a donor was removed intact there could be a tape around the harness near the bulk-head
and maybe a 4 digit number on it. If that's there you want it. I'd be very reluctant to buy anything that didn't have the tape and 4 digit #. I have a very old tag to harness identifier if they can give you the number. No guarantee it's in my chart but there's maybe 5 tags that reference it to a proper harness. I have a very old SPO publication I had scanned professionally and run through some very good OCR software and does pretty well.
A forward lamp harness when laid out on the ground I'd think would have all 3 relays for the headlamp doors, the connector to each headlamp and headlamp motor, 2 fog sockets, 2 park sockets, 2 s/m sockets, 2 cornering lamp sockets, a connector to the horn behind the left H/L, the cruise servo connector and maybe more. The ring terminals for both grounds would be there also.
I wouldn't want to get into this repair attempt without the FSM.
I'm not going to repair it personally. I am going to get the needed parts to make it factory again and do one piece at a time using a legit mechanic. I'm not going to cobble anymore. I have a guy who is willing to help me and how good he is remains to be seen as I dont have any parts yet. Like I said I cannot take the panel off unless i remove the bottom screw completely for the battery. I can only loosen it and gently encourage the battery to come out. there has also been a battery disconnect added in because there is a phantom battery drain when sitting. I think there are multiple problems with this car but the most necessary repair is getting the cobbled wiring fixed/replaced. Like I said in another post that got little to no love there is no easy simple fix for this and it is gonna be a headache a mess and an experience or many experiences. I appreciate those that reply and I hope u stay in it for the long haul with me as I fix/and learn with my car that i already love. I will call the guy with the harness and ask him to send me pictures and try to compare it to what I currently have.
Just ran a google search on the numbers on the motor. turns out those motors are out of a 81 - 92 Pontiac Firebird somehow. Jesus help me Can this even be fixed? (thats a request not using his name in vain)
Last edited by warrior4jesus; Mar 4, 2017 at 02:33 PM.
So what next? I'm so lost on all this now no idea what to do next? I need pictures of what things should look like to compare to. Gotta find out somehow what's stock and what's not.
Last edited by warrior4jesus; Mar 4, 2017 at 10:05 PM.
Bingo!! Those headlight door motors are not '84 '87 Corvette motors, so that original wiring harness isn't going to help you! Somebody was very creative to get them to work as good as what you have described. To straighten out this mess would cost a ton! Is there any way you can live with this as-is?
Bingo!! Those headlight door motors are not '84 '87 Corvette motors, so that original wiring harness isn't going to help you! Somebody was very creative to get them to work as good as what you have described. To straighten out this mess would cost a ton! Is there any way you can live with this as-is?
somehow I need someone who knows to Skype with me and figure out what's stock. FYI the motors are no good and need replaced so I think the original harness is still my best option. Also no it does not work properly and due to the insane way it's done there is virtually no way to determine how to fix it. You'd spend thousands to just figure out what he did do. So I'm trying to find out what's stock and what's not then replace it with stock items. But I gotta know what is and isn't. Just need help.
Last edited by warrior4jesus; Mar 5, 2017 at 03:02 AM.
somehow I need someone who knows to Skype with me and figure out what's stock. FYI the motors are no good and need replaced so I think the original harness is still my best option. Also no it does not work properly and due to the insane way it's done there is virtually no way to determine how to fix it. You'd spend thousands to just figure out what he did do. So I'm trying to find out what's stock and what's not then replace it with stock items. But I gotta know what is and isn't. Just need help.
I believe you need to evaluate the entire car and make decisions based on maybe how the car runs, drives and performs. Maybe appearance is important. Just generally the overall condition. What works and doesn't work?
A "for hire" replacement back to stock or actually operational needs to be done by someone who understands and actually cares/enjoys what he's doing. Your use of "legit mechanic" doesn't actually apply here.
Being an '84 presents it's own set of issues very likely.
Do you rely on this car for any required transportation? Do you have a garage with room enough to actually work in? How long have you owned this car and how many miles have you actually driven it?
Maybe most important consideration is - how much is invested at this point?
just wanted to report back, in the event that this is a project car for fun and you have the desire and resources to see it through, I did confirm that I do know a 1984 who's lights, motors, harness are all available. I cannot promise anything, but I personally will be visiting this car to pull some of the interior pieces that match my 1986 which I am restoring.
I would be happy to give safe removal a try for you on the lights. but timing wise this may not happen for a couple of months. an important detail.I do not know what he plans to charge me. but I know for what I need it will be magnitudes of scale less than buying new. I live in Canada your cost would be whatever he wants to charge plus the shipping cost to you. it may represent the best way to return your headlight system to stock in one fell swoop. You may also find a wrecker who could provide you with the same. I do not know where the harness plugs into the ECM? Or how it gets through the firewall? But if it is bundled all together perhaps it could be simply cut before the firewall and you could Solder and shrink wrp all the connections. anyway, I want to stress that I do not know exactly when this will happen. But I will personally be visiting this car and he just confirmed back to me that he does not need the headlights or the harness for his project.let me know. even with a full replacement set of lights motors and harness, it will take you probably a few weeks to get everything working, unless you have tons of time! I find every small thing that I do on my cars takes about a week of tinkering away in the evenings after the kids go to bed.
A little hope
