Thread: Wiring Problem's

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Having big problem's with the light's dash and headlight's on my prject car . The car is a 76 Nova . The car has been torn down exlusively . Frame sandblasted and painted I have it almost all put back together , but the electrical is really a pain in the butt.Is there a practical approach to this . I really need help !!!! I believe that the ground wire's are all unatached this is my first step I think????

I feel your pain Street's . Ill figure it out eventually , just thought someone had a shortcut for 75-79 Nova's . A friend gave me an idea , to get a chilton's manual and check wire by wire yuck!!!!!

You didn't mention what you 'current' situation is. What is working and what is not working? And yes, the ground would be an excellent place to start. The wiring diagram is also a very useful tool. Knowing what wire and circuit powers what will save you a lot of time. Wiring is tedious work, especially if it is something you did not take apart to begin with.

Good luck

Pat

Wiring is one of the most time consuming jobs you'll encounter, hopefully your harness is intact and all ya gotta do is hook everything back up, some of it will be just common sense and you'll see where a lot of the connectors go, BUT you need to be armed with a wiring diagram,
Do not use crimp connectors on anything,
only soldered connectors & joints with heat shrink tube where ever ya can use it.
I'd send ya a wiring diagram if I had it but my stuff only goes back to 1980.
I can help ya a bit with grounds, Neative battery cable to the engine block, headlamps usually ground to the core support, the dash circuits usually just ground to steering colunm support, you need a ground strap from the engine block to the firewall, and a lot of folks including myself like a ground from the engine block to the chassis..

Also, don't forget the grounds at the rear otherwise you'll have tail light problems, gas guage and so on.

Before I get around to pulling my engine, I may just put the entire engine harness minus the battery cables into 1 connector. I hate putting the engine in and being ready to start it only to have to spend half an our figuring out where all of the wires went.

When pulling it apart take lotsa pictures with a digital camera and label wires with masking tape. We think our memory is good, but even after a couple weeks things start blurring together. A little preparation saves a lot of time and aggravation in the long run. If you don't have a digital camera, do it the old fashioned way, draw diagrams.

Pat

It sounds as if you are doing a frame off restoration on the car. If that is the case, I would absolutely go with new wiring throughout. It means more work and will most definitely cost you more during the resto; but, why take a chance of bad wiring causing you problems (like a *gulp* fire) later on?

Check out Ron Francis (as Streets already suggested) Painless also makes harnesses as well and there are others. Anyway, you can get them pre-fabbed for your vehicle, (Check out Summit that's where I got the one for my Firebird) or you can buy a 12 or 18 circuit harness and cut it to fit. The wires will most likely (all of them that I have seen have been anyway) be pre-stamped with where to connect them. While this doesn't take all the work out of wiring a vehicle it absolutely helps.

Also, HWORRELL mentioned only using soldered joints and heat shrink and not crimp connectors, that is an opinion, and it is one that I agree with 1,000%. Crimp connectors are faster, but since when does faster necessarily mean higher quality? I would also suggest using what are known as Western Union splices, and then soldering and covering with heat shrink. If you don't know what I mean by Western Union splices, it is a way to wrap the wires together so that it essentially won't come un-done when you pull on it...before soldering it. Here is a link to a site that shows how to do it.

http://www.tpub.com/content/construc.../14027_122.htm

One final thought on the subject, I've always felt that if the wires are routed correctly, it is one of those areas that will contribute to looking like your vehicle was done with outstanding craftsmanship, if routed haphazardly, it will look like shit, no matter how good the paint is or anything else. Take the time to figure out exactly how you want the wires to be run (especially under the hood; but, elsewhere as well) before you actually cut or connect anything...ie, do you want them exposed and easy to see, or do you want them hidden from view as much as possible? I am always amazed at how well wiring can be done to make an unfinished car in primer and still needing quite a bit of body-work look awesome, and how one that is actually "finished" with wires running all over the place makes it look absolutely horrible. Also, when it comes to running your speaker wires from the stereo, run them as far away from the engine compartment as possible. This will help eliminate engine whine in your speakers when the radio is on.

Lots of luck,
Firechicken

Originally posted by Streets
DON'T evan mention wirin' too me.. My pail is still in pieces after the fire.. www.ronfrancis.com

Ur still workin on that? My uncle had a slight electrical fire in his '74 Triumph TR6 and after he fixed all the wiring ( just toasted engine electrical ), he put in fuses that were 5 amp less than what they should have been, he also used heavier gague wire to compensate for heat. He did it because the fuse would blow faster if there was a strain in the electrical and also, the fuse that went to the wires that burn't was compleatly melted and all others were fine so the fuse never blew so he figured that the smaller amp fuses would help. He's had it like that for a few years now and he hasn't had any electrical problems. He only put about 1,500 miles on the car and he restored it in the early 90's so, he don't drive it that much.

Thing's are looking up guy's ,the wiring is almost all figured out . All the ground wire's are back on and most of the light's work. The light's in the front are 100% I am now working on the rear light's . The dash light's still are out, but all the gauges work. This car hasn't been driven in 10 year's . Can't wait to get it back on the road. Thank you for the help everyone it is appreciated!!!!