Rewiring, more, step 1, de-wiring Options

[lapuwali]

I've managed to disentangle and separate the mess at the fusebox and under the dash. Found plenty of PO hackage, and more burnt wiring. I also discovered a few things about the factory harness.

The headlight switch SHOULD have four connections: power in, parking lights, lo-beams, dash lights. You could get away with three, and merge the lo-beams and gauge lights in the harness later. So, why are there FIFTEEN terminals on the headlight switch, with several connections with doubled up wires on them? There's like 20-30 wires there. OK, for ultimate reliability, I suppose you could run a wire to each light individually, plus the gauge lights and power, but that's still only 10 wires...

I think some of the final assembly (maybe a dozen crimped connections) was done after the harness was on the car. Some of the assembly must have been pretty challenging. I can see this in a low-volume setting, and it's certainly how I'll make the replacement, but to make around 100 cars per day in this way is pretty amazing.

[lapuwali]

The wires dangling from the steering column with the blue insulated spade connectors are from the turn signal/high-beam switch. This is a '71, so there's no stalk on the other side. The wiper/washer switch is on the dash. The connections out of the ignition switch all lead into a connector very like the connectors on the relay board. I've disassembled it in this photo.

It is (just) possible to remove the harness from the car without cutting any wires. This will really try your patience, however. All of the harness wires must basically be pulled towards the fusebox. The wires in the front trunk section need to be disconnected at the lights, wiper, and front blower, then pulled down through the scuttle to the fusebox. The connections through the center tunnel have to be pulled forward through the tunnel.

I'd really advocate NOT removing the complete harness unless you have a really good reason to (like you're going to acid dip the tub). The harness isn't split up into convenient sections, either, so if you feel you have to remove a section of it, you're basically looking at removing ALL of it. For the most part, wire itself doesn't go bad. Insulation does, and if it's very brittle, the insulation will usuall crack and break away from the wire. End connections also corrode, but can usually be cleaned up more easily than they can be replaced.

In short, do not do what I'm doing now. I'm completely insane, and will very probably be following Miles to goat-herding land any day now...