Midlife

Here's a tip: the fuel/oil/temperature gauges can be adjusted together with the CVR. On the back of the mechanical CVR is a small potentiometer (pot) that if you break off the epoxy, you can access a small post. Rotate the post to adjust your three gauges. I adjust mine so that when my fuel tank is 1/4 full, the gauge reads 1/4 full. Beyond that, the gauges are really only useful for changes relative to their normal conditions.

Yeah, it is only the one big pin that is not reproduced any more. Those I have to cannibalize and splice.

The pins are available in packs of 100: both male and female. You'll need a special crimping tool to use them though. I get mine from Newark.com: stock number 82F9911 and 82F9912, Mate-N-Lock.

Nope. Cut the wires, and re-splice them.

The three wire door jamb connector fits into the door jamb switch, which fits inside the door jamb (duh!). It exits the main harness near where the fuse box and headlight switch are. The wire colors are green/yellow, blue/black, and red. I think what you are describing for the other connectors are black, grey, and red/yellow wires and the other is grey and black. I believe these are emission-related connectors and can generally be left alone without problem. These are only found on 1970's. One connector is red plastic and the other is whitish/clear plastic.

Hi there. I'll take your messed up harnesses as cores and provide you with an underdash for $175 and a tail-light for $50, each with a 2 year warranty - no questions asked and new fuses! These will be quality products for a daily driver/cruiser/local car show, but not concours level of quality. Contact info is as above. 1969 is the most in-demand underdash harness over all other years by a factor of 2. 1970 is the runner-up.

I agree. If there was a short somewhere that lasted a bit of time, then the insulation would be melted up and down the wires. To me, the wire insulation got nicked over time without cutting the copper strands. As for the wires getting hot, how hot are they? At worst, they should be warm to the touch, but you should be able to hold them. There is no fuse for the brake switch; power is routed through a circuit breaker on the RH side of the car and goes to the emergency flasher before coming to the brake switch (green/red wire), then out to the turn signal switch (green wire).

I thought I relayed to you via e-mail that those are wires to the driver's side door jamb, and that the metal prongs sticking out are the guts of the door jamb switch.

Thanks for sending the photos' link via e-mail. I hope my answers helped out a bit.

I think the terminology is confusing, so let's start from the beginning. On the main underdash harness near the passenger side door is a two prong plug (green/yellow and black). On a 69, there's a single female bullet (blue/red) nearby; on a 70 one has to use an extender from the three prong plug near the center. These three wires plug into a three-prong plug with matching colors that is the clock/map light harness. Out of that harness comes a two prong plug (green/yellow and black), and a "T" shaped connector that accepts spade leads (clock), and two lamps. The two prong plug on the clock/map harness mates to a two prong plug for the map light and glove box switch. The blue/white wire for your console is your cigarette lighter wire that powers the rear console lighter. The blue/red wire is the light for the rear console. The female bullet is for another light if needed. Use the male bullet and you can leave the female bullet alone.

For your truck: I'd suspect a bad ground. When things start to heat up, the ground will now make better contacts. For your Mustang: it doesn't sound like wiring to me if the engine will at least catch fire and then die shortly thereafter. Which wire were you unsure of? The four prong hooded plug coming out of the firewall contains the neutral safety switch/backup lights plug, and must either be jumpered (manual transmission) or connected to the NSS switch on the transmission to allow the starter to engage. Are you sure you have the red/blue wire on the more forward post on the starter solenoid and the brown or red/green wire on the more rearward post?

The dash cluster connector is labeled with pins 1 through 18. Here's the call-out for the standard dash cluster. 1. Empty 2. green/white, 50, LH turn signal 3. empty 4. red/white, 39, temperature sending unit 5. yellow/white, 29, fuel sending unit 6. purple, 977, dual brake warning switch 7. red/yellow, 643, power for dual brake warning switch 8. black, 57, ground 9. empty 10. empty 11. violet and black wires, 484 and 30, constant voltage regulator input (resistor wire) and empty wire (used to help crimp the resistor wire) 12. blue/red, 19, dash lamps 13. white/blue, 49, RH turn signal 14. white/red, 31, oil pressure sending unit 15. green/black, 34, high beam indicator light 16. yellow, 654, ammeter 17. red, 655, ammeter 18. empty

Do you have a factory tach or standard dash cluster? It makes a difference...I can list the wire colors, their position on the factory plug and their function.

You start at the driver's side harness where there is a double plug (green/yellow and black wires) and a single female bullet (blue/red). You plug those into the map/clock harness mate and go from there. Can you describe your console wiring with colors? There's little in the way of documentation available for this, but I can help out if I know what wire colors are there.

Thanks for all of the kind words. My services are not for everyone: if you want to really modify the car, the aftermarket kits are the way to go. But I will agree that they are overpriced as are the reproduction stock wiring harnesses.

Thanks for all of the kind words. My services are not for everyone: if you want to really modify the car, the aftermarket kits are the way to go. But I will agree that they are overpriced as are the reproduction stock wiring harnesses.

Solid yellow runs from the headlight switch to the turn signal switch, and is the power to the horn switch in the steering wheel. The outgoing signal is on a blue/yellow or rarely a yellow/blue (mostly in 71-73's) wire that goes to the green connector on the back of the fuse box. The wiring diagrams you are referring to are from Chilton's, and they leave a lot to be desired. The Osborne Electrical Assembly Manuals (about $20) are much better, and the Wiring Diagram Manuals are OK but not always complete. Both are available from your favorite catalog store.

Yellow wire is incoming horn power; blue/yellow is outgoing horn signal.

1976 wiring harnesses and connectors won't mate with the earlier models.

1976 wiring harnesses and connectors won't mate with the earlier models.

Yes. Disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery. Now use a volt-ohm meter, using DC currents, set to 10 or 20 amps, and measure from the negative battery post to the negative battery cable. Normally, you should see 100 milliamps or so. A dead short will be more than 10 amps, so you may blow the fuse in the DVM.

May work as park lights only when the headlight switch is pulled out one detent and not two.

You probably have an intermittent short caused by a power line's insulation being worn and touching the chassis. By fiddling with the wires on the first failure, you probably moved the wire enough so it didn't short out. I'd check the headlight harness starting at the starter solenoid and work your way under the radiator back to the firewall. I'd also look at the wires going to the alternator.

Wire colors/positions are incorrectly stated. Looking at the outside of the curved plug from the main underdash harness, from left to right is: blue orange/blue green/orange white/red yellow On the inside curve of the main underdash harness: blank (1969), or black (1970) green green/white (two wires) white/blue (two wires) blue/yellow

100A alternator will be fine so long as you do not add a lot of additional loads to the existing wiring. If you do run a true 90 amp load through the existing Ford wiring, it is going to heat up more than normal and increase resistance, dropping voltage along the way as it powers things up. You run the risk of possibly burned insulation and/or lower voltage for your dash lights. I don't believe you can overpower a regulator, as it is basically a voltage-sensing device/switch. Not much current flows through the VR.