69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

[Jack O.]

On a 69, should the dash harness go over or under the steering column? The AIM shows it running below the speedo and tach and that's where the J-clips are located but it ends up in the way of the column. To run the harness above the column will require bending a loop into it and my current harness has no such loop but I can't say for sure whether it ran above or below the column.

I managed to get the column in with the harness below it but it seems to be in the way there too so thought I'd ask before finishing the column install.

Thanks,

Jack

[Mark E.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

If '69 is like '68, then this should help: https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthread.php?125167

[Jack O.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Thanks Mark. So according to that thread the column goes under the harness and "pushes it up in the center". But that harness will not easily give since it's so thick so it's going to want to push the entire harness up which will probably cause issues. I'll take another look.

[Jack O.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Wow, has anyone actually successfully ran a new dash harness over the column on a 69 convertible? I agree the AIM shows it that way but I don't see how there's room. I have another 1.5 inches to go and the harness is bent quite a bit but is starting to press bulbs out of the speedo. The harness is being lifted rather than forming a nice semi-circle around the column. Other issue I see is that it's going to be pressed tight against the rod that moves the ignition switch. Even assuming it doesn't cause it to hang up it would eventually wear through the harness. I got this far by making sure, on the speedo (left) side, that the harness is above the natural steel plate "ear" where the column bolts to it but there doesn't seem to be room for the harness to then clear the lower speedo bulb sockets.The double bracing on that side doesn't help either.

The other thing that has me wondering whether my original went above the column is that the original harness does not have a distinct semi circular bend in it which it would definitely have to have it were over the column for 50+ years. Stupid me, I forgot to take pictures of these specifics before pulling the column.

On the PITA scale, I think this task has now surpassed replacing the radiator support on a BB A/C car for me .

Any insights or advice would be much appreciated! Thanks again.

--Jack

[Richard R.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

I left you a PM

[Mark E.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

I removed, repaired and replaced the dash harness on my '70 coupe about 30 years ago. Yes, it was a pain but I don't recall the issues you're having.

To confirm routing- AIM UPC 12 sheet B9 shows the harness over the steering column.

Is the harness you're installing different than the original one? If yes, is it the same length?

Also, it may help to warm the harness just a bit with a heat gun to make it more flexible.

[Jack O.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

It's a Lectric Limited harness and yeah, everything looks like the original. One thing I did figure out, on my original someone had spliced in and lengthened both the left courtesy light wires and the brake light switch wires. Based on that and the shape of the harness I think the last person that went down this road put the harness high on the speedo side, above it, and possibly even above the tach. But the tach side isn't an issue so it may have dropped down behind the tach. I was thinking along the same lines and then remembered that the brake switch line would be too short for that and that then reminded me of where my original had been spliced. The brake line switch wires are barely long enough to reach with the harness down low so it really limits where you can place the harness.

I'm going to pull the column out again and configure a short pipe with bracket of same dimensions as the column and try to get the harness in the proper position and shape using it. This way I can more easily move things around, including myself, and see better. May also try the warming idea as well.

I read somewhere that a change was made sometime in '70 to run the harness above the speedo/tach. Relatively speaking there's lots of space up there.

[Bill B.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Jack,

While mine is a 1970, indeed, there must have been a change at least in routing during the 1970 MY as my late (July 16) 1970 has the harness mounting above the speedo and tach, which is much different than what my 1970 AIM calls out.

Interestingly, my 1970 AIM, UPC 12, sheet B3 with the lower harness routing depicted has April 1969 dates on it, with no revisions.

As Mark indicated, my Sheet B9 also has the harness shown above the steering column. Those sheets have the same April 1969 date.

Is your 1969 an early or late build?

[Jack O.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Bill,

It's a Jan '69 build. I'm not doubting that the harness goes over the column and below the speedo/tach I just haven't been approaching it correctly. Finally got it in there. More on that in a subsequent post.

[Terry M.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Jack
I recall a post by John Hinckley stating that they warmed thee Harness with heat lamps before installation. I'm not sure if that will help your situation or not. Try it but be careful not to burn the harness or yourself.

BTW:
I just happen to know where a January 20 built 1969 resides. It is M40 (TH400) and I don't know if that would make a difference. This car has lead a checkered life, buy I'll see what the car tells me,

Bill
My best recollection is there is a difference between early and late cars with respect to the orientation of the dash harness, gut without investigation I can't tell you which is which.

[Gary B.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Something I posted a few years ago:

My experience is the reproduction 70 wire harnesses are really late 70, 71 and up style. Early 70 wire harnesses, run under the gages, above the steering column, and over to the center gage cluster. The wires run up to the tach and speedo. Around s/n 13,000 ?? they changed the routing over the top of the gages and the wires drop down to the gages. Then proceeds over to the center cluster, higher above them.
The reproduction wire harnesses are designed to go over the gages, not like the original routing on the early 70's.
I encountered this when restoring 1970 s/n 13942 and have looked at several cars since.
Try routing the harness this way and see if it works better.

My survey to date:

2161, under
6243, under
6437, under
11187, under
12824, under
13942, over
14036, over
14544, over
14645, over
14803, over
16717, over
16965, over

Below is a picture of a 1969, June 4th build car. You can see the big bundle of wires running close to the front of the dash, then upwards over the top of the steering column.

Gary Bosselman

2023-03-27 15.43.14.1.jpg


2023-03-27 15.40.37.1.jpg

[Jack O.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Yep, I put a clamp light with 100w bulb under the harness for a while and I think that helped it bend.

[Jack O.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

I did manage to get the harness installed above the column. Here's some things I did that helped which may assist others.

- First I removed the column knowing that the column itself was not going to put the needed arch in the harness.
- Put a clamp light with 100w bulb under the harness where I wanted to bend it for about an hour.
- I removed all the bulbs and ground wires from the tach. This gave me plenty of room to grip and push the harness from the tach side.
- Removed the ground and lower inside (closest to the column) bulb from the speedo. This allowed the harness to move above these items where there was just a bit of room for the harness behind the speedo. This also raised it just enough to allow the brake light connector to reach but not so high that the courtesy light would not reach.
- I then pushed from the tach side while using my other hand to push the harness up into the the natural metal column mount plate. That allowed me to get it way up in there such that it would not be sitting on the column and possibly interfere with the ignition switch rod.
- Pushed the alarm and PW harnesses up in the same manner. These were easy since there so small.

A couple of things that I'm sure of but seemed to work for me:
- On the left side the harness routes up from the fuse box to a clip above then drop drops down to the speedo area. There are two braces that form a V and bolt to the left side of the cast column brace. I routed the harness between the two braces - in the V.
- There seems to be only one way to route the the speedo cable but it's a tight fit and if it comes off not sure I have room to get it back on. It runs in front of clutch and brake pedals and curves into speedo. It actually touches the right front edge of the brake pedal.

Thanks again to everyone who offered assistance, much appreciated.

[Mark E.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Thanks for posting the outcome.

This last post made me realize you're installing the harness with the dash in the car. Do I understand this correctly?

I've never done that. I've always removed the dash to replace a harness (but never needed to remove the column). This could explain some of the challenges you faced.

[Jack O.]

Re: 69 Dash Harness, over or under steering column

Oh no, I started with everything - front/rear consoles, all HVAC related pieces, column, left and right dash pads removed. I installed the harness and then the left dash pad making all connections to it. Then the column hoping the column would push the harness up enough but that was a bad assumption. So I removed the column once again and that's what my post is referring to with "First I removed the column...".