1970 combo switch wiring

[ricksaia]

Hello all. I am putting my Z back together and I have all the wires connected except for a black wire on the turn signal side and a red wire on the headlight switch side. Do they go into each other? Or, where do they go? My production date is 10/70. Thanks all. Rick.

[Cruez]

I believe that was supposed to be for something with the ignition lock. Mine is not connected either. Never has been.

[ricksaia]

The ignition switch wires come from the dash. These are the wires comming from the combo switch. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Rick.

[Arne]

I'm pretty sure that those two wires are connected to each other on mine, but won't have a chance to verify this until the weekend at best. (And that's assuming that I remember to look.)

[EScanlon]

...a black wire on the turn signal side and a red wire on the headlight switch side. ....

Rick:

The biggest problem is that sometimes the color coding of the early connecting items (light/turn switch, ignition switch, etc) did not match the wiring harness that it connected to. That's not to say that it NEVER has, it's just that in the earlier cars, the wiring convention for the switches, although remarkably constant amongst other switches of that type, did not necessarily match the wiring harnesses. As a result, you can't really read the wiring schematic and get a very good and clear idea of what color wires the switch should have. I've observed between three different switches wire color changes that should have been this color instead of that...., or wire colors reversed between two adjoining wires although switch works correctly (as in the case of the turn signal or parking light wire pairs).

So, taking that into mind I went to find my stash of switches.

Hoping that the wiring conventions didn't change too much from yours to mine:

The Black wire on my T/S switch is Short w/ Male Bullet connector. It is wrapped separately from the 3 and 6 connectors (denoting number of connector points, NOT how many wires go into it, in this case the 6 connector only has 5 wires) and the other lone wire which is a Green with female spade. The Black wire connects to the Light/Wiper switch's ground via a corresponding Black Female Bullet. This ground is for the High /Low Beam switch on the T/S.

The Red wire on my Light/Wiper Switch is a heavier gage wire than the rest of the wires, with a Female Bullet connector, it connects the power from the fuse box to the headlights. There should also be a Black Female Spade of equal wire gage. These two provide the power and return for your lights. The connections for these two should be at about the same level on the Dash Harness as the Flat 6 Female Spade connector's corresponding mate. The other heavy gage wire is a White / Red Male Bullet that barely makes it out of the plastic tube oversleeve, this one's for the Parking and Turn Lights Switch The last loose wire of regular gage on the L/W Switch is a Blue / White Male Bullet which makes the connection for your W/W Wash Switch.

Look on the Dash's wiring harness at the "approximate" points that the wires would connect. I've used this method even with transplants and found it to be extremely helpful and sometimes definitive in determining where to plug things back into the harness at. Sometimes the trick in getting everything plugged back in, is to make the connections you are sure about. Then take the shortest wire left and determine where it HAS to connect to, then simply let them arrange themselves. There will be ~some~ bunching, but not a lot.

Hope this made some sense, if not please ask.

E¢

[ricksaia]

Thanks Enrique. My headlight/ wiper switch does not have the little white/red wire, nor does it have the black wire with a round female connector. Of the loose wires, it only has the thick black for ground, blue/white for wipers and a red round female. On the t/s side it has a round black male and the green wire. This is totally my fault, I should of labeled. I hope we can solve this problem. Thanks again, Rick.

[ricksaia]

Arne, anticipating your response as well. Thank you, Rick.

[zack_280]

Rick,

I'm 99% sure those wires to connect together. I just rewired my combo switch because the P/O paid some mechanic a ridiculous amount of money to jerry rig the wiring. Either way, there are two wires from each switch that connect together. So these are the most likely (and should be the only) candidates.

[Arne]

Arne, anticipating your response as well. Thank you, Rick.

Man, I hope I remember to take a look at it for you this weekend...

[ricksaia]

Arne, great web site. I wish I had the patients to do the same thing.

[Arne]

Arne, great web site. I wish I had the patients to do the same thing.

Thanks. We'll see if I can keep it up through the whole job. Here's to hoping...

[Arne]

OK, once the ice thawed enough to allow me to move the car today (damn freezing rain), I took the lower steering column cover off to look at the wiring. Unfortunately, my car (also 10/70) does not appear to have the same color wiring as yours. Specifically, I did not see a black wire on the turn signal side. The red wire from the combo switch is connected to a red wire on the turn signal switch.

Since I couldn't reconcile this with your situation, I took a picture of it instead.