Is it possible to use a 72 wiring harness in a 71 240z with little to no problems?

I recently got my 71 and the wiring is a MESS... so i went to the junkyard and got a complete unmolested harness from a 72 complete with fusebox.

I only got the rear harness and the dash harness though.

The gauge and switch wiring will be a bit different, but you can probably work that out. There may be differences in the connectors to the engine harness as well. It would be better to get that part too.

I say this because I've been there - My wiring thread.

Do what Arne said , but get all of the harness and convert everything . Arne and escanlon do wiring. Been there also . Gary

there's a possibility that the harness i got was out of a 73, as the speedometer started at 10mph. The guy at the yard said it was a 72. Is this going to pose anymore of a problem?

You may find that the tach wiring is wrong for your 71 as well. Does the fuse box have a short pigtail?

The farther you get from the model you have, the more differences you will have to deal with. The '73 has a lot of differences from the '71, things like intermittent wipers, totally different defroster switch, lighted heater panel, etc.

Unfortunately, (as I found out on mine) there are plenty of small differences between different month production of even the same model year.

so if the car i got the harness from IS a 73, which i'm sure it is, is there anything i should go back to the yard and get?

I was the first person to crack into this Z(they JUST got it). So, all the stuff is still there and in decent shape, with the exception of some of the plastic panels.

  psychrage said:

so if the car i got the harness from IS a 73, which i'm sure it is, is there anything i should go back to the yard and get?

If it were me, I'd get the engine harness, both column switches (turn signal and lights/wiper), wiper motor, and any of the dash/console switches you can get.

  Arne said:

The farther you get from the model you have, the more differences you will have to deal with. The '73 has a lot of differences from the '71, things like intermittent wipers, totally different defroster switch, lighted heater panel, etc.

Unfortunately, (as I found out on mine) there are plenty of small differences between different month production of even the same model year.

Arne, please elaborate. If I recall correctly, the harness you sourced was #24013-E4602, which was supposed to be for 10/70 through 12/70 inclusive, and correct for your car (except for auto. vs. manual transmission). What problems did you run into? Would you suggest going with the 24013-E4601 for 1/70 to 9/70? You see, my car is 11/70 build date, and I am looking for the same harness(es). Also, please PM me if you have suggestions on sourcing.

Thanks, Gary S.

  7T1240 said:

Arne, please elaborate. If I recall correctly, the harness you sourced was #24013-E4602, which was supposed to be for 10/70 through 12/70 inclusive, and correct for your car (except for auto. vs. manual transmission). What problems did you run into? Would you suggest going with the 24013-E4601 for 1/70 to 9/70? You see, my car is 11/70 build date, and I am looking for the same harness(es). Also, please PM me if you have suggestions on sourcing.

Thanks, Gary S.

Sorry, Gary, that post of mine made it sound like I had problems when using the correct harness. I did not. What I was referring to was that because of all the small differences I felt like I needed to find that exact harness, not that the harness that I did use was a problem.

If I was still looking as you are, I would try to find the E4602 as my first choice. But if I found an E4601 I'd probably do it. While I can't say for certain (as I haven't had one to physically compare), I believe the differences between those two would be minor enough to be easily worked around. The later harness (starting with 1/71 production) would seem to also work, but more differences have crept in.

But in the case of the original thread starter, going from a '71 (either early or late) all the way to a '73 will bring on many differences. That will increase the difficulty of the project considerably.

So in short Gary, for your 11/70 car I'd try to find the proper 10/70-12/70 harness, but would probably consider one on either side of that production window as well.

I just installed a 1/71 harness in my car which has a build date of 9/70 and had no problems at all. The only differences were a different type connector for the rear de-fogger and an extra hot connection near the the fuse box that I taped off and two new wires at the light/wiper switch. I actually tried replacing this switch with a '71 switch which has the extra connectors only to find the headlights would not turn off at all. So I put the original '70 switch back in and taped off the extra leads coming from the harness and everything works perfectly. Gauges,lights everything. I am assuming that with the extra, heavier gauge leads to the light switch they were trying to compensate for the mess of passing all the voltage through the switch.

Just my 2cents.

Best of luck,

H Houghton

Arne B., thanks for the clarification. And Henry, thanks for your input as well - it bolsters Arne's contention that staying close to one's build date will probably yield the best results.

Gary S.