Short in wiring harness

[Lewis]

I have a 71 240Z with 160,00 miles. The cigarette liter shorted and had no fuse. The wire burned and went all the way through the wiring system. I have taken the car to a shop and they want $1500.00 to repair with a used wiring harness. I don't want to get rid of the car because it runs strong and has extra clean interior. I also don't feel I can spend $1500.00 on the car. If I do the work myself (I don't like to work on electrical) I know I will need to take out the dash to put a new wiring harness. Has anyone out there replaced a wiring harness? Where would I find a new harness, used or new?

Complicated I know. Thanks for any thoughts.

Jim

[Nissanman]

A nasty fault but......

I am reasonably sure that you could unwrap the damaged wiring harness yourself.

Once it is exposed and you can extract the burned wire.

You may find the damage is largely limited to the actual wire that fried:nervous:

Then it is just a matter of replacing it.

Check the integrity of all the other wires by doing a visual.

Unless they were actually handling excessive current, they may just be stuck to the main offender.

Probably a good time to add some more current protection in the wiring for the lighter:tapemouth:tapemouth

If your quote is $1500, what have you got to lose by investigating the loom for damage yourself:devious:

[Arne]

I had a similar problem with my first '71. It suffered the typical melted fusebox, and the resulting short(s) melted a number of wires up into the dash harness. I replaced both the dash harness and the fusebox with good used parts. It is not difficult, but can be a bit fussy and awkward work.

First step is to determine for certain whether or not the dash harness needs to be replaced, or if it can be repaired. If it must be replaced, start hunting for the right harness. It turns out that there are at least 4 -- or maybe 6, I can't recall for certain -- different dash harnesses for '71 240Zs, depending on transmission and build date. Some of them are interchangeable directly, a few of them can be used in any '71 as long as you change a few other parts to match. It's been over a year since I did mine, but post some details back here and I'll try to help figure out what you can use.

Yes, you will need to remove the dash to do this. It's not too tough, again just tedious and awkward. Start by removing the steering wheel, seats and probably the console to make more room. Disconnect the battery, then crawl underneath and label all the connectors, both on the bad harness and also on the switches and stuff that the harness connects to. While many of those connectors will only connect to one thing, labels will be very helpful.

Disconnect all the wiring and unbolt and remove the dash pad. Then you can fish the old harness out of the dash. Lay it out and match it to your replacement, make and attach matching labels for the new harness. Fish the new harness back into the dash pad, then begin to reverse the process.

Good luck, and ask for more help if you need it.

[beandip]

I replaced all the wiring in my '73 , all of it. I was fortunate to have a good friend that had a '72 parts car and the harness had not been compromised. You might be able to come up with one if you start looking. There are only three separate harness one for the area back from the firewall to the tail lights , one for the dash and one for the engine bay. I would recommend not mixing harnesses from different cars. Try and find all three from one car. The dash must come out, but while it is out clean the gauges , go through the heater and replace all the bulbs. It is the best time to tackle these things since everything is right in front of you. The only part that gets tricky , in that you need to pay attention how the old harness is fitted on the Dash . Taking a bunch of pictures will help. The rest is simple. Gary