Dash wiring questions

[bross1004]

I am in process of refurbishing the dash on my 1970 challenger. It is a non-rallye car. I have found a few things that don't match up with the wiring diagrams that i have found for it, to include those shared on this site. One of the more puzzling is the connector that is for instrument lamps. Per the diagram, there are 3 orange wires, 2 on one side and 1 on the other. One is from the radio, one goes to the "heater control switch lamp" and the third goes to the 3 cluster lamps. My plug has a total of 5 wires; 4 orange and 1 green. I have identified the 3 per the drawing, but I seem to have an extra orange for "accessory lighting" (that's a guess), and a green wire that was snipped at about 4 inches that I have no idea what it is for. I have attached a few pictures to show what I'm looking at.

[anlauto]

The orange wire could be for you floor shifter if the car is an automatic. The green wire could be part of the A01 light group wiring plugged into the wrong area.

[bross1004]

Didn't think about something hooking up for a floor shifter. Ill dig into that some more. What is the A01 light group you mentioned for the green wire? Does seem odd though that what per drawing should be a 1in molded plug with 2 plug-in connectors on the other side would be a 2-in molded plug with 3 on the other side.

[anlauto]

Come to think about it, the A01 light harness doesn't have a green wire, mainly pink and yellow.... What options does your car have? the green wire should likely be plugged into the tan wire feed 

[MoparLeo]

Is this the original harness from the car and was just disconnected and now you are trying to reconnect the wires or was something changed  ?

[bross1004]

As far as I know it is the original harness, but I can't garuntee that. I pulled the dash off myself, but whoever had the car before did a lot of shady stuff. I'm trying to get things wired up correctly. Not related to the dash harness specifically, but just as an example the NSS was bypassed. So I have to fix that too.

[Dakota]

The NSS on these cars can be finicky.  Mine worked sometimes, and other times I had to use a jumper to bypass it.  It turns out it made enough of a connection with ground to show continuity on my volt meter, but not enough to allow the starter relay to engage consistently. The prior owner for your car may have been having similar issues.   I'll have the NSS replaced or repaired before i start driving it again. 

[MoparLeo]

Safest and best bet is to just replace with a new harness. Since it was already removed you don't know if there are any internal insulation shorts etc... And you will know exactly where everything goes as a quality harness will have all the connections labeled.

[bross1004]

I wish I had the funds to buy a new harness and ship it out. But this dash harness is just one small piece. I'm at least mildly electrically savvy and have the drawings for what it should be. Can't afford to keep buying new. I have wire, connectors, a multimeter. Just gotta get through the questionable things like this connection that looks stock but doesn't match the wiring diagram. I'm so broke at this point I have dismantled the oil and fuel guages myself and am rebuilding and re-calibrating them so I don't have to ship them off. Doesn't help I'm building this car on a small island in the western pacific. Parts cost 3x as much to get here and take months in shipping sometimes.

Safest and best bet is to just replace with a new harness. Since it was already removed you don't know if there are any internal insulation shorts etc... And you will know exactly where everything goes as a quality harness will have all the connections labeled.

[MoparLeo]

That's too bad about your location and funds situation.  Well, good luck with your project.

[RUNCHARGER]

I always go through the original harnesses and clean them up, replace any bad wires or terminals and reassemble with grease etc. What you're doing is a great plan as long as you don't have any burnt junction plastic s you need to find. I used to keep a lot of used harnesses that I could canabalize for parts when needed.

[bross1004]

Any input on the connector that I posted above? It's got me puzzled.

I always go through the original harnesses and clean them up, replace any bad wires or terminals and reassemble with grease etc. What you're doing is a great plan as long as you don't have any burnt junction plastic s you need to find. I used to keep a lot of used harnesses that I could canabalize for parts when needed.