Hard wiring lights?

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73Badsport

73Badsport

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Does anyone see any issues with hard wiring the lights and bypassing the connectors completely? I was reading a thread earlier and he was talking about putting a new harness was almost pointless due to the old wires still feeding the lights. Instead of buying new connectors or sockets, would there be any advantage to just running the new harness wires directly into the light? (If length allows). They'd be soldered and I would use heat shrink, of course. I was just looking for pro's and con's of this. Thought I may be overlooking some simple reason not to.
 
That's exactly why some guys use headlight relays. On my car, which you might call "very low budget," I used a 95 Voyager underhood relay/ fuse box. Bussman makes some which you can configure in many different ways.

But it's not just the lights, it's the ammeter/ battery feed, the ignition feed, and headlights. I don't think wipers/ turn signals, etc, give that much trouble, but they still go through there.
 
To solder in every new bulb from now on doesn't sound like a good plan. Easier said than done for sure since there is nothing to support the bulb and allow access its contacts at the same time.
 
I'm not that electrically savvy. Is that something that you just splice into? I have the car and harness in storage, so it's kind of hard to picture what needs to be done. I'll be checking into those bussman fuse boxes and relays.
Redfish, I would simply be wiring to the socket instead of a male to female connector. I may be missing something very obvious lol
 
I may have worded it poorly initially. I didn't mean solder the wires directly to bulb itself. Just to the socket, basically replacing all the wiring in the car.
 
All of the headlight bulbs have male spade connectors. The sockets for other type bulbs have a wire or 2 going into them. Those aren't easy to get into.
 
Alright, I see what you're getting at. Thanks again. I seem to always be missing something.
 
Here's how I rewired the headlight connections for relays in my 67...
The left headlight connector had 2 wires in each of its 3 terminals. I clipped and stripped all of those, Combined the bare wires together to create twice the original wire gauge, then added my new larger wire from there.
Of course the right side connector on this car had only 1 wire to each terminal so I had to have another of the left side connectors to repeat the chore.
 
Perfect. It takes a little while for things to click lol. That's what I'll attempt to do.
 
In both my A's, I have completely replaced the engine wiring harnesses since the wires were brittle and buggered with by clueless mechanics. I used an underhood relay box from a 91-94 Jeep in both, which has 7 relays and many fuses. I put the headlights (low & high beam) on relays just because I had enough. However, I don't think that is really required since they could be switched directly from the dash switch. At least the Jeep box didn't have relays for those and I don't recall any in my newer cars.

Actually, I am just now working on my 64 Valiant re-wiring and forgot how much work it is. I thought having paved the trail in my 65 Dart and having drawings would have help more, but still a lot of soldering and planning. I don't recommend this approach for others, particularly unless you have some electrical savy. At least it is winter and not much else I can do in the evening while watching TV.
 
Yeah, I thought being an electrician would help me. But I don't deal with low voltage,contactors, relays, etc. I plan on goin as far as I can, and then ask around when I come up with any issues. What would you say the most difficult part was? Those relay boxes sound pretty handy.
 
it is nice to have the connectors like stock so that you can take the wire harness back out later on for service..... if you pass the wires thru the firewall then to your light connectors how do you get the wires back thru the firewall without cutting them?
 
Yeah, I wana keep them if they're in good shape. It'd probably be best to buy aftermarket connectors and fit them to what I need. I have to pay a little more attention to the situation when i take it out of storage. Im not too worried about having to pull the harness.
 
younggun2.0 said:
it is nice to have the connectors like stock so that you can take the wire harness back out later on for service..... if you pass the wires thru the firewall then to your light connectors how do you get the wires back thru the firewall without cutting them?
Click to expand...


I've heard this argument.

1---Just how many times do you visualize doing this? Maybe once, twice in the "life" of the car?

2--Unless you weld up the huge hole for the bulkhead connector, there should be just about nothing that won't already fit through the hole. So a simple patch, screwed to the firewall, can be removed and the harness fed right through.

3--There are many cars (back then) which had NO harness connector. That is, feeding the wires through the firewall is "how you did it." Chevelle comes to mind


Mine is now sort of a "morph." The original connector has become a simple feed through for much of the wiring, with the exception of the wiper connector, which seemed handiest to leave as-is. I no longer have an ammeter, and in fact have an aftermarket harness, so the only "high current" wire is the in-feed from the battery. Ignition, lights, etc, are all just firing relays in the box in the bay. Turn signals/ parking lights still run direct off the switches, no relays there.
 
I agree. I think the bulkhead connector was more a convenience for factory assembly. However, it does make it easier to upgrade the harnesses today, if you have $200 for a kit. Most vehicles I have seen since the 1980's have no connector and just run the harness thru a grommet in the bulkhead. I will probably do that with the big ALT and BATT wires in my 64 Valiant since it doesn't have the nice dedicated feed-thru studs in my 65's (1 year only?).
 
Im with both of you. I didn't see myself having to remove the harness on a regular basis and that wouldn't be too terribly hard to make it accessible. It does make sense to put the bulkhead there for assembly efficiency. Im still slightly at a loss when it comes to relays.
1- Where would you recommend these be placed? Im not going for an immaculate car, I just want the engine bay as wire-free as possible.
2-Is there any certain brand of relay i should look for or any I should avoid completely?
3-What would be the essentials that you would have on relays?
4- Are they something you simply terminate into/out of and then to the lights?
Sorry for all of the questions, I just can't wait any longer to hear this car fire up. Im not a fan of rolling into car shows with just my cummins, or even worse, my friend's Honda's and imports lol. Thanks again to anyone who has had any input here!
 
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