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Wiring up the turn-signal dimmer switch in a 1968 120-130 1968

Hi Guys,
sorry to spawn a new (and longer) thread, but I did not want this to get lost in the older thread. I need some guidance ASAP.

Brief background. My dimmer switch failed a week ago and today the weather was nice enough for me to start the conversion. This is a 1968 Amazon w/o all of the in-place wiring for the stalk conversion. The grey and yellow wires are intact, but the high-beam indicator burned up some time before 1985.

I tore into the project today after work and I made a few discoveries that complicate things. I've done an initial wire up, but something is not right and I have no headlights.

Despite the guide by IPD and Ron Kwas' site, I'm having some difficulties with the new wiring.

Problem #1. Original wiring was damaged
I peeled back my carpet to take a stab at the dipper switch. There was a haphazard mess of wires down there with some half-arse splicing and a completely tape-wrapped wire. The switch is an AC Delco and judgin by the wiring colors, it is not original.

After some cleaning and snipping I've pared the mess back to two wire-tubes: an original insulated wire tube containing a perfect RED, GREY, and BLACK wire (This looks familiar to the wiring harness up by the reverse relay) and a melted tube that contained a YELLOW wire and a burned-up RED wire.

Mysteriously there was another red wire taped in there that went to nothing on either end (??). I think this was supposed to be a replacement high-beam indicator, but it was taped to the floor on that end.

There is also a small black wire that runs under the carpet to the rear of the car. It was attached to the dimmer and I've no idea what it's for, all the reverse lights and brake lights seem to function, - maybe it was a ground? I'll come back to it later.

Problem #2 Wiring instructions
Since Ron's instructions are just for up-to-1967 models, I had to skip those.

The IPD instructions are a bit tad confusing. They mix the -1967 and 1968 models and this is losing me. I'm not sure what to do with the RED and BLACK wires from the dipper switch. I need some quick confirmation.

Where I am now
I've routed the old GREY/BLACK/RED bundle up to the new relay bar. I've inspected the area behind the dashboard and located the yellow and grey wires. I moved/extended these to the relay.

IPD tells me to attach the dipper grey wire to 31b and add a jumper wire to BLACK and plug them into 15 and then jumper it to 81a. I'm not sure about this. Later on it says that I'll have to add my own black wire, so maybe this is the wrong one...?

That leaves me the Red wire along with 56, 56a and 56b free. It suggests that I'm not using the RED, but that's on pre-68 cars...

It then tells me to add a BLACK wire from terminal 15 to the #4 inboard (left?) side of the fusebox... What about the black wire I just used?? Was that the wrong one?

It then tells me to find the grey wire from the signal switch and hook it to terminal 56b. Did that.

Then it tells me to attach the double-red wire to Terminal 56a. I guess this is the burned up wire, but is it also the red wire from the dipper that it suggested I would not be using?? Can I just attach the remaining RED to this terminal and wire up the indicator light later?

Finally it says to hook the yellow to 56. Fine, got that.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, it may seem that I have this mostly correct, but I'm most concerned about that the black and red wires from the foot dipper.

I already pulled my steering wheel and confirmed that the yellow and grey are hooked up to the switch. The switch clicks, but there is no click from the relay. I think the relay is getting no power (since I did not run a wire from the fuse to the relay?) but I'm not sure. It got power before...

My clearance and all other electricals work. I think I'm just missing the proper way to wire up the RED and BLACK from the dipper. It does not seem right NOT to use the red and black wires. They were wired up to the switch before....









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New Wiring up the turn-signal dimmer switch in a 1968 [120-130][1968]
posted by  RepairmanJackal subscriber  on Mon Feb 4 12:46 CST 2008 >


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