More wiring

I have no pictures because my wonderful son took my camera to the beach this weekend. But I've been working on the dash wiring today. I now have inside turn signal lights (plus that wonderful clicking noise), headlights, and emergency flashers.

I started by looking at the relay switches and realized that the switch that controls the turn signals was supposed to have 3 connectors, but mine only had two. Off to the auto parts store I went. I bought two new relays, supposedly the only two my car requires. My reading indicated there was a place where you connect to the fuses where you can plug in the relays, and the wires attach to the underside of plug-in. However, no matter how hard I tried, I could find a position where I could actually see under the plug-in bar to make sure the wires were connected properly. Given the poor wiring on this car to this point, I decided to just unplug all the wires from the relay spot, and plug them directly into the switches.

The turn signal wires were the most difficult. The darn fool who had the car before had hooked up the turn signal wires from the fuse, to the relay, back to the fuse. Very strange - since they didn't connect to either the headlight wiring harness or the speedometer lights. Explains why my interior turn signals never worked. I pulled out my handy dandy wiring diagram and started from scratch. Once I had the right wires connected, to the right spots using the right relay, the turn signals worked just fine! Amazing. I just need to figure out a way to hold the relays in place so they don't jostle around. Possible solution may include the zip ties mentioned below.

Next I looked at the light switch, emergency flasher switch and the brake warning light. I had to remove the fresh air vents to do this - easily accomplished by removing 2 screws. I still have not figured out how to remove these switches though. The switches have small numbers printed at each connection that tell you where the wires go.

First the brake warning light. I was able to push that through the dashboard, and then pushed all the wires through the dashboard. There were no wires connected to start, so I had to connect all five. Good light and room to work, so I was able to connect all of the wires and now I have a working brake warning light.

Second I tackled the emergency flashers. It appears this switch is broken, and it was held together with a zip tie. I cut the zip tie and was able to remove the plate with the connections on it. Of course 3 of the wires were connected to the wrong place, and many wires were the wrong color. I went through my new wiring harness wires and found the correct wires for the emergency flasher connections. I connected them to the right spots on the switch, and voila I now had emergency flashers. I ran to Lowes to get more zip ties, and put the switch back together like it was originally. Sometimes you have to make due. I'd replace it, if I could ever figure out how to remove it.

Finally the light switch. With the other switches wired correctly, I re-connected the battery and crossed my fingers. The lights appear to work, so hopefully the one switch I couldn't remove, couldn't break, and couldn't see seems to be wired correctly.

Now the only things left on the dash that don't work are the windshield wipers (motor due to arrive next week) and the high-beams. My husband pointed out my left rear turn signal (outside) doesn't work, so I need to pull that apart and look at it as well.

Overall - it was a good day. And nothing caught on fire.