My 1971 Road runner

[73LemonTwist]

Nice job on the retrofit... by chance did you chase that culprit wire down to the other end? Similar issue at the other end?

 

[71Beeper]

Hey Alan - all of the other wires are clean - good thing it was only one wire.

 

[71Beeper]

So now I'm attaching the wire harness to the dash cluster.
Upgrading the dash light to LED's at the same time.

And now some issues start.
The 1971 heater control panel backside has two openings for light bulbs, but this wiring harness has only one light bulb.

And the one light bulb socket does not fit in either hole.....its too big.
I do have a 1972 control panel - they only have one light bulb and this socket happens to fit it - go figure.
So my guess would be that this is a 1972 harness and not a 1971 harness like was told to me by the previous owner....
The next issue is.....I've checked over this whole harness and it has not been sliced into...anywhere.
I for the life of me cannot find the connector that plugs into the back of the fan switch.

You see, the switch has 4 connectors.
I have no plug on the harness that looks like this. Do any of you guys know which plug goes here?
Hopefully 72GTX Doug will chime in.
Here are some plugs that still need a home - anybody know where they go?

This plug I thought was for the highbeam switch, but it is not - the existing highbeam switch is plugged into the proper one currently.

Then there's these guys.

Obviously, I know the one for the flasher, but the others?
Here's some more.

I do have all of the connectors properly installed at the voltage regulator and the gauges.

And I have bypassed the amp gauge.

And I even have my tach wires properly hooked up - instructions came with the tach wiring harness (no photo of that tho).

So, I'll have to track down a used harness that I can snag the 2 heater control bulb sockets for and look into what the fan motor plug looks like.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[71Beeper]

I forgot to mention that I do have one other plug that doesn't have a home.
The one at the bottom of this photo.

The plug has 3 prongs, but 4 wires go to it.
There are 2 beige wires, a dark green and a light green wire.
I gotta find a wiring schematic to make sense on where the stragglers have to go.

 

[71Beeper]

So I was able to figure out a few things.
A called a friend who has B-body 71 and 72 Road runner stuff & he happened to have the light bulb sockets and harness for the heater control panel.

So that one is figured out.
Next I went thru some of the wiring harnesses my friend had for these cars and I found the plug I'm going to need.

But this one was on a good harness so I couldn't take it with me. But at least I know what I'm looking for.
So, this morning I have a look at the original harness that came with the car (the one that is hacked up) and guess what I found???

The same plug!
So I will make this one work.

 

[71Beeper]

So as I get this dash cluster ready for install I run into another issue.
My door jamb switches.
For 1971 there are 2 different jamb switches on the car - the drivers side has a 3 prong switch while the passenger side has a 2 prong switch.
Well, my wiring harness has this on it.
Here's the drivers side:

It only has 2 wires and not 3.
Here's the passenger side.

It only has one wire - not two.
Conclusion is......the wiring harness is for a 1973 & not 1971.....so much for Moparts members being honest.....

Anyway, I can at least use one of my existing door jamb switches and order up a single pole switch off Amazon.

While I'm waiting for bits to come in, I'll make a start on cleaning up the windshield wiper linkage.
Now, I am converting to a 3 speed wiper motor setup, which means that the linkage arm that runs from the motor to the pivot will not work.
BUT wait.....there's a guy up here in Montreal that sells a kit that will convert a 2 speed arm to a 3 speed.
The kit includes a 1/2" dia. steel plug along with the new bushing and drivers to install said bushing.
You can see the bushing and drivers in this photo.

At the bottom of the photo I have already welded in the 1/2" plug and drilled the new hole for the bushing.
The kit also comes with directions on where to drill the new hole.
So, I'll get this arm and rest of the linkage ready for paint.

 

[whayden2003]

All this wiring stuff you are going thru is bringing back the crap behind my dash. I tried my hardest to fix 50 years of shade tree butchery. It was looking so good. Up to the point of fitting everything back in there. I bet people look at these cars and think. There is so much room back there. This is simply not true.

 

[71Beeper]

You are correct on that statement whayden.
Once the defrost ducting is in place and the steering column is in then I do believe that there won't be alot of room back there.

That's why I'm taking as many photos now so in future if there is a problem I'll have something to remember what went where.

 

[whayden2003]

Not the best photos. But thankfully I had to remove some of that defrost duct and the huge evap case. I put a vintage air unit in. Freed up some room but it was quickly taken by all the ac round ducting.

 

[71Beeper]

Ah yes, yours having A/C will definitely take up more real-estate under there....

 

[71Beeper]

So I got the wiper pivots and linkage all cleaned up and painted.

Time to install the bushing. Here's the frontside.

Here's the backside.

Now put it in the vise with the other driver to flare out the backside of the bushing.

Done deal....now put it all together.

I just have to clean up the mounting bolts & cut some new gaskets, then install.

 

[71Beeper]

I had a chance today to see if my dash LEDs are fitted properly.
Hooked up a battery and grounded the dash frame.
Here's without LED's.

And here's with the LED's on.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Sweet! Looks great! I just did a fox body of mine with LED dash lights and it really is amazing how big of a difference it makes.

 

[T2R9]

Sweet!

 

[whayden2003]

I had a chance today to see if my dash LEDs are fitted properly.
Hooked up a battery and grounded the dash frame.
Here's without LED's.
View attachment 1310580
And here's with the LED's on.
View attachment 1310581View attachment 1310582View attachment 1310583View attachment 1310584

Very nice.

 

[73LemonTwist]

Looks mighty fine... your LEDs seem to be brighter, and deeper blue than the versions I installed. Did you put power directly to the LEDs for these pictures, or is this running through the dimmer rheostat in the headlight switch? Kinda curious how much illumination we lose through the headlight switch even when its on minimum dimming.

 

[mpgmike]

Out of curiosity, are there any vendors providing a "dimmer" controller for LED dash lights? That seems mighty bright for a cruise in the country.

 

[Winky]

On the wiper drive link mod, I have an original variable link 3431102 and it did not come with the park mechanism cover. I think the crank arm will probably be in conflict with the cover.

Note that the parts book only lists the cover for use with the 2 speed parking mechanism:

 

[71Beeper]

Alan (73LemonTwist) I hooked up positive battery power to the by-passed amp gauge wires and grounded the frame to the negative post.
So yes, power did go thru the headlight switch.

mpgmike - I tried dimming them, but these particular LEDs will not dim. it's either on or off. I'm okay with that as I wanted them to be as bright as possible without being too obnoxious.

Winky - thanks for the info on the cover. Since I converted my 2 speed linkage to 3 speed I assumed that I could reuse the cover - I guess not.

 

[71Beeper]

While I wait for my dash pad to arrive (around Sept 5th) I'll re-gasket my 360 engine.
So I pull off the oil pan and I find this in the sump.....

The stuff didn't feel gritty when I rubbed it between my fingertips.
I figure it's a combination of cam goo and assembly goo and machining debris.
So I take the oil pan to my engine guy. He says take out the lifters and have a look at them.

I took out the lifters and had a look.

If you look closely there are 3 of them that are not turning in their bores.
Remember these are solid lifters.
The one in the upper right - the 5th one down on the right column and the 6th one down on the left column.

While I was at it I took photos of the cam.
The photos are from the front of the engine to the back.

Notice how the wear is more in the center of the lobe as opposed to being on one side where the lobe taper starts.
Not good.

The cam and lifters are from Hughes engines.
Here's the cam card.
I think this was the lowest lift solid cam at the time - I don't think Hughes sell this cam anymore.

I also used the recommended PAC spring #1111 that's at the bottom of the cam card.

So I call my engine guy to come over and get his opinion on this.
After looking at the cam and lifters his verdict is...............replace them..
Ah crap!

We did everything as correct as possible when prepping the engine for break-in.
The inner valve spring dampers were left off.
The proper break in oil was used.

The proper break-in procedure was used.
I have sent the above photos in an e-mail to Dave at Hughes engines.
I'll wait to see what he has to say.
I do know one thing that is going to be against me.
I bought these parts back in 2015 and they have been in the engine all of this time until I had the funds to get it dyno'd.
But, the rocker shafts were not bolted on and the cam lube was still in tact.

Rant done for now.