Frustrating to say the least and i know it goes with the territory when you buy a used working driver or a sitting project car.
The car in question is my 1980 malibu and the current state of wiring has much to be desired, i am mechanically and electrically inclined so even though this might be a difficult task, its not an impossible fix.
The previous owner, or the gentleman before him(patrick mckinney) did a bang up job on the starting/charging wiring on this car, the wiring under the hood looked more like a "cut and paste" job, some hook ups never made much sense, but thankfully the wiring to the front lights were left alone, i have yet to check the rear lights.
Since the last owner decided to keep his engine, i've got a completely open engine bay to fix, then route the wiring while running full tilt, i know the car is old but so was my '75 chevelle i had at one time, i was 3rd owner and the wiring was totally unmolested, everything the factory put in was still in place, clean and worked like a jem, wish i still had it sometimes, i didnt have worry about a thing, ever when driving it.
Getting to the point... the B&M rachet shifter that was put it has two micro switches, one for the neutral start function(bottom) and the other for the backup lights function(top). On one switch, theres a blue and green wire, thats for the backup lights, followed that up to the dash wiring, of course cut from the original connector that used to go the neutral/backup light switch that used to reside at the bottom of the steering column.
The nuetral switch, has two red and much thicker wires and they run up towards the dash, now, for the life of me, i followed both wires and they run throught the firewall and taped together with the one half of the wiring that goes to the wiring plug thats on the firewall, from those two thick red wires, one looks to go towards the bulkhead plug on the firewall like it actually came from it and the other wire blended with the other wires that go towards the starting and charging circuit.
Im a purist at heart and im going to rewire the starter/charging wiring correctly, with fusable links and proper guage wire/extensions while keeping the rachet shifter and the wires that go to the backup light micro switch, since they appear to be the correct wires, but i'll have to redo those wires more properly. I have yet to figure out how those to thick red wires tie into the neutral switch function, i've looked pretty good for the two original purple colored wires that used to be hooked up the switch at the bottom of steering column, but no luck. Currently, im tearing the whole dash apart to check ALL the wires and make sure i havent missed anything.... i swear, amatures. lol
The "malibu racing" wiring diagrams have been great with the specific function of the different circuits of the car(start/charging/lights/etc) along with the actual color of the wiring, but i've got one question, what does the, example, "3.0/32.0/19.0/etc" number designation next to the color of the wire mean, is that metric guage size instead of the AWG standard?
EDIT - if i was ever to put an auto floor shifter like this in my '75 chevelle i used to have, i would have just pulled the connectors from the nuetral/backup light switch from the bottom of the steering column while leaving the switch bolted in, leaving the original wires INTACT in its original connector and use spade connectors, then use electrical tape to keep it secure and run the same guage wiring for both to the switches on the shifter... that way, if you ever got rid of the floor shifter, you can just unplug the spade connectors and plug the connectors back into their respective and original places, nothing hacked, nothing destroyed, you preserve the integrity of the wiring and its connector, but noooo, some people just have to hack hack hack. grrr
The car in question is my 1980 malibu and the current state of wiring has much to be desired, i am mechanically and electrically inclined so even though this might be a difficult task, its not an impossible fix.
The previous owner, or the gentleman before him(patrick mckinney) did a bang up job on the starting/charging wiring on this car, the wiring under the hood looked more like a "cut and paste" job, some hook ups never made much sense, but thankfully the wiring to the front lights were left alone, i have yet to check the rear lights.
Since the last owner decided to keep his engine, i've got a completely open engine bay to fix, then route the wiring while running full tilt, i know the car is old but so was my '75 chevelle i had at one time, i was 3rd owner and the wiring was totally unmolested, everything the factory put in was still in place, clean and worked like a jem, wish i still had it sometimes, i didnt have worry about a thing, ever when driving it.
Getting to the point... the B&M rachet shifter that was put it has two micro switches, one for the neutral start function(bottom) and the other for the backup lights function(top). On one switch, theres a blue and green wire, thats for the backup lights, followed that up to the dash wiring, of course cut from the original connector that used to go the neutral/backup light switch that used to reside at the bottom of the steering column.
The nuetral switch, has two red and much thicker wires and they run up towards the dash, now, for the life of me, i followed both wires and they run throught the firewall and taped together with the one half of the wiring that goes to the wiring plug thats on the firewall, from those two thick red wires, one looks to go towards the bulkhead plug on the firewall like it actually came from it and the other wire blended with the other wires that go towards the starting and charging circuit.
Im a purist at heart and im going to rewire the starter/charging wiring correctly, with fusable links and proper guage wire/extensions while keeping the rachet shifter and the wires that go to the backup light micro switch, since they appear to be the correct wires, but i'll have to redo those wires more properly. I have yet to figure out how those to thick red wires tie into the neutral switch function, i've looked pretty good for the two original purple colored wires that used to be hooked up the switch at the bottom of steering column, but no luck. Currently, im tearing the whole dash apart to check ALL the wires and make sure i havent missed anything.... i swear, amatures. lol
The "malibu racing" wiring diagrams have been great with the specific function of the different circuits of the car(start/charging/lights/etc) along with the actual color of the wiring, but i've got one question, what does the, example, "3.0/32.0/19.0/etc" number designation next to the color of the wire mean, is that metric guage size instead of the AWG standard?
EDIT - if i was ever to put an auto floor shifter like this in my '75 chevelle i used to have, i would have just pulled the connectors from the nuetral/backup light switch from the bottom of the steering column while leaving the switch bolted in, leaving the original wires INTACT in its original connector and use spade connectors, then use electrical tape to keep it secure and run the same guage wiring for both to the switches on the shifter... that way, if you ever got rid of the floor shifter, you can just unplug the spade connectors and plug the connectors back into their respective and original places, nothing hacked, nothing destroyed, you preserve the integrity of the wiring and its connector, but noooo, some people just have to hack hack hack. grrr
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