I took my dash apart yesterday to take out my gauge cluster and when I dropped the lower dash pad, this is what I found...

 

Closer look...

 

A question...does this all look right for a 92RS 305 TBI?? When I had the car inspected, the guy at the shop had to replace the head light switch and a bulb in the dash...well it looks like he really made a mess huh?? What is this black box and does this little white wire need to be attached to something?

 

wow. have fun with that one.

 

that looks like an aftermarket alarm brain. The wire that is un hooked is probably just an unused option (remote door, trunk, start...) or the antenna. I can't say for sure, but that is what it looks like to me. A lot of "professional" installations are just like that. Hook up the wires, and tuck the box out of the way.

 

I'm still removing relays and wires from an old clifford alarm/remote door lock system. It looks a lot worse than yours, the relay that went to the starter wire was rubbed bare by the firewall since there was nothing protecting it, =).

I can't wait to get rid of that crap.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that if the alarm is still hooked up (and hooked up properly), it is usually possible to get a new control box for the system (that's what I did when I found something similar in my GTA).

 

I feel your pain, when I took apart my dash for the first time it was horrible. The kid who owned my car before me screwed it up bad, the alarm system was completely disconnected and wires were hanging everywhere, he also took off the safety switch so now the car can start in gear (with no clutch). I'm still in the process of trying to work it all out.

 

nothing that wire cutters cant fix When i removed my dash and swapped in a different one i had a really big mess-imagine the whole wiring harness laying the floor pan.

 

So what do you guys think I should do?? I haven't the first clue about wiring systems on the car...and hell if I could follow a wiring diagram!!!

 

Ungghhh... I hate electrical problems. Seems like jsut about every previous owner needs to redo the wiring to match their distorted perception of how electrical systems should work. They could at least be neat about it.

With any luck they may have just pulled power from the fuse box or some nearby switched lead. youll definatly need to use wiring diagrams to ID what they cut up. After that pull the offending object and all its wiring and restore the wiring to the way it was before.

Its amazing what can be found in an old car. Took my carpets out and found:

Lots of empty small ziplock bags. You know, the kind you keep weed in. One actually was still full. They probably had to stash it when they got pulled over. Little too vintage for my tastes, though. I chucked it...

Also found a blaupunkt amp and lots of other crap to go along with it buried under the pass. side carpet. I thought that hump for the cat was a bit high... Oh, and they also used wire nuts and electrical tape to wire it as well as teh cooling fan into the cigarette lighter. How the fuse never blew, I dont know.

 

Most aftermarket alarm systems only splice into a couple factory wires, they are supposed to be much more complicated, but most installers are lazy. There will definetly be a spliced wire for the starter and maybe the fuel pump, other than that it's probably just saddle clamps to hook into everything else. look at the wires and where they go, and you will quickly find the ones that the alarm "bridge". You'll see a wire with the same colors (from the factory harness) hooked to two differtent alarm wires. That is a wire that was just cut and bridged through the alarm. That alarm was NOT installed right (I can tell by the picture) so it should be pretty easy to remove it. One wire at a time until its all cut out. I used to work in a salvage yard and there were only 2 alarms in almost 8 years that ever gave me fits, and only 1 of those did I need to find a wiring schematic for. The other thousand (ok maybe not quite that many) were like 5 - 10 minutes to uninstall (so they could be resold) and get the car running.

 

condensed version: The factory wires are all collor coded. follow a wire from the alarm to where it connects to a factory wire. The other end of the cut factory wire should be nearby. Cut the alarm wires loose. Splice the matching colored factory wires back togather. Repeat the process till you're done. Its that easy.

 

Thanks fellas, I guess I'll get started on this the next free day I have. Man, I've spent too much $ and time on this thing...I'm addicted to my Third Gen!!! :lala:

 

yeah my wireing looks a lot like that. thsi guy re wired EVERYTHING that he could. ive found an alarm, a kill switch in the arm rest. a fan switch and a whole crap load of rewired sensors and swtiches under the hood. its a giant ****in mess. hope ya get your stuff figured out dude.

 

I don't think I have seen a thirdgen that did not look like that. I had to fix mine, and a couple of my friends. it was pretty simple I just reconnected the same color wires.

 

It's starting to look like this is a common problem with F-Bodies. My brother's car is an electrical nightmare. At some point it had an aftermarket stereo and alarm system installed. They are both long since gone but i'm left with cleaning up the aftermath. I've been fighting an intermittent no-start problem since he has owned it. I've got it narrowed down to the starter relay thanks to alot of help from numerous individuals on these boards. Good luck and I hope it works out for you.

 

im in the same boat. gutting the wiring and starting from scratch