Okay so you probably know that since I'm making a KITT replica I need to convert my '91's taillights to an '84.

I have my '91 harness out of the car and I bought an '84 harness on eBay.

I found instructions on what needs to be done except for one important issue: the main power connectors on each are different. The '84 is flat and wide with 6 wires and the '91 is small and square with 7 wires. All the colours match up... is it just a straight exchange or...???

Thanx everyone
Cheers Tom

 

Here's a good reference....It won't be NEAR as difficult as you think.

A friend of mine did this so somebody could switch lights & install STS.

http://www.austinthirdgen.org/index.php?pid=37

 

Interesting, but that's not quite what I had in mind... I need to swap out my entire harness and taillights... but the main connector to the car is different

 

That was kinda my point....You can swap the lights easier than swapping the whole harness.

 

I see what you're saying Stephen, and I really appreciate your input, but there's still the issue of the two outermost running lights not fitting into the 82-84 lenses... should I just chop 'em off and wire up some others?

Cheers Tom

 

If hacking a harness is of no concern, then yeah. For STS installations, it HAS to be done, or the 2 outer lights can only be brake OR turn, not both.

 

I'm kinda running into the same problem... I have a 91... going to 82 lights...
I think there is an extra set of driving lights (one filamtent) that are not used in the rear... I also cut the front turn signals (that go on the nose, not fenders)...

Now, no working turn signals... so I am going to replace the front first and see if it will flash and hopefully leave the 2 rear driving lights disconnected, I don't think they should affect the flashing / turn signal circuit.

Rafael

 

So I cannot just swap connectors on the two harnesses?

 

As long as you connect the wires correctly, depending on the plug & ignoring wire colors, sure. The colors may not match up.

 

Tom, got your PM.
If your new tail lights (from 1982) have fewer holes than you have sockets, then you might just as well cut the unused sockets. Or you make add an extra hole in the tail light, it's up to you.

As for the rest of the wiring, just follow the instructions in my article that Stephen linked you to.

Hope this helps.
Lou

 

Well now I've messed things up real good!

I got the taillights working (except for one issue - more on that in a moment) but totally screwed up the power trunk/light harness. For some reason when I removed the taillight harness I had the bright idea it would easier to cut the trunk harness rather than unclip it. Well how I've got 5 black wires coming from the trunk to hook up and I don't know which goes with which on the harness. On the harness, two are coming from the taillights and three are coming from the car but they splice back into one. All I can do is get the hatch release to work the trunk light!



The other issue: what would cause my right turn signal to flash when the hazards are on, but not when signalling a right turn? The left works fine.

Any help is greatly appreciated
Cheers Tom

 

whilst out walking the dog I thought of a way to summarize my problem with one question:

Which three wires coming form the hatch pull down/release/light harness get spliced into one wire going to the car?

If I knew that I could easily figure out the remaining two...

Thanks everyone
Tom

 

You know how tempting it is to say "Take the black wire, & splice it into....."

The only way your going to solve this is now to TRACE each black wire, and see which one is connected where, to determine where it should go to.

All I can say is, you shoulda researched and been 110% sure BEFORE cutting wires, labeled them, then cut & spliced 1 wire at a time.

Good luck.

 

I see that now... lesson learned the hard way.

I was hoping someone else with a '91 who may already have their trunk apart could take a peek at their harness and tell me which three wires from the trunk splice into one black wire on the taillight harness...

I'll never cut wires again, I swear!

T

 

I just went and looked at the trunk harness of another '91 (owned by a complete stranger... talk about desperate!) and it was totally different from mine.... there were actually different coloured wires instead of all black... great!

Does anyone with a 91 or 92 with power trunk mind taking a peek at their wiring harness for me?

T

 

Found this on Austin thirdgen.org...

http://www.austinthirdgen.org/mkport...wn_release.jpg

looks like the real deal... lots of black wires and one red/wht... now, to figure out what it means!!!

Tom

 

Trunk is working fine again

I had left the harness alone for a while due to frustration, until the other day I discovered a blown fuse. I forget which one it was, but when I replaced it, the hatch motor started working normally again. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Now to solder everything back up!

Cheers Tom

 

how do you start a post so u can ask questions so everyone can see i'm new 2 this

 

once you are logged in there should be a "new thread" button on the left side of the screen above each forum

cheers Tom