taking 71 350 carbed engine out of 85 to put in 86 shell. No fuse block on 86, so can I just cut the wires and splice the fuse block into the 86? What do I need to watch for? I know the 86 has all powered windows n locks, can I tap those in later?

 

wiring diags will definitely help you - here's some:

http://www.austinthirdgen.org/index.php?pid=19

Note at bottom of the list, there is another link to some more 1986 wiring diags

 

I would use the whole dash harness from the 85 in the 86, splicing wires causes gremlins in the electrical if not done right, with solder and heat shrinking every splice. Plus it looks bad. Just my 2 cents.

 

I see your point. Plus, after looking at all the schematics for both the 85 and the 86 I see some differences. Not a whole lot, but enough. Plus, many wires attached to the steering column are also cut.

I guess I'll have to pull the dash boards apart anyways.
Where's the best directions for such a job?
the haynes guide I bought is not good enough and missing much info.

 

I have an 83 bird that was a gutless 2.8. I built up a 305 and a year later swapped over to TPI. This required me to add the engine ecu harness and the computer, and to change out the dash harness. Everything matched up to my original stock engineside builkhead connector, except for the wipers. The wipers were the same color, but they had changed from the grounded wiper switch to a hot switch. So I had to change the terminals around in my switch to work with the new harness, and add power back to the motor. Other than this little issue, I had no other changes that were important. The dash harness came out of an 85 v6 FI car and the ecu harness was from an 87 iroc z tpi car.

Since this is a carb'd car, I don't think those changes would effect anything important. As long as you have power to the coil, it will fire. The only real difference in dash harnesses is whether it is a full gauge cluster or just idiot lights, they are wired different. GM changed some of the wire colors, and added a few things but from what I went through it ended up working anyway in the end.

 

I have pulled out camaro and bird dashes and they both are basically the same. The main screws that hold it in are up under the dash pad along the firewall, some along the bottom on both sides. Will have to drop the steering column. I think I had to remove the console to get it out but I am not sure on that one, makes life easier though. The harness and ducts are attached to the back side of the dash so those all come out together, unless some one has already been in there playing with stuff. The whole harness, dash, cluster, ducts go in as 1 assembly at the factory.