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Does anyone have a picture of the power door lock actuator wiring from the actuator to the door harness? Is it wires from the harness with a connector to the actuator? Restoring my 82, found the left door actuator and wiring missing, and the right door actuator has the connector, but the wires are cut??? No clue why they would have done this. Thanks in advance!
Wires cut probably because the actuators were failing & would not lock or unlock completely. A fellow on this site has a thread about replacing the actuators with aftermarket.
The actuators hardly ever fail. There's almost nothing TO fail. They're like a starter solenoid; some wire wrapped around some iron, and a steel plunger that get sucked in when current flows in the wire. What REALLY happens is, the latch mechanism gets full of filth and corrosion, and the lube either washes out or turns all crusty; and the force required to operate it reaches a point where it exceeds the solenoid's ability to move it. You can take out the latch, soak it in solvent for a few hours, and re-lube it, and the power locks will work just like brand new.
Which of course, doesn't keep people from thinking they're accomplishing something worthwhile by cutting wires. That's one of the great mysteries of human behavior: those ridiculous meat bags seem to think that if something electrical isn't working right, the way to restore it is to cut some wires. [mr_spock] HUMANS. [/mr_spock]
When I added power locks to my '87 it was a whole harness - left to right, through the doors and everything; totally continuous with no breaks.It goes through a channel way up on the firewall, you might be able to get to it by taking the dash pad off but its not gonna be easy.
Sounds like that was put in early along the production line, before all the rest of that stuff got added.
I suspect alot of the other smaller / optional harnesses were the same way; power seats, power mirrors, radio, etc.
The dash harness was one blob on its own. It was attached to the dash before the dash went in. It had plugs hanging out that would hook up to those other harnesses when the dash was installed farther down the line.
All of us here should go visit a vehicle assembly plant and take a tour. I only know of a few plants that offer that, the Vette plant in Bowling Green KY and the Camry plant in Georgetown KY, but that doesn't mean there might not be more. The Vette plant in particular is major fun to watch them put those cars together. Butt watching that, you get an instant understanding of how a car in general is made, and that's a YYYYYUUUUUUUUUUJJJJJJJJJELY valuable insight when mucking around with adding options and such.
Sounds like that was put in early along the production line, before all the rest of that stuff got added.
I suspect alot of the other smaller / optional harnesses were the same way; power seats, power mirrors, radio, etc.
The dash harness was one blob on its own. It was attached to the dash before the dash went in. It had plugs hanging out that would hook up to those other harnesses when the dash was installed farther down the line.
All of us here should go visit a vehicle assembly plant and take a tour. I only know of a few plants that offer that, the Vette plant in Bowling Green KY and the Camry plant in Georgetown KY, but that doesn't mean there might not be more. The Vette plant in particular is major fun to watch them put those cars together. Butt watching that, you get an instant understanding of how a car in general is made, and that's a YYYYYUUUUUUUUUUJJJJJJJJJELY valuable insight when mucking around with adding options and such.
I can only imagine general assembly was no different in the 80s than it is today. The body harnesses would be the third or fourth stop after the body is loaded on the line.
This is a pic of an 86 Camaro Power Door Lock Harness,... it's a 1 piece harness.
If your car had Power Windows 82-88 (89?) then all that wiring was also included in this harness. I *think * 82-83 was the same as this but I'm not positive. IIRC this harness changed ( at least the power connections did ) somewhere around 89. This harness shown is from an 86 with Power Locks AND Power Windows
Originally Posted by exiled350
When I added power locks to my '87 it was a whole harness - left to right, through the doors and everything; totally continuous with no breaks. It goes through a channel way up on the firewall, you might be able to get to it by taking the dash pad off but its not gonna be easy.
After removing the dash pad I'm pretty sure you'd have to also - AT LEAST - unscrew the dash housing all the way along the top of the firewall and pull it back away from the firewall enough to gain access to the plastic "channel" that the P accessory harness is run thru. you can see that plastic "channel:" in this pic: The problem ( when dealing with power windows) is the window wiring 'breaks-out' of that channel in the center of the firewall and IIRC it runs BEHIND the heater core box...... Someone correct me if that's wrong !
@John in RI That's absolutely correct, it breaks out in the middle and runs down to the console switches. So if you're adding power windows, the IP and console both need to come out to do it right.
I think so also butt don't hold me to that. The only difference would have been, the connectors themselves might have been different, just due to what was in current use at the different times. The basic principle though, is identical.
It's really not all that hard to pull the WHOLE dash out of one of these cars, with the wiring intact, if you split everything at the right spots, such that what the factory included on the dash stays with the dash, and what was in the car at that station on the production line, stays in the car.
