Doing a harness switch

[silverriff]

Again another question about my hackjob. 1972 cutlass that was a 350 w/column shift and AC, it was converted to a 455 w/floor shift and no AC. The guy who did it just cut and hacked everything and Im trying to put it back together. With the help of you guys on here I have rebuilt the steering column and bucket seats, and fixed my horn issue. Now while I was cruising ebay, found a guy selling a 1971 dash harness out of a cutlass with a floor shifter, and no AC. I thought that would be a good way of cleaning up all of the loose wires, and acutally having working lights/shifter on my console. ANyway, today I got the whole harness out with not too much trouble, and will put the new one in tomorrow. I just wanted to see if anyone has any experiences or advice about doing this? After comparing the 2, everything looks pretty much the same, sans the AC, and console. One thing I did notice is that is that my door jamb switches are different. On mine they just had the black and white slide on wire connectors, while the 71 has a white barrel shaped thing with 3 prongs.... do I need to get 71 door jamb switchs? Can I just slice them and crimp on new ends? If so what do I do with the extra black and white wire? Oh and one other thing it the glove box light. The old one has and assemply holding the light with a grey and orange wire soldered on. Cant seem to find anything like that on the new harness. Sorry for the long post, but I need some advice before I go about doing this.

[silverriff]

WHat are these white barrel shaped 3 prong connections??? I cant find them anywhere on the internet. HELP!!!

[Oldsguy]

You might do better to find the switches to match the harness instead of adapting the harness to match the switches on your car, I bet the hole diameter in the post would be the same. About the orange wire near the glovebox, it may be the cigarette lighter wire, is it larger guage? I think it is fused on it's own. Have fun my friend, working with old wiring is a hassle. Double inspect all the harness before you use it and repair any nicks or breaks before you get it in the car. If you can get an ohmeter and a friend to help you, check continuity on every wire from end to end while the friend flexs the wire you are checking, the conductor may be brittle and open even though the insulation on the outside looks good. Cheap insurance and worth the time spent.