I pulled the driver's seat out last night after dragging my feet for far too long to address a couple things under the dash. The main one being the fact I need to run a wire for the new Progression Distributor being installed on the 400 being finished up. While under there getting some of the other stuff sorted, my A.D.D. got the best of me.

First question..currently the factory AM radio doesn't work. You can hear it power on, but nothing is being transmitted. I noticed it is not wired how it should be. The blue -rear speaker- wire is unhooked, but the 3 pin connector at the back has 2 SETS of green & white wires coming out, each being spliced together (G/W going to single speaker A, G/W going to single speaker B) to seemingly aftermarket speaker wires going to the rear. The yellow power wire is spliced into a white wire which goes into the radio at the top somewhere. I tried unhooking the yellow wire and plugging it into the back, per wiring diagram..but it wouldn't "pop" when turned on after doing that.


Second, the mirror map light, which has the wiring in the ceiling, evidently doesn't make it to the fuse box. For now, I went ahead and unplugged it. Im assuming though that it would have been a gray wire though that should have been visible from underneath, correct? I had the end plugged into the fuse box, and then another and which was zip tied to the harness..but nothing connecting the end that was zip tied to the wiring from the mirror. When I changed the mirror a while back, I was shocked to see the wiring was connected to the old mirror. Lazily, I just spliced into the old wiring with the new mirror..but I also thought it was already hooked up and the mirror/light itself was the issue.

Lastly, I cleaned up the wiring for my A/F gauge install. The power source is the "IGN" terminal in the fuse box. Knowing I need a 12 volt keyed source for the Progression Ignition, can I run a splitter and put both sources on the "IGN" terminal, or should I find something different for either? I don't plan on keeping the A/F gauge hooked up forever, but would like to keep it hooked up for a while after the engine is installed just to monitor.

Thanks.

 

It's likely the gray mirror map light wire doesn't make it to the fuse box because it doesn't connect to the fuse box (but I'm not 100% sure for the 1969 model year). It would have been a gray wire and it's not visible from underneath (if you're referring to underneath the dash). This is because the end of the wire connects (plugs into) to the Fisher wire harness behind the dash instrument cluster. I've reviewed the 1969 PIM diagrams and I don't see the same illustration(s) in 1969 (as I do in later years), but illustrations were often upgraded w/ more information on wiring looms connectors throughout the years. The wire (connector) from the Fisher wire harness is most often located on a fastener attached to the very upper left-hand side of the inside of the firewall (again, behind the instrument dash panel). The "connector" should be quite evident/visible (it's where the mirror map light wire connects to the Fisher wire harness). See if you can find that connector. I'm not making any assumptions the 1969 PIM diagram is same or different from 1972 (the image I display below), but the image (below) might provide some guidance on locating the mirror map light connector (and possibly the reason it doesn't connect into the fuse panel). Others w/ more familiarity w/ the 1969 mirror map light connector can provide better guidance. Good Luck.

Accessing electrical connection to map light/mirror on 1972 Cutlass Convertible

 

On my car had the map light in the mirror plugged into the fuse box. If I remember correctly, it had a red connector body.

My car has a console, so no clue if that made a difference.

 

yeah mine had that red connector as well, plugged into the fuse box..its just not going to anything.

 

I would run the AFR on it's own wire. Its a pretty sensitive gauge, any voltage variation will cause bouncing readings. I'm not sure how dirty the HEI will make the wire, but its easy enough to separate. Besides you can add a wire to the fuse box outside the firewall for the HEI.

 

Well, I had actually gotten the idea from other posts here on the forum about the splitter. Id had the same concern, but others had done it with seemingly no issues.

If I had to add a wire outside of the firewall for anything, Id prefer it be the distributor as itll be a more permanent fixture than the AFR gauge. The question is..where though. The cleanest Ive found is the IGN terminal in the fuse box, where the AFR is currently plugged in.

Do any of the other center plugs in the fuse box run a keyed 12v? Or again..where would be better for the distributor power wire?

 

There are several unused 12v ignition terminals in the fuse box on the engine side of the firewall. Add the wire there. It's easy.

 

Pivoting back to the radio issue..I went ahead and pulled the radio out. Sure enough, the power wire was spliced into the end of the light wire. I dont really understand it, but whatever.




In removing it though, I think I may just tuck the wiring and put a delete bezel in. Even if I managed to get it all sorted, I still cant use it with the android auto compatible unit I picked up a few weeks ago. Just gotta run the wire to the rear for the backup camera, and figure out a discreet place to put it.

Now off to figure out how to do that, mount the new block off plate, and finish what I started.

 

Tying the distributor wiring back in with the radio..

The yellow power wire for the factory radio was 12v switched, correct? Meaning..as long as there wasnt an issue with said wire, I could hook the wideband up to it now that Im removing the factory radio altogether, correct?

If so, that may solve the distributor/wideband problem.

 

Well, if anyone is keeping score, all that's left of this project is to mount the new aftermarket unit. I installed the radio block off plate, wired the wide band to the power wire from the radio, ran the backup camera wiring and got it mounted and working, ran the wire for the distributor, and mounted a gauge pod for the wideband where holes were already in the dash.

I put the seat in, but holy smokes that was a nightmare. I cant get the seat to slide back for nothing..so I hope the spring (?) that controls that isnt bad. It worked when it was pulled out..but who knows.

So, I'm gonna ponder that for a bit.. but hopefully here soon Ill be dropping the engine in so I'll need to get that taken care of.

 

Before you reinstall the seat, clean all the dried grease out of the tracks, and re-lube them.

 

Id had the seat out once before and hadn't run into any issues...but now that Ive slept on it, Ive got a better idea of the issue.

after fighting it a while, I pulled it back out and realized the tracks werenr even with one another. I tried to move them to they were level, which I got close but Im guessing not close enough. When I was putting it back in though, I noticed the cable that goes between the tracks for adjusting the seat seemed awful loose. Im hoping it just popped off, because so far Im not seeing anything readily available to replace it

 

Get 1 side bolts/nuts started, then release the catch to line up the other side.

 

Im getting ready to head out for round 2. I'll try that first. I feel like thats how I managed to get everything lined up finally last night, but I was frustrated by that point so Im honestly fighting something simple and I just overlooked it.. lol

 

Well, I must've just had a rough night last night. Lol

I went ahead and unbolted it, then rolled it back to get a good visual of underneath. The cable that was underneath had indeed come loose, but its also pretty stretched. Coupled with the fact that the latch on the right side wasn't moving very easily, so I sprayed some silicone lubricant in there and worked it back and forth and that must've done the trick.

Now that I can fit in there again, Ive got the new "radio" mounted and ready for whenever the engine is back and installed.