routing the wire harness inside the car, starting at the fire wall

[madmike]

'68 Charger, 440 4 speed car, with AC.  This car was a rolling basket case when I bought it.  It came with a dash wiring harness in poor condition, but it wasn't installed.  In fact, the entire interior was gutted.  The car was originally a 383, console auto, with AC.  In this order, I have re-installed the wiper motor, wiper pivots and complete linkage.  I have installed my rebuilt 4 speed clutch/brake pedal assembly, and the factory AC box has been re-installed.  At the pivot point of the clutch/brake pedal swing, there is a metal strap that retains the wire loom, and I'm guessing this is the first point of 'support' to the cluster of wires leaving the bulkhead, entering the car's interior.  When I installed the AC box, I didn't notice this at the time, but the end of the AC box is almost against the metal strap that supports the loom, tightly enough that I really can't get the wires in the strap.  I'll have to loosen the nut that holds the metal strap, and roll the strap a certain way, to get it out of the road of the AC box.

I guess my question is:  With the wiring bulkhead installed in the firewall, should the wires coming off of the interior side, enter fairly straight into the car?  Should they be above the wiper linkage arms (just under/against the cowl sheet metal) or should they be below the linkage arms?  I doubt they would go 'between' the linkage arms.  Or, does the wire enter the car, and turn down 90 degrees right away, to follow the vertical fire wall surface a bit, before heading back up to the instrument cluster?  I know these are hard to asnwer questions, and maybe a few photos would help. 

My car is not, nor will ever be, a show 'correct' car, but I try to follow the factory's way of doing things when possible.  They engineered it, and it still works today!  Besides, if I route the wiring harness wrong, I might wind up short somewhere else, or won't be able to perform any maintenance later, because wires are pulled too tight.

Thanks!
Mike

[nascarxx29]

The 3 level wiring bulkhead pops in and clips from inside the car
The dash frame has guides where to route the harness there a guides behind dash cluster.And along the bottom edge of dash frame behind ashtray to point where fuse box screws down.No wires should be in the wiper pivot linkage area.The radio and its wiring are the nearest the wiper linkage.but dont come close to contact.I got a 68 Charger shop manual around here that may show the harness layout location and its guides for wiring and AC vacuum

[madmike]

So, no one has a good picture of the bulkhead wires entering the car, on the inside, as to how to route them?

[BananaDan]

Here are pics I took of my harness install.  It's some tough angles and tight areas to get a camera into, but you can see it pretty well.  It is kind of self explanatory once you start laying it in place, as long as all of your wiring retainers are still there.

http://1970chargerregistry.com/mboard/index.php?topic=179.msg2476#msg2476

Dan

[madmike]

Thanks, BananaDan, but for some reason, I can't see your photos...

[BananaDan]

Thanks, BananaDan, but for some reason, I can't see your photos...

Maybe our message board requires you to sign in to see pictures?  I don't know, did you register for an account and login?  They're there, I swear! 

Dan