1973 Headlight Harness Swap
 

I recently made the swap to all LED exterior lights and gauge cluster lights. So far so good. In the process, I discovered my rear tail light harness had really seen better days - lots of sloppy splices, a few ill-fitting sockets, and lots of surface rust on the contacts. I ordered a 1973 Rear Tail Harness from American Autowire and had it installed in a matter of minutes. Plugs right in behind the driver’s side rear seat and clamp down the ground wire.

While swapping out the front lights, I did end up swapping in a new socket and spending quite a bit of time with contact cleaner getting the sockets contacts working. It all works, but frankly, the front harness isn’t in much better shape than the rear was.

I am looking for any input / guidance on swapping out the fronm light harness. It ‘appears’ to be pretty self-explanatory. I’m guessing the main connector is at the bulkhead on the firewall - driver’s side?

On a couple of the pics I’ve seen online of replacement harnesses, I am seeing a few connectors that are obviously not light sockets or grounds. I have also read a couple of threads about the mid-year switch in 75 (or maybe 76) that included a safety lock-out wire and connector for the starter? I just don’t want to dig into too many unexpected surprises if I try to tackle this.

Again, this is for a 1973 car and the current headlight / front light harness is the original one.

Thank you!

73 should be just a light and light ground harness. Have bought a couple of them . Plug and play. Routing the harness takes the most time. Cleaning the core support grounds is important. Make sure your bulbs have resistors or you use a plug in one so they flash correctly.

Thank you very much. I am sure I can tackle this. The tail harness was a snap - but yes, snaking the front one into place will be more of a challenge.

After a ton of trial and error and hours online, I ended up leaving incandescent 194s in the Front Side Marker positions with LEDs in the front turn signal locations and everything works perfectly. If I put LED 194s in the front side marker positions, it works, but the side markers are super dim and the front turn signals are at about 70%. Swap in those old-school incandescent in the side marker positions and everything works as it should.

During that process, I did end up scraping the heck out of the core support grounds and then applying a nice film of dielectric grease around the bare spot before replacing the ground ring. So that should be good.

Thank you again for your help!