[buddy in texas]

Thank you for your reply. I actually agree with everything you said. And yes the harness mfrs do put all connectors on one harness to eliminate the need to stock multiples.

[John V.]

Were you missing the Original Equipment wire harness for your car? If you had that it might at least be possible to match the replacement harness to the original harness to see if it is the same or not.

I may be the only one on the planet that tries to distinguish between O.E. (something that is Original Equipment in a car) and O.E.M. which is an Original Equipment Manufacturer. An O.E.M. is simply a company that supplies stuff that is used as original equipment in the car. The O.E.M. may and probably does supply aftermarket components that may or may not be "just like" the O.E. stuff. Okay, just needed to get that off my chest. Just wasn't sure what you meant by using an OEM harness in your first post. Unless maybe that is a brand name somebody is marketing their harnesses under? (which is kinda confusing to me anyway).

To add to what Keith outlined, it may have been just a little different back in '64/'65.

I don't have documentation for the '65 but pretty sure it was very similar to how it was done for '64.

There were only a handful of choices for the IP harness.

The basic '64 choices for the Instrument Panel Wire Assembly were:

Base content (ie. 6 cyl, no option car) - used Black Tape & Black Connector
V8 option including GTO but NOT with A/C - used Black Tape & Tan Connector
6 cyl with A/C - used Gray Tape & Black Connector
V8 including GTO with A/C - used Gray Tape & Tan Connector

The "connector" refers to the passenger compartment side of the fuse block.

The Main Engine wiring on the firewall side also had these (4) application choices, same tape & connector colors matched to the IP wiring side.

The ONLY variant aside from the different wiring used for a 6 cyl had to do with the A/C option.

All other connectors were provided.

The reason was, even if you didn't factory order certain options, they were readily available as a Dealer Accessory Package.

For example, maybe you wanted to add the Electric Clock. It was easy to do, the Clock was installed and the connector plugged into the available connector that was same one as would have been used if the Clock was installed at the factory.

IP Courtesy Lamp, same deal. And so on.

Now I'll throw in the complication.

There were additional IP Wire Assembly choices if the Console was ordered. This was NOT offered as a Dealer Accessory Package (you could buy the service parts and add one, put it wasn't as simple as adding and plugging in the Dealer Accessory Package Clock).

If the Console was ordered, there were different harness choices used if the car ALSO had auto trans. This presumably because of the wiring needed for the shift indicator light.

For Console equipped cars then, there were (4) additional IP Wire Assembly choices for the auto trans cars (6 or V8, with or without A/C). Same tape and connector colors as the non-Console colors and the Main Engine Wire Harness was not affected by the Console.

AFAIK, the man trans Console equipped cars did not require a different IP Wire harness, since I believe the wiring to the Console light in the man trans Console connected to a connector provided in all of the IP Wire harness choices, no need for a special IP Wire harness in that case.

Body Wiring was done much the same. You got the same body wiring harness whether you ordered the trunk light or not. The Trunk Light was available as a Dealer Accessory Package and simply plugged into the same connector that was used to plug it in if the factory had installed it.

Point I'm making, connectors WERE provided in the IP Wire Harness to facilitate any option that was offered as a Dealer Accessory Package. If your car never got that option, factory or dealer installed, that connector just went unused.

Now one variant that you are probably up against for the '65 is the Rally Gauge option (I only wish that option had been offered for '64).

My guess is, PMD did have specific wire harnesses for this option.

So the idiot light wiring & sockets that you have in your harness might NOT have been part of the original wire harness intended for a car with the Rally Gauge option.

You might find the Rally Gauge specific wiring arrangement identified in the '65 Shop Manual to see how it differs from the standard V8 IP wire harness and figure it out from there.

Presumably those extra wires terminate somewhere. Since you wouldn't have a sender feeding them, I would think they are harmless, and maybe you can disconnect them at the connector?

The Brake Lamp connector in all likelihood was always there. The factory option brake lamp was part of the speedometer (I'm not sure if it was any different with the Rally Gauge speedo?).

But you could get a Dealer Accessory Package Brake Lamp that I suspect plugged into the same connector. It mounted at the bottom of the dash to provide a warning lamp to show your e-brake was on, same functionality as the factory option, just a little awkward looking as compared to having the lamp in the speedo face. So I would think you could leave that connector in place.

Maybe somebody with the Rally Gauges will have a better idea of the correct harness set-up.

Seems to me, plenty of guys have converted to the Rally Gauge set-up.

Maybe start a new thread asking for advice from anybody that added Rally Gauges to a '65 that originally had standard gauges?