1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

[Dave Sly]

I noticed that the engine wire harness is widely available. I also read an older post that GM harnesses were still available in the late 1990's. Are most of the harnesses available repo's or left over OEM? I saw an original go for $170 on ebay. Should I wait for another original or go for the repo?

Note: I'm trying to restore my car to top-flight quality

Thanks in advance,
Dave

[Jim K.]

Re: 1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

I replaced my entire harness on the 61, 3 years ago and got it from Lectric Limited. It was fairly straight forward, I just laid the new one next to the old one and did it one wire at a time, it matched up perfectly. Any original or NOS would be as brittle as one installed that you need to replace (or close inless it was kept in some special museum case). just my $0.02. Good luck!
Jim

[Dave Sly]

Re: 1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

Jim,

Did the colors of the wires, sizes of the wires, and connector styles match very well between the harness you purchased and the one you replaced?

Dave

[Richard T.]

Re: 1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

Dave,
Current reproductions are real close, almost exact. If you buy an older repo you may get plastic bulb sockets rather than metal so buy something new. Even the NOS harnesses if they were from the nineties may have different color connectors etc. In my opinion there's nothing worse than a crispy, spliced 40 year old harness. Rich

[Jim K.]

Re: 1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

Hi Dave:
The only thing I didn't like was the fuse block, and I think if I really wanted to, I could have taken it appart to reuse it. There was a license plate bulb socket (I think) that you had to use your original, but otherwise all was very close. Get a good large scale wiring diagram, some are making nive color laminated ones and some even have pictures of actual components for reference (Doc Rubuilld I think). Good luck!
JIm

[Jim K.]

Re: 1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

Sorry for the long delay, but yes all matched excellently, except the fuse block

[Dave Sly]

Re: 1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

There must be some confusion as to the harness. I just received my harness and there is no fuse block or bulb socket. This harness goes to the starter, ballast resistor, regulator and dash cluster.

I purchased the harness from Grossmueller's and I'll have to admit that I'm not impressed with the quality of this harness. The connectors that attach to the resistor are different than those on my resistor. In addition, the wire to the thermosensor on the intake has a plastic cover, as opposed to the fiber cover it should have. Luckily I ordered the fiber cover and will just need to switch it for the plastic one.

In addition, I ordered the FI harness and it has only 1 wire to the ballast resistor, and thus is missing the second wire to the starter solenoid. I can obviously do a bunch of patchwork on the harnesses, however I was hoping to not need to.

Of course, at least Grossmeuller's had the Fuel Injection Harness. I could not locate this on the other vendor's website or catalogs.

[Jim K.]

Re: 1959 C1 Engine Wire Harness

Hi Dave:
I don't remembere if you said you were doing the entire wiring harness or just the engin bay (I do know that they are available seperately). I replaced ALL my wiring, way too many bare spots (more than one is too many, but we're talking more than 10 under dash alone). Anyway I got mine from Lectric Limited. If you'r not happy with Yours, I know Carol and the gang are very reasonable people, jus call them up.
Jim