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MG MGB Technical - dashboard harness

Hey folks, the abandoned project guy has another question. I am almost ready to mate the refurbished dashboard to the harness. Can someone tell me , or send a picture of, the correct placement of the dash wiring harness? Also, where, if anywhere, is it fastened? Thanks again, Tom
Thomas McNamara

Thomas, there should be (may be?) two brackets on the back of the dash panel. You run the harness in from the passenger side, behind the dash, hanging the main business end of the harness onto these brackets.

If you squint, you can see what I'm talking about in the picture here. They're the little tab-looking things on either side of the main gauge openings.



Rick Stevens

.... and here....





Rick Stevens

Hey Rick, thanks for the pictures. Am I to understand that the harness is between the dashboard and the metal? It does not pass through any of the holes? Regards, Tom
Tom

Yep. The dash face hanging on its supports creates a void between it and the body shell. All instrument wiring runs and hangs in that void.

None of the wiring passes through the holes. Rather, the gauges go into the holes and the harness hooks up to them.

Here are a few pics of the wires just dangling there waiting for the dash....



Rick Stevens

Hey Rick, you are the best! I now understand! A couple of additional questions,if you will be so kind. Which holes do the door switch wires go into and where would one put the radio speakers? Thanks, Tom
Tom

....



Rick Stevens

"Which holes do the door switch wires go into and where would one put the radio speakers?"

Your choice on those.

Switch wires should run up from the back of the switch and route any old way until they go where you want them.

Speaker wires.... The world is your oyster. ;) Just run 'em from your radio to wherever you have your speakers. No special routing.



Rick Stevens

On my 68 the original wiring harness was attached to the windscreen wiper rod with two metal strips and a large clip on the steering column.
Henri

Henri Van Groningen

Nice.

My '73 may have had the same setup, and it was messed up by a PO somewhere along the line. More likely, the wiring was re-routed in the later car because of the fresh air tubes?

Those upper clips are not there right now on mine, but they make a lot of sense. There's a similar one in the lower branch going into the console.



Rick Stevens

Tom I thought the 73-74 used the same wiring harness. My 74 has a separate dash sub harness as listed in the current Moss catalog on page 88, #357-425 for 73-75 cars. This sub harness has two red plugs on the left side above the bonnet pull handle. As I recall from removing my dash almost 10 years ago the sub harness stays hooked to the gauges, switches and other components that are physically in the dash. I'm not sure if any other wires had to be disconnected to remove the dash, but I know the 71 & 68 cars didn't have a sub harness and you had to tag and mark all the individual wires as they were removed. I'm showing a under dash photo of the wiring set up under my dash. If you have those plugs like the ohoto, your dash should have the sub harness. It's difficult the see both plugs in my photo.

Unfortunately these plugs aren't shown in the nice easy to follow wiring diagrams we get from Advance Wiring. If you look at the wiring diagram on page 196 in the Haynes MGB repair manual, turn the manul so you are viewing the page horizontally. One plug is about 1.5 inches down in the center, it's a rectangle about 3/4" long and not labeled. The other plug is about one inch left and 1/2" down from the tachometer. If I had to trace out the wiring I believe I would make a drawing of the plugs and label each wire by color, destination/purpose.

Just to the right of the photo are the connector plugs for the column switches

Clifton

Clifton Gordon

Don't quote me on this, lotsa folks know more, but I "think" it was in '74 (74.5?) that they went to that red sub-harness bit. These years - '71, '72, '73, '74 - things were in flux and I've seen about 3 different versions of this stuff in my own car and in junkyard cars.


Rick Stevens

Hey, first, thanks for all of the replies. My 73 has a one piece harness except for the door switches and trunk wires. I have the original, frayed, worn harness and it matchess the one from Moss very well.

I think that I now can move forward with the dash part of htis task.

Thanks to all who responded.

Regards, Tom, 47TC#2850, 53 TD & 73 "B" project.
(Looking for an "A")
Tom

This thread was discussed on 22/02/2008

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