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I purchased all the manuals (Body and Chassis), plus searched and downloaded the great illustration catalog from this forum.
Now I have several wire harness pictures available for the 1966 Starfire. Here comes the issue: All of them are in black & white. While I have quite some technical skill, still I would appreciate to find a wire harness diagram with wire color info. This would make my work more easy and avoids any risk of unintended errors. Searched already on the forums and the web, but without success.
Can anyone maybe point me to such a colored harness, if it should exist?
I highly appreciate any contribution, thanks very much already now!
CU, Steffen
An original print copy of the 1966 Oldsmobile factory Chassis Service Manual will have a color wiring diagram. The Fisher Body manual wiring diagrams are still black on white line diagrams but the chassis manual are color.
That's why I don't like the reprints, PDF and CD-ROM copies of the shop books. They lose detail.
Cool, thanks for the infos. Didn't know that, have to admit that I thought the original manuals were also B/W. Very interesting that they are colored in original. Thought the reprints are made of new paper and will last longer .
I'll check both getting an original one as well as the classiccarwiring.com offering...
I’m no grand authority, but I’ve had a ‘66 98 since the early 80’s and a ‘66 Starfire since 1998 or so. Their electrical systems which were well built to GM standards of the day. I’ve been through 3 or 4 of these harnesses stem to stern.
55+ years later they usually suffer from some previous-owner abuse, maybe neglect and maybe out & out dangerous wiring.
The very best place to start is with the full color diagram Joe P mentions above. There really isn’t a substitute. I also recommend scanning it into a JPEG/JPG at high resolution and use that photo image as the place to note whatever changes you make to the harness to accomodate your preferred options - factory or not.
Dig around under my user name and you’ll find some of my electrical adventures with ‘66 big cars. The big fixes are going with an HEI alternator and changing out the voltage regulator for an internally regulated 10 or 12SI alternator. Instructions for both modifications are here on C/O and they’re a real advance — they get you right up to, say, 1975 technology!
Seriously though, you’ll want to go through the harness, ideally out of the car looking for cracked insulation, broken wires, fried or melted insulation or bad splices.
All of these can lead to problems and in a terrible case - a fire. So before you get the CSM (Original Olds Chassis Service Manual) get a fire extinguisher in the car and carry a 1/2” open end wrench to disconnect the battery just in case you have to.
Finally, as you dig in, look for melted insulation on high amperage circuits like the ignition switch, headlight switch and neutral safety switch. After that the heater/AC are pretty high amp too, but then things mellow out with the exception of the courtesy lights with the orange/white wires which can ground against the body from 55+ years of normal use….
Hi all, again thanks much for all the hints! I checked both options (original manual and classiccarwiring) and ordered a copy from classiccarwiring to start. It's already on the way, can't wait to have it in my hands...
Originally Posted by cfair
I’m no grand authority, but I’ve had a ‘66 98 since the early 80’s and a ‘66 Starfire since 1998 or so. Their electrical systems which were well built to GM standards of the day. I’ve been through 3 or 4 of these harnesses stem to stern.
55+ years later they usually suffer from some previous-owner abuse, maybe neglect and maybe out & out dangerous wiring.
The very best place to start is with the full color diagram Joe P mentions above. There really isn’t a substitute. I also recommend scanning it into a JPEG/JPG at high resolution and use that photo image as the place to note whatever changes you make to the harness to accomodate your preferred options - factory or not.
Dig around under my user name and you’ll find some of my electrical adventures with ‘66 big cars. The big fixes are going with an HEI alternator and changing out the voltage regulator for an internally regulated 10 or 12SI alternator. Instructions for both modifications are here on C/O and they’re a real advance — they get you right up to, say, 1975 technology!
Seriously though, you’ll want to go through the harness, ideally out of the car looking for cracked insulation, broken wires, fried or melted insulation or bad splices.
All of these can lead to problems and in a terrible case - a fire. So before you get the CSM (Original Olds Chassis Service Manual) get a fire extinguisher in the car and carry a 1/2” open end wrench to disconnect the battery just in case you have to.
Finally, as you dig in, look for melted insulation on high amperage circuits like the ignition switch, headlight switch and neutral safety switch. After that the heater/AC are pretty high amp too, but then things mellow out with the exception of the courtesy lights with the orange/white wires which can ground against the body from 55+ years of normal use….
My $.04 (inflation)
Cheers
Chris
Chris, all you stated fits perfectly to what I experienced when working with the car, thanks much for this, I will keep in mind and come back definitely. My pics below completely confirm your experience. Seems it still is a difference when I see my brothers '77 TransAm harness, this is just 11 years younger than mine on the Starfire.. But since I work in Automotive Electronic engineering and have a background as a car mechanic, everything on the vehicles electrical side will be a pleasure for me to make it in a solid way for the next ~50 years... For this year, I want to focus on bringing the car to a reliable original-like state, then I also want to check further opportunities to get rid of the contact ignition (even did not check yet under the distributor cap if it maybe was converted to contactless underneath already). I also like the HEI conversion, when I worked for some years in an US-car shop her ein Germany, these distributors were incredibly reliable! And the regulator upgrade I also like, this is my first car with an external one and I want to check it out first before replacing :-).
Fire extinguisher & quick disconnect battery terminal: Was already in the car, now I know why :-)
Door jamb wiring boot, worn. All wires with broken insulation :-( I already have the new boots waiting for installation, but need to check the wires thoroughly first...
Example temp switch wires, insulation in really bad shape (the open oil pressure switch wire was my next repair after having taken this pic)
Late reply but those door jamb wire breaks and water temp wire breaks are classic.
They happen to all of these cars eventually from normal use. In the old days when you would go to the junkyards in the USA, you would see many of these broken wires repaired with speaker cable or those terrible butt splice crimpers.
The funny thing for me was that it took until at least 2010 for me to realize that the parts were available to repair these harness properly from what was, at the time, AuVeCo. It was a real fantastic find for me since I had been using incorrect but functional connectors for decades....
thanks for the great hints, some time ago I already purchased the colored wiring diagrams from classiccarwiring.com. Mostly good information, just some colors were wrong (e.g. tail ), and the grey instrument illumination wire connected all bulbs but had no power supply. So together with the black & white copy from the chassis manual I figured out the right stuff.
I also found some good sources meanwhile which I want to share here:
Lots of electrical parts as Series 56 connectors and terminals, as well as wiring harnesses and conversion kits can be found at American Autowire (e.g. 1966 Olds fullsize stuff filtered here: https://americanautowire.com/en-de/c...vehicle-filter. However for some parts like terminals and similar stuff, suppliers like Summitracing or others are also quite adequate if familiar with crimping.
I first couldn't believe that they can still be bought but meanwhile I fixed the broken insulation at the doors and installed new door jamb wiring boots which I ordered from https://www.fusickautomotiveproducts.com:
Usually to find an adequate solution takes some time but finally it is quite nice to have succeeded in the end :-)
Dig around online with the search string “Packard 56” terminals, connectors, shells. Also chase down what AuVeCo has become.
It’s in the back of my mind to pull one of my spare harnesses, go through it, and document the process for others here who, like me, can’t really get correct new…
January 25th, 2024, 07:28 AM
1966 Starfire wire harness with wire color info
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