VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 32 Headlight Wires

Hi, I have purchased new headlight harnesses for my 32 Chev. It is a 3 wire harness, 2 black wires and 1 red. Does anyone know which wires go where or does it matter. The headlights have a center bulb and a "parking" pull in the top. Do i need to trace the feed wires back and hook the new wires up a certain way or can I just hook them up to the 3 supply/feed wires in any order. Thanks for your help!

Your new harness should have a wiring schematic included with it that shows where each wire goes.

Your headlight harness should have two wires (suspect the black ones) wired to the head light bulb socket or connector for the headlight bulbs. If you want an photo of what it should look like go to the online Filling Station catalog and search for "HL-11". That should be what you need. There is no bulb orientation of the headlight socket so either wire can be used. If one light has high beam and other low just rotate on bulb 180 deg. The other wire should go to the parking light socket.

If all you have is the wires and not the metal connector then it is critical to get the wires in the proper order for the metal three wire connector where the main harness wires plug in.

Per JYD's you should have a schematic from the harness supplier. The wires also should be coded by tracer colors. I have the schematic for a 32 Std. harness from R.I. wiring and it shows the orientation of the wires to the headlight coupling. Not knowing who your supplier was it is not possible to advise which goes where. Also even if wired correctly the headlight bulb needs to be oriented correctly so you have both beams on the same circuit.

Below is a photo of what I received from the Filling Station. I did not come with a schematic.

[img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/361vx7wwlwvvj6w/FullSizeRender-1.jpg?dl=0[/img]

You need to contact the Filling Station because all new wiring harnesses come with a schematic...otherwise how do you know what wire in the harness goes where?

The photo you showed is what I would call a pig tail and not a wiring harness. You need a wiring diagram for your car year. I would think a pig tail harness would not come with a diagram.

Looking at the " pigtail" it appears that the red wire is the park lamp circuit. With the contact end facing you and the red wire at the bottom there should be a slot at the top. If so then the wire to the left would be the low beam and the right the high. If the wires you are connecting to on the harness have tracer markings then the YxR is the park circuit-high beam is Y-Bk and low is Y-R. This is from the wiring diagram from Rhode Island wiring that came with my 32 replacement harness. If your harness is not marked then do one at a time using a test lamp.

I was in the same situation. Get the full wiring diagram and it will show you which goes.
Complete diagrams are here under tech help