Toggle Switch Troubles

If you own an old car you’ll be familiar with the tale I’m about to tell – and if you’re thinking about buying an old car, it’s a tale you’ll want to hear so you’re aware of some of the fun you’ll be signing up for!

I have a 1976 Pontiac Trans-Am, as many already know. There is something else to know, about this particular year Trans-Am. While it is generally similar to all second generation (1970-1981) Trans Ams, there are year-to-year differences. Sometimes, a particular year is a unique year in that there are some parts that were only used for one year. In my car’s case, examples include the front grille, which is a one-year-only grille. That means if you ever need a new/replacement grille (for this particular year Trans-Am) you will have fun on your hands trying to find them (there are actually two, so plural).

There are also some much subtler differences that you may not discover until you have to dig into the car’s guts. This is what I discovered when I wanted to replace the car’s electric rear defroster toggle switch. I went ahead and ordered a new replacement switch – advertised as an exact reproduction of the original. This turned out to be sort-of true. It is an exact replacement – for ’77-81 Firebirds. But it isn’t for older models like my ’76. There was a change made sometime during the production run. My switch – which looks the same when installed as the later (’77-81) switch has three prong connectors on the backside that plug into the factory harness for the electric rear defroster. But the new replacement plug has four prongs – and not only that, they are arranged differently. It is not “plug and play.”

It is try to figure it out. Enter the fun!

That’s what I am trying to do right now. Specifically, I am trying to determine whether the new replacement switch can be made to work with the original ’76 wiring harness, by using jumper wires to connect the 12V ignition-on “hot” lead, the ground and the lead that goes to the rear defroster grid to the new switch. I do not know whether this is possible because I do not know – have not yet been able to determine – whether the switch is the same internally. It probably isn’t. I have already found out that, at some point mid-1976/early 1977, Pontiac added a timer to the circuit. My car’s toggle is On/Off. The revised design automatically shuts off the current after about ten minutes.

Now, I don’t especially care if the rear defroster actually works because my TA isn’t going out in the snow. It hasn’t gotten wet in more than 30 years (which is why it isn’t rusty). But I would like the little green light to come on when I wiggle the toggle, as it should if the defroster were working. Whether this is possible is a thing I have to figure out.

You may be wondering – what happened to my original toggle switch? The one with the three prongs that fit into the three plug harness? Well, here’s another thing you may encounter if you ever get into old cars. I sent my original switch to a “restoration” shop that advertised it could fix the switch functionally and restore its appearance cosmetically. So I boxed it up and sent it to them. They say they never got it. So, it’s gone. I do not blame the shop; I blame me for being too cheap to send it secured delivery, with signature required and so on. Never fail to do this when sending out an original part you have, especially when it’s one you think you can afford to lose because you think there’s a readily available aftermarket replacement.

Speaking of which . . .

I still haven’t found a center console for my Trans-Am. A manual center console. I assumed these would be super easy to find because Pontiac built hundreds of thousands of Trans-Ams rom 1970-1981 and even though most came with automatics, if even a third came with manuals – which is probably about right – there ought to be a lot of original consoles around. Right? Even more so because the same-era Chevy Camaro used the same console. I figured it’d be the easiest part of converting my ’76 from factory automatic to factory manual. It is turning out to be the hardest part.

It was easy finding all the mechanical parts, such as the Z bar and mounting brackets, the bellhousing, clutch and pressure plate. It was even fairly easy to find a correct/factory GM Hust shifter with all the linkage and the “Pontiac” shifter knob to top it all off. But the center console has proved – so far – to be as hard to suss out as the Epstein client list. There is a reproduction available. But it is an obvious reproduction – hard plastic, while the original was covered with a soft, almost leather-like material that is (apparently) much too expensive for the aftermarket to reproduce. Meanwhile, everyone who has a good original manual console wants to keep it.

I have been trying to find one for two-plus months now. It is a lot of fun!

It is all part of the fun of owning an old car. I recommend it highly.

. . .

If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.