OK...

Before everyone goes to tell me to read the sticky on front end swaps please hear me out first.

I just "might" in time switch my 98 front end to a Z24 but have not set on that yet for sure as it is a 4-door and I plan on keeping my 98 for a very long time. What I am definitely trying to do is swap in the headlight harness for the fog lights. I already have the dash switch and harness installed. I have been looking for the front harness from a Z24 to complete the deal. I found a beautiful Red 98 Z24 in a local yard that must have once been someone's pride & joy - it still looked that good - the 2.4 in it must have needed a new water pump or something...

When I went to get retrieve headlight harness, some "unmentionable" had decided he wanted the passenger headlight and clipped the wires wrecking the Z24 harness despite the fact that he could have unclipped it or puled a headlight off of any of the half dozen or so pre-2000 cavs. It was a $60 wheelbarrow sale at the yard that day. You pay $60 to get in and they give you a wheelbarrow and you can fill it with anything there but wheels. I was there for the harness mainly but had to scramble to make things worth my trouble. I snagged (2) complete master cylinder ABS brake pump assemblies, an alternator, a 98 owners manual in decent shape and a spare set of headlights (unfastened from the harness & NOT cut!). I also got the actual foglights from the Z24 (gently unbolted and unclipped) and even a working turn signal cancelling cam for the tired one on my old 1986 K5 Blazer Diesel that would not stay on except for on super cold days.

Getting back to the headlight harness saga, I found another yard with a 96 Z24. I was able to unfasten it and get it all out in one piece. I began to notice a discrepancy or two...

I have the service manuals for 96 and for 98. They are organized quite differently by the way. I find the older 96 way easier to follow.

For the 96, the C101 connector to the lights under the battery tray is configured like this. The one I pulled indeed matched that.

In the manual for the 98 it does not show any foglight connectors and indicates it only has (10) cavities as in the figure from the manual. There is a C201 that points to the foglights but I am pretty sure that is the little one behind the dash bezel that goes to the switch by the dimmer (I already have that part.). The key in the lighting chapter for C101 indicates 15 cavities - the same amount as in the 96. The connector though for the 98 I think may be a different shape than the 96. I have not gotten a good look at it but I think the 98 in reality probably has 15 like the key says and not 10 like the picture indicates (must be an error in the service manual). I even physically counted at least 11 wires under dim light on the regular 98 harness. I think though that the 98 may be more of a rectangular shape than the more rounded 96 connector. Does anyone know for sure? If they are indeed different, how hard would it be to remove the pins from the 96 and reseat them into the (empty) 98 style connector?

On an aside note for those that seemingly just like to say "read the sticky" at the drop of any question no matter how much and how carefully the asker actually tried to do the homework and read the sticky over and over, this site (still) has lots of great info on it but the years have not been so kind and have caused much of the good pictures to be lost making what was once great info difficult to follow. It would be great if pics could somehow be retrieved and stored locally. I often feel like I am 10 years to late when I try to really make use of this site.

thanks,

99LN2

Attachments

ConnectorKey98.jpeg (198k)
98C201.jpg (216k)
98C101.jpg (264k)
96C101.jpg (268k)