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I have a 1983 944. Recently the wire of the flip-up lights burned through and now I don't know what to do. Do I need to replace the whole front wire harness or is there a better way of doing it? The second problem is the speedometer doesn't work but the rest of the cluster works perfectly. How do I figure out what the problem is in the fastest way I can.
Can you take a picture and post it? There shouldn't be any wires that are burned out because all the low and high beams are fused, which protects the wiring...unless someone stuck the wrong size fuses in there. As far as the speedometer goes, assuming your whole speedometer is dead, check to see if the cable is connected. These cars are pretty strange in that the cable goes from the left front wheel bearing bearing cap, through the spindle, then through the firewall and then finally the speedometer. A more common issue with these is the speedometer itself works, but the odometer does not. In that case a gear (or two) in the speedometer needs to be replaced.
If one of the 4 wires that goes to the headlight motor is burned through it is best to replace all 4 wires of the harness. Go to 944 Foot to the floor for a great amount of info about this. There are 4 wires. One is brown…a ground. There is a red with a green tracer and a red with a blue tracer. And a grey wire. Check out the headlight switch and the plug that it goes into. The plug has 11 wires in it . If your wire immolated itself, it may hav damaged the switch plug as well. Mine did. Probably the red with the green tracer is the culprit wire.
It looks to be the actual plug. Ill get more pictures to see if that s the only part that is actually burned. but as it seems in the last picture I took of it is is just the plug and it stopped the lights from coming up altogether. I don't think this year had a fuse for the headlights. I think that was something that I was already considering adding. looks
It looks to be the actual plug. Ill get more pictures to see if that s the only part that is actually burned. but as it seems in the last picture I took of it is is just the plug and it stopped the lights from coming up altogether. I don't think this year had a fuse for the headlights. I think that was something that I was already considering adding.
Looks like circuit 56 (based on what I cannot find on the connector) which feeds the high and low beams. The connector must have had a bad connection, which had some resistance, which heated up when the headlight current flowed. The heat melted the connector, and possibly the insulation on the wire for that circuit.
If you can find a new connector housing (unlikely) and a new terminal for 56, you can de-pin each connector separately and swap to the new housing, installing the new terminal and re-insulating the 56 wire if needed. If you can't find a new one, you will need to contact a salvage yard that has 944s, and have them cut that connector off, and send it to you. Remove terminals from everything but 56, splice that one, and transfer all the other connectors to the used housing.
Good luck! In the pantheon of 944 issues, this is solvable and not too bad.
[quote=DivineDragneel;18356233][QUOTE=orig944;18350590 new terminal for 56, you can de-pin each connector separately and swap to the new housing,
How exactly do I de-pin everything?[/quote]
Yep looked just like mine did. Perhaps if you have a junkyard nearby that has a 944 you might get that and the switch. Amazon sells a bunch of different depinning tools. There is one set with about a hundred different tools on 3-4 rings. Those worked best for me. There’s a good possibility that the switch is fried too. About 56.00 new. Get one for a spare as well. The 944 foot to the floor article tells how to check out the plug at the headlight motor and what to look for. Watch out for the fog light relay as well. It’s way above the gas pedal on the AC housing. It’s a double relay with 2 white plugs. Mine immolated itself and some of the harness too. I don’t think there’s a fuse for this circuit. So while playing with the headlight circuit it might be a good idea to unplug the two white plugs from the relay…37.00 new. Perhaps save yourself from grief. HTH some. I feel your pain.😭🙁
Before you start depinning and cutting wires take lots and lots of pics. They will help a lot. I wound up creating an entire new harness, running it from the headlight motor, below the radiator and up the driver side through the firewall by the Brake booster and into the cabin. I ran the wires through a silicone tube that was the same length to protect the wires from road debris. I used 18 ga wire. Sherco makes colored wire with tracers, either straight or spiral. Use the marine wire. BTW there are 11wires in the headlight plug.
BTW if you have a buddy with a “Power Probe” rig or a wiring tone generator that will be of great help along with a multimeter (VOM). I downloaded the schematic for the entire wiring harness from the WSM, onto a flash drive. Then I took the flash drive to my local UPS store and had it printed off on 3x4 foot sheets. Since I’m older I have to have big pictures .Lol My schematic had the wire colors printed in German. Having a translate icon on your cell phone will help there. I can help you there with that if it gets confusing. HTH some.
09-07-2022, 04:36 PM
Two 83 944 problems in one
Iis not the wire that is burned
