complete wiring harness rebuild
 

so, anyone here been so inclined to rebuild the entire wiring harness? any tips (besides dont do it)? any good wire by the foot sources? I think when i rebuild my harness (if i do) i will make it in sections that can connect to each other so parts can be removed if needed.

thanks,
-john

Before you start you need to make a jig. Lay the harness out on a sheet of plywood and outline the harness with brads/nails. This way you get the exact wire legnths and bends in the right spots.

thx for the suggestion, ill do that, Ill also document what i do and post it for others. I think itll be a good project along with the dozen others i have for the car.

Take a look at the 928 forum. One of the posters there does harness for 928's and lists where he is getting the wires, he has some pretty nice photos of what he is doing and how as well, I may just do the search for ya. His posts are within the past 1-2mos.

https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...hlight=harness

Michael

There is a kit that you can find in hot rod mag's called painless wiring. You could probably fit that into the car.

Great call on the jig. That's how I make mine when I have to (which is as rarely as possible, as they suck to remove/install).
Usually if I have a big section of a wiring harness fail, I cut the entire harness before that point, install a connector, and rewire everything after that point. Or, if it's in my subaru, just solder and shrink wrap, since if it ever fails again, I'll burn the car to the ground!

Is there any reason in particular you're replacing the entire harness?

I'm also curious where you could get all of the nicely striped wires in quantities small enough to build 1 or 2 harnesses.

Good luck, i just spent a few days tracing out some burnt wires in a harness, and man, it is a real mess of wires. Post pics when you get it done. For anyone's info, a new 944S harness from porsche cost just under $1k, but oh so soft and flexible. I would think doing it yourself you could probably get away with a 200-300 bill, that is if you don't count your manhours that you put into it.

Oh and let us know how you solve the shielded wires on the speed and reference sensor wires, since the shield also acts as a ground pinout.

I think youwill have problems with the pin removal and connectors... Whar are you going to do about the ends???

I assume I have to cut past 2 or so inches at the official porsche connectors (except for sensors and such), and place a univeral plug to that. Im gonna keep that as a backup plan for now tho, Ild like to get a chance to open up the plastic connections and see if the terminals can be pulled out and replaced with new ones attached to the new wiring

When you solve all of their problems what are you going to do for the prioprietary unobtanium connectors?
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Eagleday.com has some of but not all of the connectors. They are not cheap.

Michael

again, those parts would need salvaged and rebuilt if possible, and i do belive its possible :) im just not sure yet at what cost. if too much effort were involved, cut off teh connectors and resolder, shrinkwrap the new wires.

What connectors are unobtainable? I would imagine the big DME plug probably is. I have ordered a bunch of the others through porsche though, including the reference sensor connectors....along with the new metal ends that clip into the connectors. The other plugs are stadard 2 prong plugs that should still be available. Maybe TPS and AFM connectors not available? They all have part numbers in PET if i recall.

Karl, they pretty much all have P/Ns. Some are very hard to come by and I call them unobtanium because they will cost you more than some NAs are worth. 1K for a factory harness is not that bad a price. If you are not working, then building it might be better. If you make more than about 15 bucks/hr i doubt you would come on the plus side of the dollars.

That being said, it would be GREAT experience.
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