I recently bought an aftermarket front engine harness for my '95 GTS. OE had 3-4 places with some wire corrosion, and I felt it was a good 'long term' thing to do. Roger T. sells the harness which is produced by Sean Ratts (previously well known on Rennlist 928 Forum). The harness is very well done, and a perfect fit. Sean has an excellent 'how to' for removal of the old harness which is posted on Roger's web site.

Removing the OE harness was interesting. I'm no longer 'young and limber', and have fairly large hands and stubby fingers. Electrical conducting wire is supposed to be fairly supple, but mine was not - about as flexible as a 3/4" steel pipe in the front of the engine. I actually cut it into two pieces (at the center of the two clamps at the bottom of the engine lift bracket) for easier removal. I'm not sure whether I spent more time 'scratching.my head' about how to get access or 'scratching the backs of my hands' actually doing something. Anyway, the new one is in, everything functions as well if not better than it did before. Engine starts about twice as quickly as it did before.

Considering my personal health/age issues, if I were to do this again on a late model 32 valve engine, I would drain the radiator and remove the upper and lower hoses. The improved access and time saved during harness installation would be well worth the time it takes to drain, remove hoses, and refill coolant.

My thanks to Sean for an excellent aftermarket product at a reasonable price.

Gary.

 

Thanks Gary for putting that new harness in,
its not a bad job but it is tedious.
However the rewards should be noticed once the key is turned.
Keep Em Flyin !

 

Gary, curious about the time it took to start vs new?

 

On my to do list.
Thanks for posting this.
Great job on your beautiful 928.

 

Babado,

Being long retired, and having no time pressure to get it done, I did about 1-1 1/2 hour segments. \Working slowly, probably took me 3 hours to remove the old one. I think it probably took another 2 hours to install the new one, get the P steering and alternator back in place, and ready to start the engine. I think I could have cut at least an hour off by removing the two radiator hoses. If I were to do a second one next week, might take an hour less, overall. A lot of under car and above engine stuff. I was aided by having a lift.

OOOOPS erred in interpreting the question. Probably 3-4 seconds previously. About 1-2 now.
Gary

 

I've done the FOE on my '84 twice, and it's not too bad of a job. Sean's harness is top-notch. I think it took me 4 hours the first time, and probably half that the second.

The trick for me was that I found out you could pull the harness down behind the plastic cover without having to remove it. I tied a piece of line to the starter end as I pulled it up, then pulled that end back down with the line. Super easy and fast.