SeanR

Black/yellow trace should come from pin 10 on the 14 pin connector. If it doesn't then I'd suggest you get in contact with Carl. The larger gauge yellow should be at pin 14.

Sounds like several complaints I've had on improper wiring on harnesses.

Ladybug83

Ok so I undressed the harness and 14 pin.

Pin 10 is yellow wire to starter.

Pin 14 is yellow wire to temp sensors and White wire to starter.

So following your knowledge, yellow (pin 10) has replaced blk/ylw and should go to middle starter post. And white wire (pin 14) should go to lower starter post. Thank you Sean

medipedicman

Sorry I logged off so early last night and did not see your question. I was referring to the gauge of the wire. I have never been able to get the post position mixed up (lol)but boy I used to get the wires confused if it had been disconnected for any period of time. My natural thought process made me want to go from top to bottom, big, medium, small. But the skinny wire goes on the middle post. The picture that Taz posted shows this in a clear way, which is what I was pointing out. Sorry I was so blurry.

Carl Fausett

Here you go. '78-84 shown.

Carl Fausett

The mini starter can be mounted with the positive post up or down. your preference. Some guys put the post down so it isn't so close to the oil pan. Others are afraid of hitting the post on something (like me) and I put the post up. I file off the part of the post higher than the nut, and glue a rubber square onto the oil pan to help prevent arcing even more. Never had a problem.

Alan

The point is - your wiring is not original - someone has screwed with it. On an '83 Pin 14 of the 14 pin connector should be Yellow (50), the ~8 AWG starter solenoid wire - a smaller gauge wire just won't work reliably - one day it may just disappear! (it is basically an overloaded fuse)... Pin10 should be Black/Yellow. Someone has made a mess here... Porsche doesn't vary colors much - and not on these functions.

Over time the engine bay heat & chemical do gradually change colors - reds become convincing browns, and yellows become more like orange/red.

I think you need to investigate further

Alan

Ladybug83

I think I have things figured out, thank you Sean, Brian and Alan for your input.

No worries dude, I appreciate your help.

I have, and here's what I found. Keeping in mind that we are talking about the aftermarket engine harness from the male 14 pin connector to the accessories. Everything on the female side of the 14 pin is stock and unmolested.

So on the male side of the 14 connector,

Pin # 14 contains two wires. One is yellow (14awg) and goes to cold start valve and thermo-switch for cold start. This looks correct per the WSM. The other is white (14awg) and goes to the starter. This wire should also be yellow (per WSM), but it's white.

Pin #10 contains one yellow wire (14awg) that goes to the starter. This wire should be blk/ylw (per WSM), but it's yellow.

So it seems to be wired properly, but with the wrong color wires. I noticed some other wires in the new harness are the wrong colors, but that'll be for a new thread. Kind of pain to figure out, but it should work fine, will be a bigger pain for the next owner, Ill make sure to print out this thread and save it with the cars papers for when I sell it someday.

Comments welcome, thanks again. Josh

Alan

This wire is far too skinny... REALLY!.

Porsche like most car companies understands the cost of copper (even then). If a skinny wire would do - that is what they would use... they didn't... they paid three times as much to put a nice big fat wire in there....

There is certainly a reason for this... they had accountants too - and they would certainly have discussed this choice...

YMMV!

Alan

SharkSkin

Two 14 gauge wires to the starter sounds like one of them is far too thin. See Alan's comment about it disappearing - he means melting and/or burning, maybe the first time you start the car. Note thee right side of Carl's pic, only one of those three wires is thin. It is possible that the harness had the wrong size wire installed in that position, though mine was perfect. Mistakes do happen. I suggest you take some pics that you can email to Carl and get on the horn with him as soon as you can. He'll help you sort out the situation and make sure you're taken care of.

Ladybug83

Ok cool. With the harness taken apart, I can replace wires so now'd be the time. Which one needs to be thicker? I'm guessing the wire from pin 14 to starter. And what's a good awg for this replacement wire ? I'm still not clear on the 50/30/16 designations. Is that mm2? Does the other wire from pin14 (to cold start) also need to be thicker?

Alan

The pin 14 starter solenoid wire needs to be bigger - these are mm^2 of conductor. The large one needs to be 10AWG (see if you can get yellow SXL - hard in small quantities) 14AWG as is - is OK for the small one.

Alan

Ladybug83

Alan, thank you for your time and advise. I was able to find a Noble 10ga G.P.T (50V max). Like you said, SXT is hard to find in small quantity and pretty much online sources only. Hopefully this will do. I'll make the repair this weekend.