I crawled under the Porsche this afternoon to replace the backup light switch, since my backup lights did not work. When I pulled the protective rubber boot off the switch, I either broke the wiring to one of the two pins into the switch, or else the wiring to that pin was already broken (which is what I think happened). There was no wire left on the pin (which itself was stuck in the switch) to solder the wire to. Also not any loose wire to pull out of the rubber boot. Yikes!

What I did: I cut off the boot and slid it back up the wire (which was incredibly short, only about 4 inches of it before it disappeared behind the transmission) to give access to the broken wire. Then peeled off about a 1/4 inch of that wire's insulation.

I then removed the switch (no trans fluid dripped out as I had the car jacked up on the passenger side) and pulled the pin out with a pair of pliers. Then I crimped a butt-splice connector (after removing the connector's insulation) to the pin. Crawling back under the car, I crimped the little bit of exposed wire to the other end of the butt splice connector. It seemed pretty secure.

Installed the new backup light switch, and then inserted the pins into the switch. Pulled the rubber boot (gently!) back over the pin-switch connections and used black duct tape to secure it.

Backup lights now work.

 

Congrats on the repair. I hate when I break something that while repairing something else.

 

MacGyver approves.