I should have remembered from my last project car that there are always teething problems near the end of a project. With my luck, whatever can go wrong, usually does. I used the donor harness for everything from the firewall back to behind the seats. I retained the original harness from the firewall forward for two reasons...the traction control on the driver's side and the donor harness came from a car with a different stereo system on the passenger side (my car had the DSP system). I spliced the driver's side just to the rear of the firewall. I spliced the passenger side just in front of the firewall.
I ended up having to make a couple trips downtown to an electronics specialty store to get the right size and type of shrink wrap. I soldered, shrink wrapped, and friction taped each connection to insure no chance of a stray strand of wire protruding through the shrinkwrap and causing a short.
I discovered some damaged paint under the wiper assembly. I removed that and took care of the damaged paint. I ended up with some extra wires on each side....not good. I anticipated 3 extra wires on the driver's side from the original harness for the traction control. I also anticipated some extra wires on the passenger side due to the differences in stereo systems. I did not anticipate the following: a green/yellow wire and brown/red wire on the driver's side coming from the donor harness, green/black, purple/white, purple/pink, purple/green, and white/red wires coming from the original harness on the driver's side. From the passenger side I had a green/yellow and yellow/black wire coming from the donor harness. From the original harness I had white/blue, grey/pink, white/black, white/green, white/brown, and white/red wires left over (the last 6 wires were expected due to the DSP amp). I obviously need to figure out where all the extra wires go prior to powering up the car. I'm guessing that they are due to different options between the donor car and mine that I did not anticipate such as a two tone horn or headlight washer, litronics, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I spoke with my favorite mechanic at the dealer and realized that they do not deal with such issues. They would just order a new harness for the car by the vin number.....not an option for me.
To top everything off, I put a towel and a 2 inch thick piece of foam on each fender to protect them whicle I was working under the front hood. I know that the metal is fairly thin, but I had to lean on it because I'm currently between back surgery number 5 and 6. I managed to put three ripples on the passenger side fender and one on the driver's side. I'm waiting for my paintless dent guy to come over and give me the bad news.

 

Geeezz Mark...really sorry to hear this after all the hours and hours you spent making sure that each connection was done just right....and now you've got "extra stuff" to content with. Is there any way to get any sort of listing of what the various color coded wires go to/from?

I know....after all of this effort you've put into this, that you're not going to be one of those potatoe chip guys who say....."betcha can't have jes' one". I have no doubt that you'll eventually wade thru this, but it has to be disheartening. Just keep the Halon extinguisher there till after you've fired her up....er, after you've started her up....and let me know when you're close to the final moment. I still want to take some pics of you to post so the guys can see the final product.

In the meantime, get some rest and walk away from it for a while.

Chuck

 

Thanks Chuck. Barrett-Jackson makes a great distraction....prices appear to be down. I have seen a lot of cars that didn't make the cost of the restoration. It is a good year to be a buyer. You migh want to keep the 930 and and enjoy all the new horsepower.

 

I was going to put some money into bringing her up to concours then selling her, but after all this time and buying all these various performance parts, I'm going to keep her for a bit longer. She sure likes this cold weather with the dense air.....stays on boost a long time.

Ron at IPB is gave me a list of to-do's.....mostly gaskets.
Be sure to let me know if there's anything I can do for you....like chase down parts down here. I have your factory horns set aside to give you....and need any excuse to go somewhere.

Chuck

 

If you are in phoenix give me a call/pm we can go the BJ car show since this is my part of town. Just my take: As far as extra wires I do not think at this point it is crucial and can be checked for current. If it has current then you can see what works with power on and go from there and can always insulate as a temp measure and allow time for you to see progress and see what does not work in the car as to give you a clue and backtrack from there so to speak. When I did mine I pulled some relays out (DME, Fuel Pump, Ignition fuse etc. that I was unsure or may cause problems and put them back in one at a time and observed the results . As with all projects there always comes a time to "kick the tires and light the fires big daddy."

Heres a link to boxster relay panel visual if needed.

http://www.theschillings.com/boxrelay.htm

To bad about the dent, but it could be worse by leaning against the car with a belt buckle at the same time hopefully they will just pop out.

 

Mother, I figured that you would understand my current (no pun) dilemma. I almost took my Dad to see Barrett-Jackson in person....we decided to watch it on the speed channel instead. If we go next year, I'll PM you. I would enjoy getting to see your project in person.
I have been looking at the wiring diagrams for the past couple hours...you are right, I should still be able to power up the car. Thanks for the link. I am the only person that will ever see the dents, but they would drive me nuts. My paintless dent guy has worked miracles on my other cars, I'm optomistic at this point. Thanks.

 

Sorry for the ignorance, but why is that not an option? Cost? Too far along? Engine change?

CP

 

Mark, sorry to hear about the "extra" wires and the fenders. What a bummer! I am sure you can get this worked out and will soon be able to, as Chuck would say, get her fired up. Have you given her a name yet. I think that Indigo Inferno would be very fitting.

Chuck, nice of you to offer to help run down parts.

Mark, make sure you take him up on that offer. If nothing else, you might be able to get another free lunch out of him.

 

Mark - bummer about the dents and wires. As many have said, a short break may help bring things to clarity. Based on what you have tackled so far, I doubt that this will be any more than a small bump (no pun intended); you will get it resolved soon.

 

Mark... do you have schematics? If not I can send it to you? PM me your adress.... or do I remember you have the cd? can you track the wire colors this way and find out what those options were?

 

Red - Nice offer!

 

Mark has schematics

 

Ahhh, I should have known you already had him covered!

 

Mark, thanks for keeping us updated on your progress...good or bad. Great to see the car moving along!

 

Thanks for the support guys. There are some incredible people here. Loren was kind enough the send me the information that I needed to help resolve my issues. I have never had the pleasure of meeiting him...yet, he offered to come over to my house and help me with his Porsche diagnostic computer. I have never met Don (DFC here) either....he read through the wiring diagrams and offered me his opinion on where my spare wires go in the form of about a page long PM. He has an electrical engineering background , so I really value his expertise. Redridge and Chuck, thanks for the nice offers. It's guys like these that really make this site a pleasure to be a part of.

CP, my budget does not permit me to buy a new harness. I priced a new engine harness on my previous project and it was well over $2,000. The estimate from the dealer to repair this car was $25,000....I'm sure a large chunk of that was parts....I would guess the dash harness is over $5,000 new, based on the price of the engine harness.
Tim, I hope indigo inferno is not an appropriate name after I power her up...I insured her yesterday, just in case.
bk12, thanks.

I hooked up the heater core and installed the battery today. As soon as I figure how to swap the ignition switch from my old column to the new one, I will power it up!