Working on refurbishing used wire harness, Refurbishing complete harness for 73 914-V8 project Options

[Daryl32]

So the refurbish for the 73 914 with Chevy 350 is now at the "What is this Mess?" Stage

Wiring in front bonnet area looks great - but once it goes through the "fire wall?" not sure what you call a front bulkhead? The wiring really takes a turn for the worse.

The owner got a new to the car complete harness with it. It is a used harness that was removed from another car pretty much intact. The only real issue with it, is that some of the wires were cut with a cut off wheel. The area is where it came through the rear bulkhead.

Plans are to use the 12 wire plug wires for the engine and gauges, some for what they are for.

Wondering what others have done? Any help will be gratefully accepted. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheer.gif)

I found wires in the car that went no where just attached and cut at both ends.

Some pictures of the wiring:









After new used harness was unwrapped and inspected, I rolled it up and set it on the floor of the passenger side of the car. Went into the house and had a medium old guy panic attack. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)



A couple of weeks later I started to tackle the new harness - laid it out of the table and had at it.

I made a 4x8 table out of a sheet of plywood and covered it with cardboard, then laid the harness out for inspection. I started tracing wires to see where they went and inspecting for cuts or bare spots. I removed the factory fuse panel as the car has a bigger blade fuse style panel in it.

[DickSteinkamp]

I was lucky enough with my V8 conversion wiring that the original harness and all electrical equipment was in place and in good condition. Very few changes are needed to the original harness to install a V8.

Get a BIG blow up in color of the stock wiring system

If you get back to the replacement harness in the car and everything cleaned back to stock (a big IF) including the installation and wiring of the relay panel in the engine compartment behind the driver, do the following...

Remove the ECU and everything that harness goes to if this hasn't been done already.

Replace the stock FI fuel pump with a low pressure one for a carb. Mount it in the original position with the original wiring.

Ground one terminal of the connector on the rear left of the relay panel (I can look it up for you or you can search here). That will fool the system into thinking there is an ECU in place when you turn the key so the fuel pump will run.

Run a normal 3 wire internally regulated Delco alternator. Run the hot terminal direct to the battery. Loop the sensor wire back to the hot terminal on the alternator. Remove the stock VR on the relay panel and run the idiot light wire from the alternator to a pin on a post where the VR mounted (again, I can look that up that pin for you or you can search).

Pick up a switched hot on the relay panel for the electric choke.

Wire the cooling fans with relays and fuses direct to the fuse box under the dash. I ran to an "always hot" terminal there so my fans would run after shut down if needed.

The starter will run with the stock harness and connections. No need to do anything different or special there. Some guys do put a solenoid in line to keep the current off the switch like newer cars, but it's not necessary. Same with the BU lights. (those wires wire tied to the engine hatch cable housing do not look stock and if they are they are run in the wrong location)

In your case, you may have to get more creative, but stick as close as you can to the original wiring diagram with the above changes so as not to create more problems.

Good luck!

[Daryl32]

In your case, you may have to get more creative, but stick as close as you can to the original wiring diagram with the above changes so as not to create more problems.

Good luck!

Thank for all the great tips Dick - I will print this out and add it to my wiring log book for the car.