Rewiring, more, step 1, de-wiring Options

[lapuwali]

I've managed to disentangle and separate the mess at the fusebox and under the dash. Found plenty of PO hackage, and more burnt wiring. I also discovered a few things about the factory harness.

The headlight switch SHOULD have four connections: power in, parking lights, lo-beams, dash lights. You could get away with three, and merge the lo-beams and gauge lights in the harness later. So, why are there FIFTEEN terminals on the headlight switch, with several connections with doubled up wires on them? There's like 20-30 wires there. OK, for ultimate reliability, I suppose you could run a wire to each light individually, plus the gauge lights and power, but that's still only 10 wires...

I think some of the final assembly (maybe a dozen crimped connections) was done after the harness was on the car. Some of the assembly must have been pretty challenging. I can see this in a low-volume setting, and it's certainly how I'll make the replacement, but to make around 100 cars per day in this way is pretty amazing.

[lapuwali]

I'll take some photos once I start assembling the new stuff. Right now, all you can see is a dirty interior with wires EVERYWHERE, which may be a nice "before" shot.

I'm not actually interesting in adding more capacity. Instead, I'll be using substantially fewer wires, for a simpler and lighter harness. I've removed some accessories out of the loop already (both fresh air blowers), and I'll probably not add a radio or any other power-sapping devices. I ordered a set of LED taillights from Waytek. We'll see how they work out.

I will be using ATO fuses (the newer blade-type jobs). I won't be using any of the stock round relays. Common cube relays are cheaper and easier to source. There are solid-state relays available, which have major reliability advantages, but I've only seen them at pretty high prices so far ($30 each).