Rewiring project thread, start to finish (eventually) Options

[lapuwali]

Included here is a "minimum" wiring diagram. This is good enough for a racer, and good enough for a minimal street car (daylight, no rain). I'll be building up the diagrams bit by bit over time. I'm not following the OEM wiring colors exactly, as I'm not going to use "tracer" wire (too hard to get in small quantities). But the general scheme will be the same.

This diagram shows my car as it sits now, and it starts and drive (carbs, btw). The next diagrams will show things like gauge hookups, lights, misc, and EFI. I'll also be posting tips on constructing your own harness, like which connectors to use, tools, techniques.

[lapuwali]

When removing the OEM harness, it all needs to be pulled "towards" the fusebox. Everything should be disconnected in the front trunk (lights, horn, headlight motors, wipers, front blower) and all of the wiring pulled down through the grommeted hole near the left A-pillar, directly in front of the driver. The rear trunk wiring should be disconnected and pulled towards the relay board. The relay board should be disconnected and removed. The wiring from the various bits of the engine to the 12-pin connector on the relay board (the one towards the rear of the car) is completely separate. The section from the relay board and battery forward has to go down through the hole in the front engine shelf, then forward through the firewall and the center tunnel.

The wiring behind the dash disconnects at or very near the steering column. For the early cars, there's one big connector hidden up behind the dash that looks like a relay board connector. This is mounted with a slot connector to the dash itself, to the right of the steering column. On the later cars, there are several connectors at the bottom of the steering column. The wires from the heater controls are all just spade terminals.

You'll be tempted several times to just pull out the snippers and start cutting wires. If the wire insulation is still flexible and not horribly faded, the wire can be reused in a new harness, so try not to cut it. New wire is quite pricey. Proper automotive grade (heat and oil resistant insulation) wire can easily run $300 or so for enough in enough colors to complete a harness. Connectors, however, generally should be discarded, so don't feel too bad about cutting off connectors you can't feed through a hole.