Restoration Design 914-6 Wiring harness? Options

[Tom1394racing]

I am in the process of a 914 2.0 to 914-6 GT conversion project. In thinking about the wiring challenges for the steering column and engine bay, I came across the complete 914-6 harnesses offered by Restoration Design. I am considering both the complete harness and the engine harness. They are pricy but may simplify the wiring conversion process.

Anyone have any experience with these? Are there better options?

[troth]

I think Kroon is the only other game in town for the complete chassis harness. Also not cheap. If your original 4 cylinder harness is in decent/close to original shape, you might be able to send it to either RD or Kroon so they can use it to create a good repro in exchange for a nice discount. I don’t think either offers a 4 cylinder harness at this time. Jeff Bowlsby might be able to make you an engine harness.

[mepstein]

RD has a great youtube video of one of their guys installing their 914-6 chassis harness. Give them a call. They are very responsive to customers.

Perry at Ironhillrestorations is great with custom harness fabrication.

[troth]

RD has a great youtube video of one of their guys installing their 914-6 chassis harness. Give them a call. They are very responsive to customers.

Perry at Ironhillrestorations is great with custom harness fabrication.

It was Perry I was thinking of for engine harnesses, not Jeff. Jeff does mostly 4 cyl stuff I think.

[Badinfluence1]

Jeff Bowlsby is on 914world and he is the guy you want to talk to. He is a master 914 builder- well worth the money. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Luke M]

I am in the process of a 914 2.0 to 914-6 GT conversion project. In thinking about the wiring challenges for the steering column and engine bay, I came across the complete 914-6 harnesses offered by Restoration Design. I am considering both the complete harness and the engine harness. They are pricy but may simplify the wiring conversion process.

Anyone have any experience with these? Are there better options?

Hi Tom,

Like stated, the only companies that I know of that's building 914-6 harnesses is RD and Kroon. I purchased a Kroon harness for my 6 and the process wasn't bad. There was a long wait time. IIRC it was 4 months or so to build and get it state side. The only reason I went with Kroon was because at time RD wasn't making theirs yet. I would say RD is your best bet and one stop shop for the chassis and engine wiring. I've also worked with Perry on a few engine harness and he's great to deal with too. He set me up a nice kit for my brothers 914 3.0 conv. and was great with tech help. As far as I know no one is doing 914 4 harnesses yet. I rewired my brothers chassis harness and it was a real pain. It took a good three weeks to get all sorted out. The cost of buying the correct wire/color combo was not cheap either. It can be done if you have the time and patience to do it.

Link to the RD 6 harness install : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meuFs3HaUj0

[mepstein]

One last option

[JeffBowlsby]

One last option

Only use replacement harnesses that are identical to the year of your car, they are not interchangable from year to year. Each model year is pretty much different, which may affect hookups to dash switches, gauges etc. Here is a draft comparison chart: https://bowlsby.net/914/WiringHarnesses/doc...nessIDGuide.pdf


This Aase harness above for example is listed as a 1971 with the 12 pin steering column connector which is correct for the 1970 and early 1971 models. But at some point later in 1971, a circuit was added and the late 1971 chassis harness has a 14 pin connector (with an unused cavity).

[Dave_Darling]

Note that none of the 914-6 harnesses will be right for your conversion. In part because none of them were made for a 74 chassis.

You're probably going to have to roll your own, or talk to someone who will custom-make you a wiring harness that will work. (Yeah, I don't want to think about the cost of that either.)

--DD

[Cairo94507]

I can tell you that we installed a NOS 914-6 complete harness in my car and Jim, Kent & Bob were very very happy we did. The original harnesses are 50 years old and have typically been "modified" by prior owners for all sorts of work-arounds and stereo junk over the years. Save yourself tons of time and headaches sorting electrical Gremlins with a new harness if it is at all possible. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[mepstein]

The OP is building a 914-6GT and any harness he buys will be modified so might as well start out with new wire, modify it on the bench and then install it in the car. It doesn’t really matter if the steering column is 12 pin or 14 if he’s going to modify it to left side ignition, add gauges, etc.

I’m certainly no wire expert but I don’t think the year of the chassis matters that much if you are taking it down to a shell and building it back to GT specs. You are going to change the engine and steering column connection on whatever year chassis you are using. The rest of the wiring doesn’t change much from year to year.

[BillJ]

I priced out the kroon harness for my car when faced with rewiring needs. At $3600 all in was a little too steep for me given the car is track only at this stage so went with new aim pdm and custom harness as, much like you noted in first post, headaches with 50 year old wiring is not fun. I spent more than the harness costs but got a lot of features i "needed" for the track as well with dash, cam, etc.

You will not regret going new. Get on the phone with one of the vendors above and talk through your chasis and engine target and see what will get you 90% of the way there. You may have to mod once you get it there but that is the price you pay for converting! The closer you can get to what you need without chasing gremlins the better.

[Tom1394racing]

Thanks for all the replies and advice. I am not opposed to restoring and reusing my original harness. I am in the process of carefully removing it and documenting all the connections. I have cleaned, restored, modified and reused my original harnesses in my previous 911 projects.

My main reasosn for considering the 914-6 replacement harness are the ignition switch, turn signals and wiper switches where I will be using 911 components with different connectors. Also the in the engine bay where I will be using a 3.0L twin plug (possibly with EFI). Isn't it really just a matter of finding or making custom harnesses with appropriate connectors to mate my 914 harness to the 911 components? Seems like a waste of $$ to buy an entire harness for just those connections.

[ClayPerrine]

My main reasosn for considering the 914-6 replacement harness are the ignition switch, turn signals and wiper switches where I will be using 911 components with different connectors. Also the in the engine bay where I will be using a 3.0L twin plug (possibly with EFI). Isn't it really just a matter of finding or making custom harnesses with appropriate connectors to mate my 914 harness to the 911 components? Seems like a waste of $$ to buy an entire harness for just those connections.

Tom,
The 914-6 is not like the 911 in that the engine harness is a separate piece from the chassis harness and plugs into the relay board. So unless you are running carbs on that 3.0L twin plug engine, you will have to custom build an engine harness.

As for the switches, I have been there, done that. The 914-6 wiper switch is unique to the car. It doesn't connect to anything other than the wiper motor. The main harness just supplies a single switched 12V wire to run the wipers. The turn signals and ignition can be easily converted with basic electrical knowledge. There are lots of threads on here about people doing it.

You can do what I did. Start with the harness from the year of the chassis (mine was a 73) and first remove anything you are not going to use, such as seat belt buzzer/interlock stuff and the wiper circuits. Then modify the harness to use a 911 ignition switch and turn signal switch. I have a geddy design 5 gauge dash, and I always hated having to unplug all the connections to remove the insturments, so I added two 14 pin connectors so I can take the gauges out of the dash as a unit complete with the wiring.


The lead on the left of the picture is for the GPS speedometer drive. The other two connect the gauge harness to the chassis harness.

I hope that helps, and let me know if you need anything else.

Clay