I bought a project car that had had a fire... Front half of the wiring harness is "original", and the PO put in a rear half that I haven't assessed much yet.

In my misspent youth I wired a couple of cars from scratch, and don't care to repeat that.

My hot-rod buddies get new universal harnesses pretty reasonably - has anybody used one of these in a 914? (My search found this sole thread: http://bullseye.corp.nai.org/BullsEye/default.aspx, that is light on details )

What do y'all do about fire-damaged wiring harnesses - repair them, home-build them, use Auto Atlanta's used harnesses or Bowlsby's stuff, or use a "universal"?

I would contact Bowlsby. He is a good man and he might be able to help. He is also one of us too!

Actually I'd suggest signing up with the local Colorado 914 group on Yahoo.
You've got a lot of help and parts available close by.

Contact Jeff Bowlsby for sure...
https://bowlsby.net/914/WiringHarnesses/

Jeff Bowlsby makes the engine FI harness. Great quality!

No body makes an affordable replacement body wiring harness. Your best bet is to find a good used harness. I saw an NOS replacement harness show up recently but is was pricey!

You could hit up a wrecking yard and remove the rear half of the harness and graft it into your front half. This would be the easiest way.

Every now and then a good used harness shows up for sale. They are a pain to install. Most of the headache is getting the rear portion through the firewall.

If you are good reading a schematic, you could replace every wire yourself. I once did a custom Jeep using all yellow wire with an alpha-numeric code stamped into the wire for identification of the systems. Not for the faint of heart...

Jeff has been buying or at least trying to buy used harnesses to refurbish. I would check with him.

Used ones are $75-100. Pretty available if you search around. Jeff's refurbished harnesses will be very nice but pricey when available.

I have a harness that I would sell for $100. It looks good, but I haven't gone through it wire by wire or anything. PM me if your interested.

the front harness is massive and goes from headlight thru dash/fuse box, all the way to the relay board. if this one is good, that's great.

the rear harness is much less intense.

and then there is the ecu harness, the engine bay, they crispy/brittle.

https://bowlsby.net/914/WiringHarnesses/

So searching on "harness" is not very efficient, but the gestalt seems to be that the front harness is fairly reliable; looks like a blade-type fusebox and the headlight relay mod are both fairly popular - does that sound about right?

The rear harnesses seem to be where all the "where does this go" and "why doesn't this work" questions come from...

I had the same problem on my -72, the front harness was OK but the rear was shot.
I decided to make my own rear harness, after measuring the different lenghts from the fuse box to the left rear light, right rear light etc i put nails in a plywood board at all strategical junctions.
After getting the different wite types and colors (well I did not get all factory colors) and studying the wiring diagram It was just to lay out the wires and crimp at the ends. Lastly some plastcic tube and black original type tape around it where it should be.

Looks rather nice when installed but no, its not original but a cheap way to fix it and I know that every wire is OK. A good used harness is much easier and keeps the car closer to original.


/Lars S

I have a complete wiring harness out of my 71 racecar with instrument cluster, fuse panel - All of it.
That even includes the FI harness, FI system, & ECU.

In Longmont.
I also have a complete 71 that still drives, but the tub is shot.
Nice interior. I would sell it for a song & dance.