Slowly bringing my '73 2.0 back to life after a long restoration process.

Wired the relay to front headlights with new H4 bulbs, new J West fuse panel, etc. Have the factory shop manuals with wiring diagrams, though being colourblind doesn't help much even with my reading glasses

Hooked up the battery last night and no electrical fires, but all sorts of intereting findings... rear signals flash the back up lights (hopefully easy to redo) , but the parking brake light flashes continuously if ignition is on, the headlights don't work at all, and don't park correctly, gauge lighting doesn't work on any dash or gauge panel gauges, and the list goes on.

Any decent direction as what to tackle first????


God, I HATE electrical issues!!!!!!

(at least no fires or fried wires...yet- had that 40 some one years ago when rewiring my fog lights for a flasher on the silver '71- back then we actually flashed lights when we saw another Porsche. Of course, many 911 would ignore me, but that's another story...)

Unplug and clean all grounds. Basically every brown wire in the entire car should be disconnected, scraped with a brush (on both the spade connector and the male metal blade that protrudes from the chassis). Also, make sure you have a good ground strap on the battery and a fresh flexible copper ground wire on the transmission (this alone will solve your rear lights issue).

Then I'd replace all fuses and break out a voltmeter and just focus on one thing at a time. Oh, for the light motors, swap out the round black relays with a known round relay that works. I have one brand new round relay that I like to use for testing since it then becomes the one thing I can quickly rule out. Later on, you can always test your round relays by swapping them out with you pop up light motors.


Just be patient and don't try to fix the whole car at once. Focus on one little section by doing a continuity test on each wire to make sure it's not so brittle that it broke somewhere in the middle. Also unplug, clean, and reconnect as much stuff as you can.

Best of luck to you! Just keep telling yourself that you are saving $100's by attempting this all yourself!

Make sure you have 12 volts at the battery. The headlight motors don't really work right if the voltage is too low.

SKL1
Been following the saga on Rennlist.
Love the story and enjoy watching the progress!
Wish I could help with the electrical issues....

You will get it!
Thanks.

Good suggestions ovilla- have the voltmeter ready!!

off to the garage...

The blinking hand brake light is probably the switch in your master brake cylinder that needs a reset. This switch triggers at a sudden drop in brake pressure in the system. There's a PP tech article on this iirc.
For parking of the head lamps, does the motor park? If so the actuating arm is misaligned to the motor. No light at the front could be a relay thing.
Don't let the electrics get to you in the end it is straigth forward, taking it step by step one fuse/relay at a time works good.
Good luck
Jacco

Started with rear tailights- confusing to say the least as the numbers on the wiring diagram and the numbers on the housing itself don't all correspond.

Wiring diagram for driver's side, L to R: 49L, 58, 54.

Numbers on housing: RF 54 58

31 L


Luckily have the '71 sitting next to it, guess I'll loosen one of the housings and see how it's wired as those lights work!!


Also starting clean all the connections, again...Click to view attachment Click to view attachment