I have several wires under my dash that are disconnected and one end is hot with the key on. The brown one appear to be the ground for some accessory, but what?
The grey could be a number of things, and it appears at least that it was designed to be disconnected at some point (it has a blade on the other bit of wire).
Anyone have a good guess as to what these may be?
Picture attached.
Car is a 1971 but may have been "updated". I have a relay on the back of my fuse block for the horn. I understand that in 1971 the horn was not on a relay.
Here are the offending wires, the are wound together to mark them out to us and were just hanging loose randomly when discovered.
The shiny blob is what appears to be the other end of the grey wire and the shiny wire is what seems to be the other end of the brown wire. I am not bold enough to just hook them up and see what bursts into flames. Right now, most everything seems to be working, unless you think that these wires are making my tail shifter feel sloppy!Click to view attachment

Driving light switch? Rear window defog switch?

Wiring would be totally unrelated to the slop in the tail shifter.

What if they are connected to the electonischeweksleswerkzeuge?

fog lights work
not sure I have rear defrost...

Skinny brown is door buzzer.
The other brown remains a mystery. It may match, if the switch is in the ground side and it is busted, but that looks unlikely.
The two gray wires both look like they originate in the steering wheel.
Click to view attachment
Also a heavy brown (ground?) is loose and terminates on the cigarette lighter. Where is that supposed to run to?

As I tried to sort out what they might be, I found two new issues.

The blower fan is now dead. It was working earlier, but only when the horn was dead.

I have intermittent one eyed low beams. At first I had drivers high and low but passenger only high. Then it jumped. I pulled the lights to confirm that it is not bulb dependent.

I have question about a ground strap.
Where does this strap need to be attached?
Click to view attachment

Do you have a wiring schematic for the car?

That black box connector at the steering column in the first photo...can you separate the connection and tell me how many poles the connectors have?

Not stock.

And neither is the male/female plug extension in your first picture under the dash.

It looks like someone did some major hacking creative rewiring of your car ...

14 pins. I have the Haynes manual but it doesn't seem to be helping me. In some instances the illustrations are too vague and in other instances what I have is not there.

WTF.....

Time to get the front part of a 71 wiring harness so you can splice it back in to stock.

Excellent, thanks.

So go to http://www.pelicanparts.com/914/914_electrical_diagrams.htm
and get the 2 pages of 1971 color schematics. This should be a big help to you as far as the stock wiring.

About your harness, I have found that most 1971 harnesses are actually 1970-early 71 with a 12-pin steering column connector. It appears that the chassis harness was upgraded in late 1971 (like yours and the 1971 schematic) to include a 14 pin connector. I am trying to get a better idea of when that change occurred and I appreciate your help towards that.

Also, is yours a 14 pin connector with 14 pins, or does it only have 13-pins and a blank? The schematic indicates 13 poles are required which is why I ask.

I am collecting data to determine when the transition was...can you please tell me the VIN of this car and the date from the safety label on the door jamb? So far I have the 12-pin going through at least 1/71. Your data would help .

Jeff,
I will check on those things when I get back over there. I suppose that would explain why I have an old horn, but have a horn relay.
I am going to try to do some maintenance to my fuse block. Fresh fuses, clean up contacts and see if I can make some progress with that.

I don't want to start looking at replacing sections of the harness, since most of what I have seems to be working. As much as it might be a pain, I think I can try to hunt down these couple of oddities. The larger images on Pelican help. Hopefully I can get this tamed. It seems like every time I vanquish one problem, another gremlin arises.

I just looked at the pictures and it is in fact 14 holes but 13 pins.
I will check the build date later today when I run by the garage.

That's good information, thanks. I found a reference to the later 1971 chassis harness, looks like the later harness was used after VIN 4712909637. Is that correct to your car? Would be helpful to know the date.

That looks right. I am 4712913227. I keep forgetting to check the date. I am being distracted by another project ad out of town guests.

You know I think we have this one nailed. With the VIN number confirmation, the date code is not significant. Thank you for your help. Mystery solved.

The 14-pin 1971 chassis harness was a limited production for late 1971 only. For the 1972 model year the chassis harness changed again.

I can honestly say i have never seen one of those. That 14pin connector adapter looks like a home made band-aid.

Its legit Andy. If you compare the 1970 and 1971 schematics, the 1971 indicates 13 poles at the steering column connector, 12 on the 1970. The parts manual shows the VIN transition point. There are other wiring differences between that 12 and 14 pin connector too.

Sorry for the hi jack, I would like to know what that gray wire with plastic clear over the spade
connector. Stupid me I was trying to connect the gray left wire to the right lighter gauge wire, my original problem is the hi beam relay is not being triggered when when I pull the lever toward me and of course the ignition has been spliced back together so some of the wires maybe in the wrong slot of the 12 connector. My car is an early 71 BTW