Since my car is down to just a few remaining parts, I got to looking at the wiring harness and how half (okay, that might be exagerating a little) of the wires are not needed, such as the seat belt relay harness section.


Has anyone rebuilt thier harness to optimize the amount of wires and how they are routed?

Thats an immense task Mike...

What fun would it be if it was an easy task??

Yes, BTDT, at least nearly. I did all new wires to the tailigths and engine. The old ones were in very poor condition. I didn chance the wires under the dashboard. I connected the new wires to the old wire harness in front of the sifter. At the same time I removed some Sport-O-Matic wires and others I didn need any more.

Hell a kind of job.....

If you need I should have some measurements from the original wire harness. I measured the length of every wire and draw a map to the paper. I have thougth many times I should draw them agen with AutoCad or something.

Just turn very thing on, and start cutting wires. If something goes off then just tape it back together. This is really quick way to reduce the amount of wires.

You might as well remove the whole thing from the car and strip off all the tape and plastic. Then, with the help of a Haynes Manual wiring diagram you can figure out all the wires you won't be needing by color code and remove them from the rest of the spaghetti. You might also find some bad wires or connectors that need to be replaced. When you wrap it back up it will fit back in much easier since there will be a lot less wires. Can't be much worse than removing the dash, right?

correct. i missed out on that opportunity, if i had to replace it again, i would stripp it off the un-needed wires (and leave some in for all those NEW gizmos i'll get in the engine compartment).

point is, chances are, you will find quite a few wires you don't use, like the whole seat-cusion/seat-belt waring crap, the door switches for the interior light (i don't have a backpad anymore), sport-o-matic wires, heated rear window etc. and more ....

Andy

the task does not look that intimidating anymore once you have it out of the car. actually, it's surprisingly small