Frustrations of the previous owner

The car runs great, sounds great, feels great, handles great and everything is fantastic.

 

EXCEPT THE WIRING. Now... it didn't really seem there was any wonky stuff with it when I inspected it. But then weird things happened, like the gauges would flicker. The gauge gauge every now and then would sorta spaz out. I thought 'Hmmm that's odd...'

 

First I'll post a few pics. This is what we got my wife, a 1979 Porsche 924. She's the 3rd owner. Still original interior and paint, carpet, sunroof, etc etc. Car is in fantastic shape.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway... so on with the story. She says she doesn't want a tape player (obviously.. who uses tapes anymore, except maybe Romandad). We go out and pick out a stereo system for her and go with a nice Kenwood deck and Kenwood speakers all around. I get home and get out my soldering iron, heat shrink, heat gun and crimpers and prepare to do a simple harness swap. Cut out old harness, solder in and make a nice new pretty one.

 

I start to pull out the old deck and I notice... hey.. where the hell are the speaker wires? All I see is a plug and 3 wires and the antenna. Wait a minute...

 

I go looking for the speaker wires and they are nowhere to be found. I follow this plug and it's labeled "front" so I trace it down thinking I've got this, no problem. I trace it down and it ends up going into the alarm unit. WTF? There's a bunch of OTHER plugs that go into that. I follow those and they go under the seat to an amp setup and then another goes to a pager unit and ANOTHER goes to a damned equalizer in the dash. I realize at this point... I've got my work cut out for me. I'm rummaging through the car looking for all traces of this alarm system (which didn't work when we got it and the only thing it was capable of doing was sounding when the car was on because you'd accidentally bump it with your elbow since that's where you NATURALLY want to rest it is on the center console, normally there's an ash tray there on the 924).

 

There were splice insertions into various wires in the ignition, in the headlights, in the doors, under the hood, and then I can't even tell you what the wires on the positive looked like... there was all these extra grounds (which I saw when I got the car but figured hey.. it's only a couple wires...).

 

I think total I've spent 8 hours on the car today. It's now 2:45 am and I am finally... FINALLY FINALLY DONE with ALL the wiring in the car. It's all cleaned up. It's all been soldered, fixed, refreshed, modernized and finally looks like the kind of wiring that belongs in the car.

 

Here is what my harness looked like when I'm done for the stereo deck.

 

Here's what came OUT OF the car.

Where are you going to put the 8 track?

 

 

You have far more patience than I do... nice work

I wish I had the knowledge you did. As much work as that was, it's probably still fun to know how to fix it.

Good job!

I don't know how you have such Zen-like patience. I have one of those orange dead blow hammers that is always nearby - I'd be hitting shit left and right.

EXCEPT THE WIRING. Now... it didn't really seem there was any wonky stuff with it when I inspected it....

 

 

I have the same issue with my F250. I did a cursory inspection when i bought it and I saw that there had been an AMP and the headunit was aftermarket but figured, no big deal.

 

Now everytime I do something on the truck I seem to find more loose end wires just hanging. I have probably pulled at least what you pulled out of the Porsche and then some. There are also spliced wires at my alternator. The Headlight harnesses were cutoff to do a shitty HID install. There were wires coming through the floor board that were spliced into the door wiring from, what I assume was for, electric side steps on the truck at some point. People that don't know how to do electrical work should not attempt it with out help.

Where are you going to put the 8 track?

 

 

You have far more patience than I do... nice work

 

8 Track!? Actually my dad still has one in his garage and still has Elvis, Beach Boys and The Beatles on it. He still listens to them now and then.

 

 

I wish I had the knowledge you did. As much work as that was, it's probably still fun to know how to fix it.

 

The best part of wiring is that once you're done you can see the difference and have peace of mind that you won't have to come back later and do it again I remember when wiring was very overwhelming to me. But I've learned it's best to just do it one wire at a time. It's easy to work on one wire right? So if you work on one wire at a time, sure, it can take time, but it's less overwhelming that way.

 

 

Good job!

 

Thanks man

 

 

I don't know how you have such Zen-like patience. I have one of those orange dead blow hammers that is always nearby - I'd be hitting shit left and right.

 

There are times that if a hammer were in reach just gotta take your time though.

 

I have the same issue with my F250. I did a cursory inspection when i bought it and I saw that there had been an AMP and the headunit was aftermarket but figured, no big deal.

 

Now everytime I do something on the truck I seem to find more loose end wires just hanging. I have probably pulled at least what you pulled out of the Porsche and then some. There are also spliced wires at my alternator. The Headlight harnesses were cutoff to do a shitty HID install. There were wires coming through the floor board that were spliced into the door wiring from, what I assume was for, electric side steps on the truck at some point. People that don't know how to do electrical work should not attempt it with out help.

 

Yeah that's kind of what happened here. As I dug into the carpet and dash more wires and more wires started appearing. He also had a CB radio hooked up as well. This guy had so many accessories on this car it was ridiculous. He thought there was an issue with the electrical system so he re-did a bunch of grounds and positive cables. He literally has 2 main grounds, 2 more supplementary grounds and another small ground to a relay to "fix" the issue.

 

He told me - "Yeah well, something is up with the wiring because the car won't start if the battery goes under 12 volts."

 

Think about that for a second.... I've never heard of a car that CAN start under 12 volts! Battery drain! So he hooked it up so that only some of the power is on in the car when you turn the key over and it bumps a relay. That was his "fix". Safe to say that relay setup will also be going soon and the main grounds will all be resolved as well. What a total nightmare job of wiring.

 

But for the most part it's all sorted out now, I just have the ground and relay setup and the car will be back to stock wiring minus the stereo

I wish I had the knowledge you did. As much work as that was, it's probably still fun to know how to fix it.

 

 

Lambo Power has become Porsche Power.