Guidance on Pulling Harness

[DJWalker]

Hi All

Looking for a bit of guidance on pulling out the wiring harness from the donor car. I’m going to be doing this soon and have a few questions that I hope someone can help with.

1. Is the goal to extract the wiring harness without cutting any wires?
2. Is it all one “thing” - i.e. when it’s done, all of it is still connected in some way?
2. Should I be trying to pull the harness into the car interior or into the engine bay?
3. Can this all be done through existing firewall holes etc. Or is metal cutting needed?

Thanks

Darren

[RPGs818SNA]

Hi Darren,

This is what worked for me.
1. Yes, no wire cutting until the harnesses are removed.
2. Yes, although there are several harnesses, they all connect together.
2. I pulled all the harnesses into the interior of the car.
3. No metal cutting is needed.

Good luck with the wiring. It takes some time and patience, but can be done.

RPG

[Ajzride]

I’ve never pulled a harness, initial builder did that for me, but I would think it would be easier to do as much dieting as possible in the car while things are hooked up as you can clearly see what they are used for. Also make sure you get really good labels that have a clear protector over them after you write what they are. When I dug into my harness all of the writing and labels the PO put on there were faded beyond being legible.

[RPGs818SNA]

That's great advice, Ajzride. Dieting the harness without good labels must have been a nightmare. I used a sharpie to number the connectors as I unplugged them, and wrote what each number went to in a notebook. It made dieting easier, but still a long process.

[aquillen]

If you have occasion to remove any of the old black tape, the goo left is easily removed with WD40 and rags. Paper towel not as good as old cloth rags. The WD40 wipes off and dries out too, so in a day or so taping on labels will work once it is gone.

[wareaglescott]

Haven't done it in this car but have pulled a couple harnesses from other cars. Just remember it all went in as one piece so it will all come out as one piece. (well of course you can unplug certain parts but no cutting) There are always a few head scratchers in how you are going to do it. Just take your time. It can get tedious at times. Best advice is to walk away and come back fresh if needed.

[Jetfuel]

First a model year wiring diagram
(P) plug (C ) component
So P1 and C1 and so on
Some components are not easy to tell what they are and may not come through the opening and that’s where the diagram comes in handy....wire colors to plug
Note keeping for P and C in the original location in the donor is great too

Jet

[DJWalker]

Thanks for the help and tips everyone. I started to tackle it at the weekend and it went really well. The key for me seemed to be realising that the engine bay fuse box items could be separated from the fuse box assembly itself and so I had branched wires rather than loops. Not quite finished because there are a few wires in the roof lining that I haven’t yet removed, but it’s nearly there.

I have to remove the fuel tank too, but once that is done the shell is stripped and ready for disposal.