Wiring Harness Experience?

Heyo

quick background: i built this car. everything except paint and stitching the seats & binding the carpet.

This included making my own wiring harness (which i had never done before i might add).

during the build of my wiring harness, i was learning as i was doing, but now that i am done, i wish i did some things differently.

i took my car out for the first hard drive this year. i blew a few fuses and limped home. this got me thinking about replacing my hand-made-by-me harness with a larger (more circuits), universal harness (that is also documented with a wiring diagram!).

I'm thinking specifically of one of those tiny fuse box ones with like 21 circuits.

something like this:


I'm not afraid of the install (actually - kind of looking forward to it as this was one of the areas on my car i was not happy with).

i was wondering about the time to install? i just put insurance on the car and last year - i put on 6 months and drove it for 4 days. i mentioned me redoing the harness and my wife rolled her eyes. "you love this stuff don't you?"

i'd guess the install would be about 8 hours start to finish.

so:

Q1: does anyone have any experience with these kits?
Q2: and recommendations?

Where is Drclock when you need him???? OH YEAH...Carlisle.....

No real advice from me; been too long...but might reference this:
http://speedsterowners.com/library/wiringdiagram/
(might help to describe your harness mfg. + p/n)
also these for ref. :
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/wiringt1.php
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=344781
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=106056&highlight=conversion

Yelp about a day Id say.. start at the Instruments and work rearward engine first then taillights.

when done at the rear go back to the dash and then go forward head lights first then turns and parking lamps the horns and brakelight switch on the master

I usally finish up with the turn signal switch... Im big on old 50 thru 58 GM and Fords. But it's not that bad . Just remember to add a good ground harness from headlamps to the beam and with a extra 10 gauge loop ground all the way back to the dash board frame bar near the steering wheel dido a loop back to the rear lights and ALT/generator and on the rear frame a first class ground system youl need to make that your self the kit wont have it.

Hey Paul, I used the same harness for my IM rebuild, you can stop by an take a look if you like.

Simon

Paul:

Like you, I created my last wiring harness from scratch, but then, I once did that sort of thing for a living so it wasn't that big a deal for me. I grafted a 6-relay, 15 fuse block from a Sterling into mine, (it was Bosch, not Lucas!!) but it was WAY overkill, especially the fuses, so I would recommend something aftermarket or possibly from a Toyota or something - a stroll through a salvage yard usually lets you come up with something good. All you'll really need is six or seven circuits on a Speedster - not much going on in these little cars.

The harness I'm using for my current build started out as what CMC shipped with their kit, now highly modified to manage more and hotter lights and an EFI set-up for the engine. I'll be managing it through a Toyota Paseo fuse/relay block, simply because I found it in a junk yard, it's the right size and is easily reworked.

On the harness itself, Dr' Clock always uses the harness from Vintage Speedsters. Well built, decent wire size and easily modified if you wish to add a few wires here and there. PLUS, it's all set up for Speedster dash gauges and exterior lights so there's no second-guessing. I believe that they're now using tab fuses in place of that useless, ceramic-cartridge VW-clone thing they used to run, making them more reliable but you might even swap that out for something else (I personally like marine fuse blocks). The downside of the VS harness is the utter lack of relays and a hokey position/mount for the directional flasher. Both of those are easily upgradable.

gn

I have built 2 cars with Watson's Streetworks wiring harnesses and fuse boxes. I suspect theirs, as well as Painless, and others are pretty similar. Watson's offers one for VW's which is a step in the right direction, but it will still require a fair amount of customization as the kit is for steel bodies, as well as my car at least has a lot of gauges that are not part of a conventional wiring harness (for my case, cyl head temps, A/F ratio, voltmeter, oil temp, boost pressure, fuel pressure, and oil pressure) I also opened up the back bulkhead behind where the rear seat back would be, and mounted the fuse panel in there. Got tired of standing on my head under the dash....still wiring the extra gauges now....

...with that type of harness, figure two long days inclusives on the dash gauges switches and ground loops. Be Sure... to test each circuit before continuing to the next one as it's much easier to find gremlins this way. ~Alan

Like most things in Life, rewiring is going to take at LEAST twice as long as you thought it was going to AND we haven't even started talking about crimping or soldering! My first loom was patched together from two Bug looms, my second was a purpose-built one. I still ended up having to put extensions on etc. I may even do it all over again one day - behind the dash, the wires seemed to just multiply exponentially! As the other chaps have said, try and get a modern fuse-box and try and keep it simple. Don't try and do it two days before you said you'd take the wife somewhere!!!!!!!!

Any problems you do get, somebody here will have the answer - or at least he'll think he has!

If possible, let us know how you REALLY ended up doing it and how long it REALLY took!

Regards, Mike