Yeah, I'm leaning in this direction. I ran some searches and found Miltonian's thread when you rewired your doors a few years back (I imagine you still remember the pain). I think trying to figure out which wires go into which pins in the connector could be a nightmare.
... and wear a backwards baseball cap. Ask me how dirty the inside of my fenders were (minus the plastic shields). If I were smart, I would have done that job with a head-mounted flashlight thing.
If you're hardwiring, it no longer matters which wire goes through which hole, as long as you match color for color on the two sides. And as I recall, all of the colors are different, so it's pretty hard to do anything wrong. My biggest problem was that my garage was too cramped, I had to walk all the way around the car to get from one side of the door to the other, and all my stuff was underfoot. Give yourself enough room to work comfortably, and enough light to see what you're doing. I'll be looking forward to seeing your report on the job.
Jeff, I'm definitely hardwiring it, and will post pics. I decided against trying to mess with getting the connectors right. So I went out and bought some of the stuff I'll need today, and ordered online what I couldn't find in the stores. Thanks for all the thread history and advice on this - it appears that you "pioneered" it! ...And a side benefit of some DIY projects is that you get to buy new tools that you may not need now or ever use again! Image Unavailable, Please Login
RoHS compliant means there is no toxic (or environmentally hazardous) metal or residue (lead, chromium, mercury, etc) like the tin pins used by Ferrari back in the 80's & 90's. So, don't eat the OEM pins you replace! For the record, when my connectors went, I hardwired them, I got a chunk of wiring harness from a ford in a junkyard for $10, so I was able to keep the color code... Made it easier to know what went where, and no meter required! If you want to keep the original look, cut all the wires from both sides of the connector, then use a 7/16" hole-saw to drill thru the center of the connector, feed the wires thru, and not even a Concours judge will know its been modified!
That's the plan (original look, only without the Ford harness)! Looking at Miltonian's old thread, he was able to drill out a few of the existing holes in the connector (after removing the pins) and pull each wire through. I suppose either method will achieve similar results. But I do want to keep the connector in place, with the original boot intact as well. Thanks! BTW, I'm not quite sure what you get when cross-pollenating a Ferrari with a Ford, but I'll bet the result is a VERY ugly baby... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well, I managed to get things opened up this evening, only to find a couple more surprises. It appears that most of the colors on both sides of the connector are the same, but the door harness has a few wires that aren't striped. For example, where the fender harness has one solid light blue wire and one light blue wire with a white stripe, the door harness has 2 solid light blue wires. And it just so happens that both of those light blue wires on the door harness are broken. Ugh. The same is true with a pair of solid white wires, but thankfully only one of those is broken. Although I don't think this is a huge hurdle, it certainly adds a little more work and frustration to the process. I've started mapping all the colors on both sides of the connector, by pin number, to ensure that I know which wires belong to each other (regardless of color). Once I'm ready to connect everything, I will have to experiment with how the broken door harness' solid white and blue wires map to their striped counterparts on the fender harness (before soldering the final splices). I'm guessing these same-color wires will have similar functions, such as window or mirror movement, but for different components (right vs. left)? I hope this is the case, and hope it will be an easy thing to sort out. Thinking out loud, I will test everything before finalizing all of the connections... Any other thoughts/suggestions? It's time for a cold beer. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
One thing I might mention here, after seeing the picture of your car with the strakes off, is that you should be very cautious when re-installing the strakes onto your door. The strake panel needs to be pushed ALL the way towards the rear before you tighten it down. If it is too far forward, even just a little, it hits on the rear edge of the fender when you open the door, and something has to give. The first time you open the door, just do it slowly to make sure there's a gap.
I was going to hard wire mine when I had problems but after getting it apart I just took a pointed scrawl and tapped out the pins, opened the pins up, put the wire back in and crimped and then a drop of solder and everything is like stock, didn't cost anything, and I didn't have to drive all over to get parts!
JM, So sorry to hear about the issue. I know you will do a great job. Please take lots of pictures and I would at least give Dave Helms a call, He's an Ace !! Good Luck Mate
Well, the wiring project is at a standstill until the rest of my supplies arrive on Monday. So I fitted the new pedals and shift knob that I ordered from Ricambi last week (thank you, Daniel!), and repainted the brake handle. Hopefully the weather will suck tomorrow, since it will be a few more days till I get to drive her again... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
