Will you be removing the VIN plates before sending away?
72 3.0 CS 2240344 Restoration
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Body shop will do that. I have ordered new ones: Karmann and the fender one.
Very Apt. Her name is Dulcinea...
Not a stranger to transmogrifying ugly ducklings into swans... My first major restoration below (circa 2001-2004). I did this in my garage. Paint, interior, and all..
However, MUCH easier because nearly all parts are easily available, either NOS or reproduction. And my E9 is not as ugly a duckling as this one was!!
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Braver man than I to see the beauty in that. Nicely done!
Almost any hard ware can be fixed. In your profession, fixing wet ware is WAY more challenging.
My 635 Euro redo... Circa 2008. My wife came home from work one day and asked if I was aware that there was a blue cloud in the street out front...
Scott, any thought about how you may add the additional wiring you are doing? In my case because I installed the battery in the trunk I put a distribution block in the old battery location. I have a large cable feeding that distribution block, but I’m now realizing that I may want to add a relay with power running to the distribution block controlled by that relay through the ignition switch since at the moment everything in that distribution block receives always-on battery power. You seem to be quite the wiring guy so figured I’d see see what you were planning to do. I posted a thread previously asking about any additional future wiring and am planning to perhaps run one or two wires to the fuse box area, one or two wires to the console area one or two wires to the under seat area and an extra wire back to the trunk merely for future proofing. I figure this way anything that I might choose to add whether or audio, seat heaters, etc. would already have a line from the battery power through the distribution block so that I won’t need to be tearing up any carpeting or removing the center console. Given the discussion about the label maker, it should be really easy to have AUX1, AUX 2, etc. There’s a reasonable point I may have Dan install air-conditioning in my non-AC car, so I need to figure out what wiring would be necessary to make that future job as easy as possible.
OK. A lot of questions...
AC: Currently the AC system picks up power from some sort of tap into the harness. It then goes to the AC unit and then takes a separate path though the AC line openings to the compressor and the AC fan. Seems pretty wonky, and I may revisit that for a better, more integrated solution. @HB Chris said AC was added by the dealers.. so that may be why this so wonky.
Battery Protection: I am not planning to relocate the battery. Part of this is PTSD from the 1967 MGB-GT I had in college. The long cable run from the batter(ies) under the rear seat in the MG made for chronically difficult starting (didn't help that it was two 6 volt batteries in series, so multiple connections).
However, I'd highly recommend using something to isolate the raw battery line from anything it is powering, especially with the long run through multiple potential abrasion points.. Either a fuse or a relay. On my boat I used some high amperage fuses that are part of the battery terminal (see link), so any short anywhere that draws over 100A isolates the battery. In your case a relay would be similar, although I would fuse each line from the relay output. I'd also consider either putting the battery relay in the back, at the battery, or fusing the battery line at the battery, so if for whatever reason there is a short on that line it will not incinerate your car. While it is probably water under the bridge, there is a huge difference between the starter cable and the rest of the car in terms of amperage. So, while it is a PITA, you may want to isolate the starter power from the car power, since the starter is the only thing that requires a super high amperage connection to the battery.
The ideal setup, IMO, would have the battery cable, armored in some way, going directly to the starter, then a relay and fuse protected line to the rest of the vehicle B+. This might save wire by hopscotching from the starter to your battery tray distribution block.
Basically think of the battery as an electrical bomb. If any wire connected directly to it shorts, then boom, that wire will melt and may catch fire, or catch something else on fire....So the closer to the battery you can protect, the safer everything is... I am probably being a bit over the top on this, but from my understanding electrical shorts are the primary cause of car fires.
Most of the re-wiring I plan to do will be the streamline the harness, and to improve the window operation (which has been covered in detail on other threads). I had considered eliminating the seat belt wiring, but having thought about it, and looked it over, I think I'll keep it and just eliminate the lighted sign onthe dash. I may swap out the buzzer for some sort of chime that is less annoying.
I have been refining the electrical schematic I started several months ago. Back then I was planning to completely replace the harness, but seeing the wires up close, they all look damn good for 53 years in the car. Nothing is cracked or even discolored other than a few wires in the engine bay. I think I'll clean and re-wrap it, move the AC wiring into the main harness, and replace a few of the more crusty engine bay wires (reverse switch, alternator and starter, and oil/temp wires),and probably re-configure the wiring for the side markers (or possibly just delete the side markers entirely).
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AC: Currently the AC system picks up power from some sort of tap into the harness. It then goes to the AC unit and then takes a separate path though the AC line openings to the compressor and the AC fan. Seems pretty wonky, and I may revisit that for a better, more integrated solution. @HB Chris said AC was added by the dealers.. so that may be why this so wonky.
Battery Protection: I am not planning to relocate the battery. Part of this is PTSD from the 1967 MGB-GT I had in college. The long cable run from the batter(ies) under the rear seat in the MG made for chronically difficult starting (didn't help that it was two 6 volt batteries in series, so multiple connections).
However, I'd highly recommend using something to isolate the raw battery line from anything it is powering, especially with the long run through multiple potential abrasion points.. Either a fuse or a relay. On my boat I used some high amperage fuses that are part of the battery terminal (see link), so any short anywhere that draws over 100A isolates the battery. In your case a relay would be similar, although I would fuse each line from the relay output. I'd also consider either putting the battery relay in the back, at the battery, or fusing the battery line at the battery, so if for whatever reason there is a short on that line it will not incinerate your car. While it is probably water under the bridge, there is a huge difference between the starter cable and the rest of the car in terms of amperage. So, while it is a PITA, you may want to isolate the starter power from the car power, since the starter is the only thing that requires a super high amperage connection to the battery.
The ideal setup, IMO, would have the battery cable, armored in some way, going directly to the starter, then a relay and fuse protected line to the rest of the vehicle B+. This might save wire by hopscotching from the starter to your battery tray distribution block.
Basically think of the battery as an electrical bomb. If any wire connected directly to it shorts, then boom, that wire will melt and may catch fire, or catch something else on fire....So the closer to the battery you can protect, the safer everything is... I am probably being a bit over the top on this, but from my understanding electrical shorts are the primary cause of car fires.
Most of the re-wiring I plan to do will be the streamline the harness, and to improve the window operation (which has been covered in detail on other threads). I had considered eliminating the seat belt wiring, but having thought about it, and looked it over, I think I'll keep it and just eliminate the lighted sign onthe dash. I may swap out the buzzer for some sort of chime that is less annoying.
I have been refining the electrical schematic I started several months ago. Back then I was planning to completely replace the harness, but seeing the wires up close, they all look damn good for 53 years in the car. Nothing is cracked or even discolored other than a few wires in the engine bay. I think I'll clean and re-wrap it, move the AC wiring into the main harness, and replace a few of the more crusty engine bay wires (reverse switch, alternator and starter, and oil/temp wires),and probably re-configure the wiring for the side markers (or possibly just delete the side markers entirely).
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The dealer installed the a/c system from BMW but they didn’t design their own wiring, that was done by the factory. It must have taken the dealer quite a bit of time to install the components: evaporator box with squirrel cage fan, side panels, face plate, pipes through firewall (they may have had to drill the two holes), hoses in engine bay, condenser and fan, wiring, etc. I believe the opening for the hoses in the core support was done at the factory.
Sounds like a nightmare for the dealers!
Often those prewires are done using those rectangular plastic spade couplings
Thanks for the extensive write up on battery supply, didn’t mean to hijack your thread but I guess it’s all fair game. I do have a 100A fuse at the battery terminal then a heavy-duty wire heading forward to the engine bay, where I took a tip from someone else here and installed a terminal for jump starting, etc, like modern BMWs have, from there the wire splits with part going directly to the”old” wiring harness including a direct to starter with its own fuse and the other portion going to the battery tray with my distribution block. It’s this latter portion that I thought should perhaps be wired to be turned on via ignition on, since none of the accessories that come off of that block need to function when the car isn’t on. My current wiring has those as always-on, and the relays I had used previously all have tiny little 12-or 14-gauge wires to attach to the pins, which seems odd when it’s a 6 or 8-gauge cable that it’s turning on. I poked around and found some heavy duty relays with two large M6 terminals for the power in/power out and two smaller pins for the ground and lower-voltage switch, so that is likely what I’ll use, along with adding a fuse inline. I’m learning that in addition to relays to increase the effectiveness of power, fuses are useful to protect my investment in case I lose control of that power.
Sounds like a good approach!
Thanks to @Dlc for pointing me to the early AC diagram.
I think when I am redoing the engine bay harness, I will embed the wires for the AC compressor and fan inthe existing harness. That way the wires can go through he bulkhead with the other wires, and stay away from the exhaust heat. Thisturns out to be very simple. The thermal switch wire goes up toward the fuse box and through the main bulkhead feedthrough. From there it goes all the way forward with the wiring for the front right headlamps. a branch comes off over at the front right corner to feed the AC condenser fan relay, which I'll mount on the core support. that same wire goes to the compressor clutch. The output of the relay goes to the condenser fan. The power wire gets picked up at the battery, through an inline fuse (May go for @e9Leveque 's fuse block approach to simplify the connections at the battery), and runs withthe headlamp harness over tot he relay. Like this.
The rest of the wiring is in the cabin, and is basically unchanged, other than where the thermal switch wire comes in.
I think when I am redoing the engine bay harness, I will embed the wires for the AC compressor and fan inthe existing harness. That way the wires can go through he bulkhead with the other wires, and stay away from the exhaust heat. Thisturns out to be very simple. The thermal switch wire goes up toward the fuse box and through the main bulkhead feedthrough. From there it goes all the way forward with the wiring for the front right headlamps. a branch comes off over at the front right corner to feed the AC condenser fan relay, which I'll mount on the core support. that same wire goes to the compressor clutch. The output of the relay goes to the condenser fan. The power wire gets picked up at the battery, through an inline fuse (May go for @e9Leveque 's fuse block approach to simplify the connections at the battery), and runs withthe headlamp harness over tot he relay. Like this.
The rest of the wiring is in the cabin, and is basically unchanged, other than where the thermal switch wire comes in.
This makes a lot of sense. If I had it to do over again I would add a few wires in the wrapped bundle that goes through the bulkhead to allow for any future needs. I added relays up front for the AC fan, fog lights (future) and headlight low beams. The goal was to take the load off of the switches in the cabin.
Ahh headlight low beam relay. Forgot about that…
So, while I was visiting the littles in Austin, I spent some time mapping out the wiring harness. This is based on three sources (the wiring diagram in the manual, the @HB Chris FAQ with the AC wiring, and my observations in removing the harness from the car. It is aimed at the pre 74 US CS car with AC.
I did this in Eagle, a schematic capture program that keeps track of every conductor, and allows you to name them using the BMW wire numbers. It does not include the wiring and components in sub-harnesses that connect to this harness, but instead ends at the connectors, so it basically represents the core harness. I broke this into two parts: the forward harness, from the firewall forward, and the cabin harness, from the firewall aft. I have tried to separate the components and wires into their appropriate geographic areas to provide some guidance onthe overall layout of the harness.
I did this in Eagle, a schematic capture program that keeps track of every conductor, and allows you to name them using the BMW wire numbers. It does not include the wiring and components in sub-harnesses that connect to this harness, but instead ends at the connectors, so it basically represents the core harness. I broke this into two parts: the forward harness, from the firewall forward, and the cabin harness, from the firewall aft. I have tried to separate the components and wires into their appropriate geographic areas to provide some guidance onthe overall layout of the harness.
Not yet. He and I have discussed this a few times, and his diagram is very nicely done. I am taking a slightly different approach based on work I did in the car industry a few years back, which addresses the harness not as much from a components and connection perspective (which is useful for diagnosing faults), but from what I call a geographic perspective (which is more useful for building a harness). You can see in my diagrams (which are a first cut at this) that I have bundled the wires in specific groups as they actually appear in the car. So, for example, the bundle that goes over the rear tire well branches off at the top of the well to feed the trunk light, speaker and defroster, the rest continue on eventually branching out to tail lamps and the fuel gauge sender. Same thing up front. I think Alprada's diagram is sort of organized this way, just not as explicitly. For example, if you follow his curvy black lines between the front and rear harnesses, we see that in the lower diagram, he has connector 66 (the cluster connector pair) located way away from connector 37, but these connectors are located inches apart under the dash. In my diagram they are next to one another.
I also used a schematic capture program for this (he used a conventional drawing program), which keeps track of each wire separately. You can see this better when you look at the detailed file up close, since any contact where two wires go to a single point, for example in a connector, there are actually two pins, one for each wire (which means the wires are accounted for entirely separately). This was super useful in tracing circuits in the admittedly complex diagram, since you can simply click on the wire, and its number pops up. Like this:
I started this originally because I was thinking I would re-create the harness in my car. However, taking it out of the car, I realized that most of ti is actually in good condition (just needs to be re-wrapped and a few connectors swapped out), so I'll be rebuilding it instead. I will probably totally re-fabricate the harness up front, since it lives a much harder life than the one in the cabin, and that will allow me to build in a few updates (extra wires, low beam relay, AC wiring, etc).
To fabricate a full harness, you would lay this out full size on a large board. Each connector and component would have a spot on the board, and a list of which wires (number, color and gauge) attach to which pins. If the termination is just spades that individually connect to a part, that would be noted. You would start by laying the wires, temporarily grouping them in bundles, until all wires were present and routed where they are supposed to go. Then you start setting terminations (connector terminals, spades, etc), and, where appropriate, then put the terminals into the housings. Once that's all done and checked, you start wrapping. Pretty much like this:
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