The complete s14 wiring harness weighs A TON!

[Gavster]

Hey guys, right now im building up an s14 track car. Anyways, ive got the thing stripped down to the frame and have every inch of wiring out of the car. All together, the wiring weighs a lot and id like to take advantage of some weight savings and either a) not use it and use a painless harness or b) thin out the stock wiring so it only contains what i need.

Running the painless harness def seems like it could be lots of work, probably harvesting all the connectors i need off the oem harness so i can still hook up to the connectors on the lights, etc. At the same time, it has the potential to slash my weight by a lot and be reallllllly clean. Anyone done anything like this?

Thinning out the OEM harness seems like a viable option, im just not sure how I figure out what i need/dont need and how to test really simplify it. Anyone done anything like this before? This method would def be cheaper, which is always nice when you have so much to buy for a track car.

On a side note, if i keep the OEM wiring, i need to relocate lots of stuff, so i think "severe" modifications will be necessary, haha!

[Gavster]

pixs of wiring from only the interior, goooo!
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h103/gkurey/IMG_1682.jpg

[g6civcx]

I've done it. I reduced it for simplicity for now. I will replace the whole wiring with Painless harnesses for even more simplicity.

http://g6civcx.angryhosting.com/S13/Tech/rewire2.JPG
http://g6civcx.angryhosting.com/S13/Tech/AfterHarness.JPG

Threw this junk away.
http://g6civcx.angryhosting.com/S13/Tech/WeightReduction.JPG

[Dousan_PG]

yep same here
i use a painless kit as well on my s14
easy and straight forward and a retard could wire it up.

[Gavster]

Thats awesome to hear as i am semi-retarded! :aw:

Which painless harness did you use or how many circuits did you use....im looking into those "EZ2Wire" kits off ebay too, lookin' pretty close to the painless harness. Did you keep other functions like power windows?

[Dousan_PG]

ooh i have to look it up again

power windows, no.
i have to wire those up separately
still figuring out..i am not so great at electrical all in all,gotta bust out the FSM

[that180guy]

I too am also interested in which harness to use. i was just thinkin of doin the the old fashion hardcore way in looming my own wire one by one.

[BoostinGST]

pixs of wiring from only the interior, goooo!
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h103/gkurey/IMG_1682.jpg
funny... i see the entire engine wiring harness on top :loco:

[projectRDM]

I gutted the OE harness on my old car. It's actually easier than you think, when you remove an item, say the radio, you cut the plugs off. Then just trace the wires to wherever they go and cut it at the other end too. A lot of stuff like the illumination circuit branches out all through the dash, you just clip the dead leads and end up with only what's needed. Very simple to do. Then it's just a matter of relocationg what's left to shorten it all up.

[g6civcx]

The biggest thing is to unclip the wire lead from the harness. It takes a little patience. I didn't have the tool to unclip them, but I used a safety pin and a lot of patience. Eventually I got the hang of it and it was easy to pop them out.

Other than that, just do what Russ said and pull off the accessory you don't want, then follow the wires as far as you can. Just be careful if you find that the wire run to a control unit, such as the timing unit. It controls a variety of functions on the car.

If you want to redo the whole car, it's not hard at all. I was worried at first so I spent a great deal of time studying the FSM. After doing it for several months, I found that the Nissan wiring is actually very simple. There's nothing complicated about them at all.

All you need to know is power goes from the positive terminal, through the various component, and then end up at a chassis grounding point. If you connect it like this, it's just about guaranteed to work.

I saved a good 25 pounds from just the body harness alone. I probably saved another 10-15 pounds from all the engine harnesses.

[Gavster]

funny... i see the entire engine wiring harness on top :loco:

Haha i guess what i meant is this doesnt include the portion of the harness that goes from the drivers side of the firewall and into the engine bay (but isnt engine harness, just other stuff, lights etc) <--cause that is a huger chunk of it lol

Anyways, thanks for the tips about gutting the harness! I think i will end up going with an EZ2wire set off ebay though, but we shall see....im a little ways out from doing the wiring so...thanks a bunch for the advice and know-how!