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The next step in interior prep is by far the most tedious and annoying of interior prep. We must have taken a couple years off our lives through stress and frustration while stripping the stock harnesses down to their bare necessities. When ever you take 30 lbs. of wiring out of a former “luxury” car you’re bound to run into issues that seem to have no rhyme or reason and we’ve found electricity works by Voodoo magic. Thankfully our group of car geeks has a couple of Sparkys (EEs) that guided us through the murky waters and helped transform voodoo magic into reasonable science.
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| At first it can seem like a very daunting task, but with careful planning and patience you can achieve good results. |
Electricity always wants to take the path of least resistance, so take special care to ensure it takes the path you want it to. One exposed wire can seriously wreck your day and drastically speed up your hairline’s recession. Since the whole reason for stripping down the wiring harness of a race car is to make it more reliable – reduced weight is a nice bonus – make sure to do it right the first time. In other words, don’t start stripping it down while you’re working on other parts of the car. Give this project your full undivided attention and plan ahead or you will find yourself reaching for the Propecia before you know it. We found out the hard way that our seat’s sliders can destroy wire insulation rather quickly initiating an automatic “smoke test”. Who could have seen that coming, right? As the saying goes, “Measure twice, cut once.”
You should try getting your hands on a Factory Service Manual (FSM) before you form your plan of attack. It will be an incredible resource when unraveling the rat’s nest under the dash. The Infiniti FSM breaks the harness down into sections and labels each and every wire, connector and junction. You will discover that many wires split to feed multiple items so take your time when deciding which wires to cut/remove and which ones to keep.
Make a list of all necessary components, like the ECU, fuel pump, gauge cluster, pedal switches, tail-lights and hazard switch (everyone needs their ricer lights). Necessity is a relative term, as it can vary depending on your location and plans for your build. For example, if you race in an area where it frequently rains during the racing season, windshield wipers, rear defroster and HVAC controls would be good things to keep around. Or if you plan to run in endurance or night races, headlights would be on your list of necessities. We kept our cigarette lighter wiring in case we wanted to light up on track…haha! No, but seriously, it’s an excellent source of power for gauges, cameras or other 12V accessories.
Before you cut, move or do anything to the wires unplug the battery. You wouldn’t want to smoke your harness when you cut the first wire. We found it easier to start working on the harness from back to front. The trunk is the easiest and most straightforward part of the harness and gives you some easy practice before you duke it out with the under dash wiring. Cut only one wire at a time and as you work along inspect every wire you keep for damage of any kind. Thoroughly tape over any compromised insulation. When we finished, our rear harness only had wires for the fuel pump and rear lights.
