wstar

The approach I took was to work from the rear of the car forward, and identify everything I was messing with as I went, only cutting out the circuits I don't care about.

So basically, with the rear interior gone, I first went after the obvious rear targets I don't care about: the locker on the gas door, all of the lines to the hatch for everything but the top brake light (radio antenna, defroster), and all of the stereo equipment (sub, amp, XM radio module, etc that's all in the "center" of the car behind the seats).

I unplugged / cut out all of those at their terminal points, which are more or less at the end of their branches of the wiring looms, and/or are the whole terminal end of a branch of the wiring loom. Then I unwrapped the factory looms (lots of shrouding/conduit/tape around them), and pulled only those cut wires out of everything, working my way slowly forward on the car. Every few feet of progress, I'd go back and re-tape what was left of the loom (running to e.g. the taillight assemblies, the keyfob sensors that are still in the rear for now, etc).

I haven't finished mine, I stopped just behind the seats, where the main looms are in two giant bundles running down each side of the car on the outside. At that point it's a pretty thick bundle on each side, and the majority of it I've cut off at that point, as they all traced to stuff I didn't care about (they were the loose wires I've been following from the rear). The ones that remain still follow roughly their original bundles and paths. I taped up the cut-off ends behind the seats to ensure they didn't short against each other or the frame and left them there. To be completed when I start tearing out all the front interior and removing the dash

It's hours of brutal work, but IMHO it's worth it and it's not as risky as it seems.

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details