Wiring harness

[jukhaa]

To everybody,

I am renovating my Pagoda 230 SL from 1965. Anew challenge to me is now to replace the wiring harness. Any advice where to get one would be appreciated.

Some wires are totally destroyed.

best regards jukhaa

[Jowe]

SLS have. Check https://www.sls-hh-shop.de/main/en/mercedes-230-280sl-w113-/54-elektrical-equipment-at-body/54-b-main-wiring-harness

[Benz Dr.]

We are in the middle of this process right now. In this case we are NOT replacing the old one with new. Aside from the price, the old harness connectors would need to be removed and all of the pins un-soldered and moved over to the new harness. Any clips or fasteners would also need to be moved. This is a LOT more work than you could ever imagine.

I have lots of old connectors and original wiring here so we can make it not only look good but work like new. We had to replace a few sections of old wiring around the starter connection because they all tend to fall apart in that area. Sections of shrink wrap, hockey stick tape, friction tape, and some new ring terminals did all of the cosmetic repairs. You can repair a harness for less than 1/2 the price of buying and switching over to a new one.

If your harness is working but beat up you may not need to replace it and should be able to restore it. If it's shorted out and melted all of the insulation then you would. 

[doitwright]

I briefly considered replacing my harness also. After discovering a new one would be around $2,000 I went to work cleaning mine up. I needed to replace a few connectors but most of the work was in removing the grease and paint overspray. I also came up with a method to easily get the wires through the rubber firewall grommet without having to remove or desolder any connectors.

[wwheeler]

I too have pondered the same question. The worst part to me is having to solder the pins in exactly the correct position relative to the other wires in the connector. These pins have to be precisely attached for all of the wires to fit into the connectors in their correct positions. You could use new pins instead of unsoldering the old ones, but that runs into a mountain of money as well. Do they make a harness that have the pins already soldered on? 

What is the deciding factor when a wire has to be replaced aside from the obvious? Hardened outer cover?     

[Benz Dr.]

Clearly, others have seen the same problems. You can buy 4 to 1 shrink wrap that is big enough to fit over all of the connectors yet will still shrink to the desired size. We also use black shoe dye to clean up small areas where the coating has faded. Parts cars are your friend when it comes to repairing stuff like this.

[dirkbalter]

I will have to tackle the issue soon as well and I am also in favor of restoring the original one for cost reasons. However, when I was looking at the SLS wiring harness, it looked that new connectors came with it?

[waltklatt]

ALso, keep in mind that your car will have options that the new wiring loom will not include.
You will have to add those to your wiring.  On top of mistakes they make.

Best to replace what is bad on your original.

I've replaced a wiring loom for a 190SL and the new one had 8 mistakes on it. 
I've spent hours and hours correcting and tracing all the wires, till it was all done and finished(everything worked perfectly except a reversed wire for the horn)

The 230/250SL wiring looms are a bit more complicated, but the late 280SL is more so, with all the fuel efficiency mandated add-ons.

Use the color wire diagram to help.

Walter

[Pawel66]

During the weekend I will give you the guy who made my harness (need to dig for the e-mail). It is expensive for a Pagoda, I think EUR 2000 - 2500 if I remember correctly.