The Official 356Talk Forum

Hi,

Can anyone advise if the 4-cam wiring loom for a 1956 Carrera Coupe was different to a 1956 Normal or Super Coupe?

Regards,

Martin

No, same loom

1956 was the first production year for Carrera, and the factory thought they were going to sell a lot more Carrera cars than they did. In the 356A years, most cars were set up to take either pushrod or Carrera engines. The metal work in the engine compartment makes it easy to install a Carrera engine, oil tank etc. I think this same idea applied to the wiring harness. There were three extra wires for a Carrera - two black wires for the ignition coils, and one green wire for the electric fuel pumps. I am not 100% sure every 356A car had these extra wires in every harness made, but it would be pretty easy to find them if they are there. An informal poll here would help....

Jeff Adams wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:20 pm 1956 was the first production year for Carrera, and the factory thought they were going to sell a lot more Carrera cars than they did. ....

It looks that way. At first, "all" A cars were equipped to take the Carrera engine with the exception of the two holes in the dash for the coil switches, and maybe a couple of other holes. But then Porsche decided to make changes to the A in 1957 so today we call the first A s T1s and 1957 and later A s T2s. Some of the T2 changes were to restrict the Carrera special items to the few cars which actually had the Carrera engine. (A major motivator for my '56 project was that the T1s are set up for the Carrera Engine. That, and the thick seats, and the clean door windows.)

Besides the extra coil wire to the engine compartment, there are the coil switch wires, fuel pump switch, and the wire to the front mounted fuel pumps. I think the T1 wire looms were all the same, and I suspect that the T2 wire looms deleted the Carrera only wires on non Carrera cars.