Help! - What are these two mystery boxes in the footwell?

[Fatboy]

Hi Everyone,

I deicide to go digging into the wiriing on my 1986 2.5 Lux this afternoon, looking for an indicator fault that tunred out to be a didgy fuse

When I removed the carpet and cover for the Passenger footwell I was greeted with something of a mess:

The box in the middle at the rear is for the immobiliser, and apart from the fact it's not secured seems to be reasonably well installed.

The box front right is an amp, presumably for some additional speakers long since removed (I've only added a new head unit to replace the broken cd player that was in there, not looked back here before!) - it's got a power feed with an inline fuse (presumed live, haven't checked it yet) and was only secured on one side - the other is flapping loose! I've removed it, and will trace the power lead back and remove it at source - I don't fancy a power lead just flapping about behind the dash!

The real conundrum though is the two boxes on the left - top one is labelled 'MACH 49' and nothing else, the bottom has a tester sticker dated November 1986, and a label on the top with what looks to be A4717 written on it (very faded) and no other markings - I have no idea whatsoever what these do, but here's a couple of close-up shots - does anyone have any idea what they are or do?

Any help greatly appreciated - I've gone thorugh the parts catalogue to see what they might be but can't find anything that looks remotely like a match, and the Haynes wiring diagrams aren't much help either!

Cheers,

Fatboy

 

[spyro_x]

Are either of them wired into the speakers at all? Look very similar to some older in car phone kits I've seen in the past - not seen anything exactly the same though.

 

[Fatboy]

I hadn't thought of phone kits...

There is a line of speaker cable going from the A4717 box off up into the dash somewhere (goes up the left hand side of the picture), but I've not manage to trace where it ends up yet...

 

[Fred Hindle]

Do your headlights come on with low intensity with the sidelights (town lights)? My 1986 924S did, I believe some owners thought it maybe made compulsory and decided to 'upgrade' their car. The Mach 49 maybe a unit to do this.

Cheers,

 

[Fatboy]

No, my headlights don't come on with the sidelights - though it has had th mod done to stop that happening (modified connector block in the fuse area, so wouldn't be these boxes)

 

[zcacogp]

Can't help, other than to say that both of them look un-Porsche-like and are almost certainly aftermarket. And cars of this age pick up a lot of aftermarket stuff in their lifetime. (I removed over 1km of wiring from a Mk2 Golf I once bought .... )

Maybe a daft question, but you could try removing the boxes to see what stops working?


Oli.

 

[Ash944]

Unplug them something's going to stop working if there still in use.
I had a similar box under my fuse box I just took it out all was fine think it was todo with a aftermarket alarm
As I have the sensors still on the pillars

 

[Fatboy]

Edited as I've just seen your replies - cheers guys! 1km of wiring? Wow!!

Well after a bit of tracing today with the help of my mate Ben, we've figured out what those two boxes are for - the A4717 box if for an old alarm - long since disconnected from everything but the power feeds, and the mach 49 box does the central locking - not sure if it's a completely aftermarket central locking kit (including actuators) or if it's just an interface for the factory fit central locking, but the wiring to and from is definitely not factory, and the way the power was taken out of the fuse box clearly wasn't factory!

The alarm's been put in with much use of scotch-loks and inline fuses - inline fuses that you can only see or reach by taking the fuse box out!!!!

Still, all disconnected now and the car still works (fortuneately) - I'll probably wire the central locking back up, but I might go for a remote unit instead, it would be handy to open the boot from outside wihout messing around with the key under the spoiler. On the other hande it would be quite a bit of work

More Pictures to follow when I've tidied it up

But does anyone know whether there was an option code for central locking?

 

[944 man]

Central locking handles have a wire attached to the inside. Manual locking cars didnt. Far more common in 1989> plain handles than 1986-1988 scripted handles too.