Cleaning up the wiring harness

[GSTwithPSI]

I'm in the process of making some improvements to the overall cleanliness of my engine bay. One of the things I wanted to address was the wiring harness. Although I like the look of a full tuck, it's just not very practical. Not to mention, I'm too lazy to do all the work it takes to complete the job correctly. I'm in the process of removing all the old shitty ribbed wire covering now, and need to replace it with something. I could just replace it with new ribbed covering, but I'm not sure I want to.

In addition, I'm grouping connectors together according to where they run in the engine compartment. That way, I don't have one huge bunch of wires snaking along the firewall. I can isolate the harness pairs I need, and route them appropriately according to the sensors they need to reach.

Here's what I'd like to accomplish.

-Put new sheathing in place without having to de-pin all the connectors
-Something that looks decent
-Fairly cost effective, although I'm willing to spend some cash for something that really looks good
-Something that will protect the wiring and ensure longevity

Any ideas, tips, tricks, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[prove_it]

IDENTIFY every thing before going deep and not knowing what that wire is for. Take your time. lots of time. Stock up on tape, solder, heatshrink, and be ready to get confused.

I'm in the same boat as you, so I'll be following this to learn from your mistakes(if made).

Do not full tuck the engine harness. I've thought about it. Once I realized the whole harness needs to come off for engine removal, I figured it would bite my ass later on.

 

[pot]

I'll have some in depth notes for you shortly Brett. I've had the luxury of using a donor harness for the better part of six months to get nice and comfortable w/ the engine management portion of the harness i.e. ECU.

Of note, strokin4dr posted a few years ago of his handy work, might be worth taking a look at. I'll touch base w/ you later this week into next once I get a few customers cars out of my backlog.

 

[bradrs]

Quoting GSTwithPSI:
I'm in the process of making some improvements to the overall cleanliness of my engine bay. One of the things I wanted to address was the wiring harness. Although I like the look of a full tuck, it's just not very practical. Not to mention, I'm too lazy to do all the work it takes to complete the job correctly. I'm in the process of removing all the old shitty ribbed wire covering now, and need to replace it with something. I could just replace it with new ribbed covering, but I'm not sure I want to.

In addition, I'm grouping connectors together according to where they run in the engine compartment. That way, I don't have one huge bunch of wires snaking along the firewall. I can isolate the harness pairs I need, and route them appropriately according to the sensors they need to reach.

Here's what I'd like to accomplish.

-Put new sheathing in place without having to de-pin all the connectors
-Something that looks decent
-Fairly cost effective, although I'm willing to spend some cash for something that really looks good
-Something that will protect the wiring and ensure longevity




People like split corrugated loom, but it can be very abrasive on wires. Both on wires outside of it, and also the wires inside it. So taping the harness first, then looming, and then taping the loom together would make it look really good/ lasta long time.

There is another company that makes a split loom out of a fabric material that would probably work pretty well for this. I am pretty sure waytek sells it.

But something to think about, is if the loom is that toasted, how good are your wires? Over time, the heat will have damaged the sheathing, and the wires will become brittle. And unsealed connectors will get corrosive damage that follows the wire under the wire sheath.

Routing them together might look good, but be careful if you are routing some high current noisy wires next to your cam/crank/O2 sensors.

 

[tektic]

If I had to do it again, and I still might I would ...
Keep it simple.
In separate looms
-Injectors, resistor
-knock, ac, brake
-Transistor , injection, fps
-cas, tps, idle, isc
-fan switch, coolant, o2,
-maf, wbo2
-alternator, ps , oil light

I might have forgot some stuff but you get the idea, right? Just group stuff together in smaller groups. I'd just be happy to get rid of that big plastic wrap around the intake wire cover thing. So just seperating the injectors from some other branches is huge.

 

[prove_it]

Do you have quick connectors at the fuel injectors? If not, now is a good time to do that. They make life wayyyyyyy easier.

 

[slugsgomoo]

I used TechFlex F6 loom in my car. It's soft to the touch, you can coil it and it won't split apart and drop the wires, and it looks way better.

amazon link though there are many sizes available. On amazon, some vendors are cheaper than others, even with prime, so definitely search around.

I did heat shrink at the ends when I re-did my injector clips.

 

[LIV4PSI]

That looks really good Andrew. I'm basically getting ready to tackle the same project as Brett

 

[prove_it]

I like it. Looks like I got a new project too. Damn you guys.

 

[bradrs]

The larger the holes in the braided sleeve, the more dirt that will get inside and act like sand paper on your wires.

 

[prove_it]

Not if you regularly wash your engine bay I would think.

 

[turbohf]

click

 

[LIV4PSI]

Quoting bradrs:
The larger the holes in the braided sleeve, the more dirt that will get inside and act like sand paper on your wires.



My car stays pretty clean on its jack stands /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif

 

[GSTwithPSI]

Quoting turbohf:
click

 

[idreamidrive]

After doing the quick connectors on my injectors, I have been thinking about doing a rewire. I have only one problem, I want to use "factory" wire colors. I know I can get it done, but don't want to buy 250 ft of wire through Waytek Wire. Anybody know of a source that I can get wire color striping done on low volume on wire. Or does anybody want to do a group buy for wire?

 

[bradrs]

Quoting prove_it:
Not if you regularly wash your engine bay I would think.



As long as you are scrubbing between each wire in the harness to remove the grit, you are correct. Otherwise the water would just be driving the grit into the harness.

This is just what some of the guys working for Delphi explained to me, regarding their harness design ideas. So I can't tell you that doing it a certain way the harness will fail in X years. I am just going off the things they told me regarding the grit inside the loom, presumably based on years of experience tearing down failed harnesses.

The sleeving I use on the harnesses has a very tight weave, and I haven't heard of any wire failures on those, in the near decade I have been making them. Of course, that might be 1 year of driving, and 9 years of jackstands for most of the cars /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bradrs]

Quoting idreamidrive:
After doing the quick connectors on my injectors, I have been thinking about doing a rewire. I have only one problem, I want to use "factory" wire colors. I know I can get it done, but don't want to buy 250 ft of wire through Waytek Wire. Anybody know of a source that I can get wire color striping done on low volume on wire. Or does anybody want to do a group buy for wire?



I wouldn't suggest using Waytek for the 18 or 20 gauge wire. Their version of the automotive grade TXL and GXL are more prone to failure, and aren't what the OEMs use. The OEMs use a fine strand on the 18-20 gauge. Which is too bad, because their pricing on the custom striping and labeling is REALLY attractive. I've seen a lot of field failures of the wrong 20 gauge wire, so I'd never use anything but the fine strand.

I actually already bought up a bunch of the 20 gauge fine strand in solid and striped colors, just haven't sorted out how/if to sell it yet. It is a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for.

 

[slugsgomoo]

The weave on this is reasonably tight, but frankly I've put ~300-400 miles on my car since 2007...

Even now that it's running I'm not planning on doing any real rain driving or rallycross. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/uhh.gif


/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowrofl.gif

 

[idreamidrive]

Quoting bradrs:
Quoting idreamidrive:
After doing the quick connectors on my injectors, I have been thinking about doing a rewire. I have only one problem, I want to use "factory" wire colors. I know I can get it done, but don't want to buy 250 ft of wire through Waytek Wire. Anybody know of a source that I can get wire color striping done on low volume on wire. Or does anybody want to do a group buy for wire?



I wouldn't suggest using Waytek for the 18 or 20 gauge wire. Their version of the automotive grade TXL and GXL are more prone to failure, and aren't what the OEMs use. The OEMs use a fine strand on the 18-20 gauge. Which is too bad, because their pricing on the custom striping and labeling is REALLY attractive. I've seen a lot of field failures of the wrong 20 gauge wire, so I'd never use anything but the fine strand.

I actually already bought up a bunch of the 20 gauge fine strand in solid and striped colors, just haven't sorted out how/if to sell it yet. It is a bit more expensive, but you get what you pay for.


If you do decide to sell it, and its OE colors (or close to OE colors). I would probably be will to buy

 

[GSTwithPSI]

Well, just ordered a bunch of Raychem DR-25. I decided to de-pin all the connectors and do this right. I'll update this when I make some progress.

Soooooo which one or you rich bastards has the fancy shrink tube label making machine? Looking for someone willing to print some labels. I'll reimburse for time and supplies...