New Wiring

[88jerseyiroc]

Ok so I ordered an new wiring harness from painless, now i ask peopel who did this, are there going to be difficult parts to put in a new wiring harness, like little snags that would get someone frustrated, if never done before??

[V]

Ok, i would have recommended a OEM harness, but the painless is fine, just requires a little more work. The OEM one would be a direct plug in, however, with the painless wiring one, it is set-up to be run as a stand alone system.

using a stand alone harness in a stock car is possible though, the main thing you'll need to focus on is the connection of 5 main wires... those being power(BATT), ignition, ground wires, tach wire, and fuel pump wire. The BATT and IGN wires can be tapped into the other main connector under the passenger side of the dash. The ground is simple, the tach wire would need to be spliced into the original tach wiring to where it goes through the drivers side of the firewall, and then the fuel pump wire would need to be spliced into the fuel pump relay(drivers side of firewall).
It seems complicated but its really not. The main frotn end harness in a f-body is 2 part, one deals with brake pressure, lights, signals, sending units, wipers, horn, etc, and that parts stays, IF the tach wire is traced into that side of the harness(i cant remember), you should be able to fully remove the engine control part of the harness and toss it, just go through a wiring schematic to make sure it doesnt contain any wiring that'll still be essential.

The painless harness will probably come with its own ALDL diagnostic port that you can just mount where the stock one is and tuck the original up under the dash. Also it make just come with one, or 2, wires for a "check engine light", youd need to wire that into your cluster as well. finally, where the harness goes through the passenger side of the car inside to under the dash, there is a speical weatherproof seal thing that you'd need to remove(cut somehow) from the stock harness and seal it back up around the new one to prevent water from getting inside.

The more i started thinking about it, the more complicated it seemed to get for the beginner, but dont worry, take you time, ask questions, and since you are in north jersey, i may be able to swing by sometime to give you a hand, explain some schematics to you, or check and label stuff for you. Just dont get overwhelmed and dont hook up the ECM until you are positive all wiring is correct, you dont wanna fry the ecm, lol.

[88jerseyiroc]

Hmm i didnt even get it yet, so i could return it and get an OEM one. the reason i went with a painless one is because i couldnt find and OEM wiring harness ofir it. So if you have a source for an OEM one. That be great.

[88jerseyiroc]

ok i recieved the wiring harness, seems pretty straight forward from reading the installation booklet. I have a few questions regarding taking the old one out. the dash part, do i have the remove the dash pad and the tubing for the AC, instrument panel to wire this harness for the dash section. The booklet explains real well on which wires go where and which ones you have splice but it doesnt give any details about the actual procedure to get the wires there. The engine compartment seems pretty straight forward. The tail part is a little tricky too. For the fuel wire do i have to run the wire all the way to the fuel pump or can i get splice it into the wire? The VSS wire i guess you saying before splices into the tach wire am i right about that? The torque converter wire do i even use it lol?

Also the relay wires seem short. I know the MAF and burnoff are in the engine compartment but this wiring harness, has them right next to the ECM. Now I am sure that it is ok to hook up them and put them under the plastic trim that hides the ECM right?

man i have alot of questions LOL

[88jerseyiroc]

Guys dont worry about it. I am returning the Painless one and take my car to a dealership. Seems like the whole thing is messed up. I was just inspecting the old wiring harness and and stuff was just breaking apart with no effort. That is way beyond my skill level.