I've got two series 5 automatic FCs. Theyre both the same year, '91, both automatic, but one is a vert and the other is a gxl. The gxl has a good motor but is crashed, while the vert is perfect but has a bad engine. I started the engine swap yesterday but I kind of ran into a problem.

The vert has an airbag which means theres some additional plugs (blue wires with a blue and orange connection) on the wiring harness for what Im guessing are the air bag sensors. The gxl doesnt have an airbag so the wiring harness on the engine doesnt have these extra wires. My plan was to do a direct engine transplant from one to the other but now I dont know if this is possible without changing the wiring harness from one block to the other.

Does anyone know if these blue wires are just taped to the wiring harness or if theyre spliced into other wires in the harness? I was planning on removing the harness wrap/tape to see how the wires are positioned in there. I'm hoping theyre not soldered to other wires in the harness so I can just remove them and tape them to the new harness from the gxl. I hope this makes sense.

If this is not the case, I'd have to order some parts (gaskets n misc items) to replace when I swap the vert wiring harness to the good gxl block. Normally I'd figure it out on my own but I'm short on time and I wont work on the car until the weekend.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks

 

I would guess that if you are just moving the engine over that its inconsequential as the engine has no bearing on the SRS system. So long as you leave the vert wiring harness alone you should be able to swap the engines out without any issue. Just use the vert sensors until you determine if a sensor isnt fucitoning,a nd then swap those sensors out as necessary.


There shouldnt be any reason why changing an engine should have any bearing on the SRS system unless for some reason you think the verts wiring harness is bad. in that case i have nothing to help you with.


BC

 

+1 -Keep the harness with the car.

I've done swaps both ways.
It may be a little easier to pull the engine with the harness, but taking the harness off the motor first & leaving it in the car is not that difficult.

 

Thanks but I know that the actual engines have nothing to do with the SRS system. I've never owned an FC with an airbag so seeing these new wires attached to the harness was new to me.

I wanted to know if the sensor wires were tapped into other wires in the wiring harness. If this was the case, I would order new gaskets in advanced for when I remove the manifolds to swap engine harnesses.
Thanks

 

Yea, I've done swaps both ways as well. I agree that leaving the harness in the car is not hard to do but swapping complete engines with the harness is a much faster way to get the car running (in my experience). I'll order the gaskets just in case I need them. Thanks.

Does anyone know if these wires are just taped to the engine harness just to keep things neat and tidy? I cant look into this until the weekend but the wires are taped to the engine harness starting from the firewall, under the charcoal canister, all the way to the inside where they split apart near the ECU. I'm crossing my fingers that this is the case just to speed things up for me.

 

The air bag wires are not connected to any wire in the engine harness. I have a Haltech in my vert and I just unwraped the engine harness to get the air bag wires out.

 

I'll assume your like most of the peckerwoods on this forum that don't know a Engine harness(E) from a Emissions harness (EM). Therefore you think the harness that has the fuel injectors wiring, boost sensor wiring, water thermo sensor etc is a ENGINE harness when it's really the EMISSIONS HARNESS.

So download the series five wiring diagrams. Go to the AIR BAG CONTROL SYSTEM page. You'll notice at least four wires for the air bag are in the EM (emissions) harness (what your calling a engine harness {ain't}.

The connector called X-12 (connects b/t the Front harness and the EM harness. Only four wires involved.

 

Since the forum is full of peckerwoods as you can them, calling everything by their appropriate technical name wont get me anywhere fast. Wiring harness, aka Engine harness, is what everyone refers to the emissions harness because its attached to the engine. I know its not the proper name but most people will immediately know what I'm talking about.

Thanks for the info. I'll look up that section on the FSM once I get home and download it.

 

Thanks, this is what I was thinking. Normally I would look up and find the info myself but I'm currently working 7 days a week and 8-14 hrs a day. This doesnt leave me much time to research stuff. This thread was started to give me a head start for next time I work on the car.

Thanks to everyone for the help so far.

 

You called most everyone on these forums "peckerwoods" if you have the information being requested and you want to share it I whink you can do so with out being an *** but, as with most of the high post count folks here you have a superiority complex and feel the need to be little others to exalt yourself, or to make yourself feel better about being you.

I am sure you have a wealth of knowledge and that is why we are all here, so do us all a favor climb down from your perch and join us common folk. If all of the 7's problems could be solved with a good old RTFM response there would be no need for the boards.

I said all of that to say that by you calling most every one on the boards "peckerwoods" only makes you look like an ***. It was really uncalled for.