Over the winter I'm tearing everything off of the engine and either making it "nice and shiny" or actually work...

I'm venturing into the world of the wiring harness and I want to research before I start hacking into it.

Has there been any good posts on "how to" something with the engine harness?
I have searched but most posts show nothing of what I'm looking for.

I want to do the harness over 100% I just dont really know where to start or how I should go about labeling the wires...

If anybody has a lost post that they could direct me to, or any hints or tips they would be greatly appreciated...

 

You could just get a standalone? LoL
A friend of mine went to a junkyard and just swapped out the harness from a junked car that actually happened to be in good condition
What I did, is too the damned thing out, so i could see it, and replaced all the wires and connectors with stuff you can buy from electonics shops.

 

I think you'll be surprised at the good condition your harness is actually in. Ignoring the connectors (which are exposed to the elements, heat, etc.), the actual harness will be in excellant shape. You'll see this once you start pulling off the outer covering. There are at least 4 layers. Tape, cloth, rubber, tape, and a hard shell in some areas. The wiring inside will look and feel new, and certainly not be "crunchy" like the rest of the harness. If you clean up most of the connectors, things will certainly improve. Though I replaced all my connectors with modern Weather Pack (think GM) connectors.

When you rewrap the harness, try to use harness tape. It's somewhat like hockey tape. Wrap your initial wrapping with GOOD electrical tape, then your harness tape, then electrical tape, and then slide a hard corrogated shell over it. If you are replacing connectors, use HEAT SHRINK tubing and NEVER electrical tape. Electrical tape should never touch an actual electrical connection. The glue will corrode the joint.

 

see, i noticed this, but it was 17 years old and i didn't know how the wires had been bent inside the harness before I owned the car... that was my premise for replacing those too

 

Bending the wires is not such a big deal, unless it's repeated bending in the same area. Also, a bundle of wires is considerably more resistant to damage then a single wire, as the wires on the outside tend to support those on the inside.

I always hear people complaining about the "crunchiness" of their harnesses, but obviously they have never been inside one.

 

I noticed this when I was doing some wiring work.

Down inside the car, the ECU's wires all looked BRAND NEW. When I started cutting back the crunchy wires, as Aaron said, the wires that were protected were still perfect.

I went to a local junk yard, and a buddy of mine who manages the yard sold me a harness out of a 91, cut at the firewall, and almost every connector was in 85+ percent shape... Got the whole harness for 15 bucks

 

Well what I'm going to probably do is take off the outter covering and test the resistance, and voltage going through each. I dont like the thought of redoing all of the harness but I figure everyone would just say to do the whole thing.

I'm going to take out all of the solenoids and other connections I dont need or use anymore... I just need those odd loose wires which are snapped replaced.....Injector wires, bac plug, waterthermo plug etc!