I am just amazed at how stiff the wires in the harness are! I guess that IS what 12 years of high underhood temps can do, huh? What I am curious of (and will check out later today) is:
Is it the wires themselves that are so stiff, or is it the tape and loom material they are all wrapped in? Or a combination of both? I was seriously considering replacing the harness, but a search revealed that Ray at Malloy is asking $700 (shipped) now. That is pretty steep, and is money that could go towards other fixes. I broke one damned connector off one of the water temp sensors, that thing just hand grenaded on me, so that was one reason I was thinking about getting the new harness....but man! $700? OUCH!

 

$750 is what I got last month from Ray. The only consolation is that next year it'll be $850, and now the car is good for another 10 years (or more, assuming my reliability mods have cut down underhood temps a little bit).

Basically everything that isn't copper gets more brittle, weaker, and less flexible. The thing that's the worst is those vinyl tubes that protect the wire from the harness to the connector - those buggers get rock hard, and where they make kinks they then pinch and rub on the wire insulation. So with my new harness, I cut off those tubes and used self-fusing silicone tape to wrap and protect those sections. I think that's worth doing for the connectors near the fuel rail. The thick sections can literally rub through the tape, loom, and insulation and expose or short wires in the fat sections - mine was bad right where it makes that 90° bend in front of the solenoids.

Makes me consider installing a muffin fan with cold air intake just to clear the hot air from the solenoid rack.

Dave

 

I torn apart a harness with 120k+ miles on it, and the wires themselves weren't brittle...except around the connectors. (when I built my haltech harness I slid heatshrink into the back of the connector and potted)

you can pot the back of the connectors with sensor safe RTV...be sure to allow movement of the locking clip. As for the connector you broke...PM me and I can send you a replacement for shipping/packing costs.

getting better tubing and tape rewrapping your harness will be cheaper and last another 100k miles. It's a bitch to unwrap the stocker, messy too.

 

The wires aren't brittle the insulation is. Once the insulation breaks the wire will only bend at the break so it'll end up breaking quickly.

Get a new harness, the old harnesses aren't worth messing with.

 

Oh man I didn't believe how hard my harness was. took it off the other day and the mass directly over the motor wouldn't bend at all. I broke almost 1/2 those clips too! what a pita.

 

Sonny has some good tips/ideas for rewrapping the engine harness on his site:

http://www.rotormafia.com/96koverhaul/index2.html