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Over the past few weekends I've been wrapping up the 6 month project of installation of my "new" used engine. In my 7+ years of ownership, and by the previous owner, the engine bay has always stayed clean, protected, well maintained, etc.
I was planning to reuse the old engine harness to save some $$ and upon installing it the brittle baked outer conduit started cracking apart. No problem, I'm sure the outer conduit has protected the inner wires and I'll just put on a new wire loom, right? Wrong. The inner wires were as brittle as you could imagine. The wire coatings crumbled. This was an electrical nightmare averted.
I've never seen an aftermarket product live up to it's hype and reputation as well as Sean's engine harness. This thing was PERFECT. Every wire color coded properly, all the lengths correct. Installation was as painless as it could go.
Sean - Thank you so much for making this. I hope one day you undertake doing the fuel injection harnesses. I'd love to have those fresh as well.
Roger - Thanks for all you do to keep these old beasts up and running.
Do you have to have the engine out to replace the harness?
No, I installed it with the engine in the car. The only thing I had to do was remove the distributor to be able to more easily feed the new harness between the engine and the rear timing belt cover. But your fingers will be tired when you are done. It is a tight fit.
The obvious time to do this would be during a timing belt job when the front the engine is open and very accessible. But I was able to do it with everything in place.
The only harnesses like yours [was] are probably the ones with the original harness still in there give or take a few notable exceptions that rarely see light of day.
Did replacement make the car feel as though it performed better [fresher] by any chance?
Heck of a lot better than the biodegradable engine harness that Mercedes used in the early 90s. Of all the parts on a car, why make the wiring coating break down easily?
Heck of a lot better than the biodegradable engine harness that Mercedes used in the early 90s. Of all the parts on a car, why make the wiring coating break down easily?
Heck of a lot better than the biodegradable engine harness that Mercedes used in the early 90s. Of all the parts on a car, why make the wiring coating break down easily?
Last I checked they make money selling cars, parts, and service ....... they really do NOT want cars lasting 20 years The "check engine" light syndrome is now helping to "retire" cars at an alarming rate. Since you cannot smog/register with a warning light on. My 07 Nissan Frontier the fuel level sender was inop.... triggers check engine light. Now how exactly does not knowing the fuel level get considered a major problem or affect emisions ???
You should just replace the entire harness, recently did one and tried to save it, the more I tried to repair the worse it got.
When the old one shows that type of insulation failure as seen in your posted pic, it is time for a new one.
Sean built and installed one in my 1981 that was having a start problem. I was surprised at how much it improved the car's overall performance!
Brad
20 or so years ago my 81 would randomly no start, like after filling up with gas. Total dead key. Turns out the yellow wire from the starter to the multi-connector was badly frayed under the sheathing. After replacing that single wire with a new 10ga, the engine spun over so fast you'd have thought the valves were bent.
04-18-2016, 10:22 AM
Replace your engine harness!
The "check engine" light syndrome is now helping to "retire" cars at an alarming rate. Since you cannot smog/register with a warning light on. My 07 Nissan Frontier the fuel level sender was inop.... triggers check engine light. Now how exactly does not knowing the fuel level get considered a major problem or affect emisions ???
