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Yes, I have never seperated the main connector yet. Looking on another site forabodiesonly, I believe some of the 60's and 70's used a connector called packard number 56. But I had no idea if they have changed. Just wondering!! FWIW when I get around to switching mine, hopefully I will be able to eliminate some, extend a few, but at the end of the day, there should be less wiring under the hood!!
So, I've gone through and redid my rear harness. Looks like new again I'll post a writeup on what I found through researched and a little trial and error what worked best for me.
To achieve the above harness, I went through the following steps:
1) Removed all the split loom. There is cloth/polyester tape around the joints so you'll have to pull that off/cut it off (more on replacing that later).
2) Removed the wire wrap tape.
3) Cleaned the harness. I did lots of research here. Some people use dishwashers...some purple power and a pressure washer...Some carb cleaner or contact cleaner. Some WD-40. What I found best for me was just NON-Chlorinated (don't use the heavy duty stuff) brake cleaner in a spray can. Spray a section at a time, let it soak for a few seconds and then using shop towels wipe each wire down. The brake cleaner won't harm the insulation, and I wasn't keen on using plain water that could migrate into connectors and corrode them down the road.
4) Inspect harness. Here check for any past ills like butt splices (I had some for trailer wiring), check the factory splices, and check for any nicks in the insulation. Make all repairs by cutting out the bad spots and SOLDERING in new wire with heat shrink tape over that. Don't use wire nuts or butt splices....always solder.
5) Deoxidize connector pins. Again I did lots of research here. I was thinking about resoldering in new connectors, but several professional restoration sites say DO NOT do this. Almost in all cases the original pins can be revitalized. And you aren't introducing new splices where you don't need. The easiest and best method I found was to dunk each connector into a vinegar-salt bath for a couple of minutes, followed by a dunk into a baking soda-water bath. The vinegar salt will remove any corrosion or oxidation. You don't want to use any abrasives like sand paper here, as many connectors are plated and if you scrap the plating off you'll be subject to corrosion in the future. After dunking the connector in vinegar for a couple of minutes, I lightly took a sharp small blade screw driver and buffed each pin to get any residual crud off it. For female pins, I just hand ran a small drill bit into each pin. Then dunked it into water-baking soda for just a few seconds to neutralize the vinegar (acid). Afterwards, I blew out with compressed air the connector.
6) Test harness. Using a multimeter, check the ohms from each pin on the main connectors to the smaller connectors. You should read close to 0. If you read anything above .5 ohms you've still got oxidation. If you read infinity you have a broken wire.
7) Once you're satisfied with the electrical integrity of the harness, coat each connector in some di-electric grease. This will prevent corrosion from returning. I used a small dental pick to push some down into the female pins. Other research some suggested to use WD-40 (water displacement) but I prefer the grease.
8) Wrap the wire in NON-Adhesive harness wrap. I had a hard time finding original style wrap, and some suggested using 3M electrical tape. DO NOT do this. When the tape gets warm it becomes a sticky mess and the adhesive sticks all over the wire. There is no place for electrical adhesive tape in this process. I finally found the tape after visiting several forums, and it is fantastic. It's a rubber heat resistant tape that doesn't have adhesive but sticks very well to itself....but you can pull it right off without any residue. The original factory tape they would overlap the starting end, and then tie under the trailer end. I didn't like this as the trailing end could unravel, so I used very small black wire ties to secure both ends (start and finish).
9) Insert the tape into split wire loom. I bought some stuff off ebay...3 sizes for the rear. 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4". I used a continuous piece of 1/2" from one main connector all the way to the last plug, then used smaller 3/8" and 1/4" loom for the branches. Cut them as close to the connector and to the other loom as possible.
10) The final step, is to use the original style cotton fiber adhesive tape to seal the joints of the looms. That's the stuff you had to cut off in the first step. Again it took some research to find the right tape, but I found the factory style stuff and it works great and looks just like the original. It's made for BMW and Audi, but my Dak's not complaining.
I have stripped down the main harness.....tons of wire removed and looks so much cleaner with the SBEC gone....after removing the SBEC was only left with three wires on the big engine harness connector so that goes too....three wires left are the oil and temp gauge senders.
Have 12 wires left from the bulkhead connector that are not connected now. Of those 12, 9 will be spared...mostly from the cruise control, the engine chk lamp, the emissions lamp and a 4wd lamp. The three remaining are the tach, OD lockout button and unlock solenoid.
On the tach I have a question...
this signal came from pin 43 on the SBEC into pin 33 on the bulkhead to term H on the dash pod. Does anyone know what kind of signal this was? I have an HEI that has the tach signal generator. That signal is a square wave where frequency is proportional to RPM. Did the SBEC produce similar or was that signal a simple 0 to 12vdc analog for the dash gauge? Trying to determine if it as easy as just connecting the wire to the distributor tach signal.
Pulse-to-analog conversion was done by the tach board, on top of the cluster.
You'll need to condition it to make it the proper frequency unless your new motor has something that's 2x a revolution; the coil signal isn't it, nor is the signal from the HEI distributor.
Pulse-to-analog conversion was done by the tach board, on top of the cluster.
You'll need to condition it to make it the proper frequency unless your new motor has something that's 2x a revolution; the coil signal isn't it, nor is the signal from the HEI distributor.
I'll post a writeup on what I found through researched and a little trial and error what worked best for me.
