• The site migration is complete! Hopefully everything transferred properly from the multiple decades old software we were using before. If you notice any issues please let me know, thanks! Also, I'm still working on things like chatbox, etc so hopefully those will be working in the next week or two.

Wiring Harness

D

Dr Cedric

New member
Has anyone come up with a way to get the nasty wiring harness from draping itself all over the engine?

I like the way the S/C 3.8 looks, but man, that stinkin' harness ruins it. Almost makes me want to NOT paint the bay up and show it off!
 


Yeah there are lots of people who have tucked the wiring harness under the supercharger instead of over it. I'm not to sure about the mess that goes over the front valve cover though.
 
so looking through the Haynes manual and wiring diagrams....it seems there are like 200000000 wires to deal with. Is it plausible/possible to take every wire in the whole engine bay, make it longer or shorter as needed and tuck it away nice and pretty? Where would I want to tuck wires and where would be an absolute no-no (I'm guessing the front or rear exhaust manifold goes in the no-no category)

for that matter, is there DIY guide somewhere for this. I'm seeing replacement/refurbished harnesses....could I buy one with all the connectors intact, remove all the tape and stuff and then figure out a cleaner approach to getting all the connectors where they need to go?

It would be nice if I could see the beauty of my engine, super charger, valve covers, throttle body and all the rest without big bulky wires everywhere!
 
Last edited:
Exactly what I am doing to mine. Passing all the wire that goes to the front of the engine and routing it from the back to the front as well as moving the fuse box.

F6617926-2F7C-4B69-A78D-21AEDB645E1D-18664-000008F803EB4BF6.jpg

15B1DB95-08FD-4078-9F2E-629B1B1BF60B-7064-000002F6C2736564.jpg

you do have to cut and re solder some wires but honestly isn't hard at all just extending them that is all, only thin is well its time consuming and you get tired of messing with wires after a while.
i have a lot to clean still this engine bay shot is before the recent clean up I did. And routing I did.
 
Dr Cedric said:
so looking through the Haynes manual and wiring diagrams....it seems there are like 200000000 wires to deal with. Is it plausible/possible to take every wire in the whole engine bay, make it longer or shorter as needed and tuck it away nice and pretty? Where would I want to tuck wires and where would be an absolute no-no (I'm guessing the front or rear exhaust manifold goes in the no-no category)

for that matter, is there DIY guide somewhere for this. I'm seeing replacement/refurbished harnesses....could I buy one with all the connectors intact, remove all the tape and stuff and then figure out a cleaner approach to getting all the connectors where they need to go?

It would be nice if I could see the beauty of my engine, super charger, valve covers, throttle body and all the rest without big bulky wires everywhere!
Click to expand...

Do you like beating your head against a wall? :cool:

You're asking to introduce a whole bunch of problems that would be difficult to troubleshoot. Soldering would be the only way to go - you'd need to stagger your splices so that you don't have one big lump of splices - if you don't seal the spice, it could corrode.

Do you really want to do that?
 


What about this idea:

I go to the junkyard, find an old ECM and engine harness (so as not to ruin my current one) and fiddle around with that. As long as I have all the right connectors and they go to the right place on the engine and ECM all should be well. Heck, why couldnt I just cut my own wires and hook them up to all new connectors. The car is 11 years old! Id think if I did it the right way I could probably prevent more problems than I would cause. Plus I would still have my old harness for safety's sake
 
there is a guy on a mustang forum who did a complete wire tuck on a 2013 gt500. it took MONTHS. ive seen pics in a couple different stages, and it looked great, until the final finished product. the engine bay looked absolutely naked, almost as if the engine was just floating there in the bay. IMHO do a little bit to reduce some clutter if you want, but i wouldnt tuck everything (far too much work and time and im pretty lazy hah). if you do go thru with it, solder and heat shrink tubes are a must, no twist n tape or butt connectors.
 
It totally depends on how in-depth you want to go, I did mine in about 12hours. All solder and heatshrink connections.

Next plan is to get another wiring harness, as to extend the one in the car, so I can route everything totally hidden.

*These pics are about a month old or so, nothing fantastic, but much much better than stock.
IMG_20130818_190552_860_zps5dc8d83a.jpg


IMG_20130818_190542_603_zpsaed44f2e.jpg


IMG_20130817_215617_066_zps6c6d4c03.jpg


IMG_20130817_224558_234_zpse6c17ed3.jpg
 
agreed that i dont want to spend 2 month doing the tuck, but I am willing to take the time to hide the uglies and make that angine bay shine!

MGSquid, where are you routing your wires to/from? do you need to worry about engine movement if you're bringing wires around to the back and from the firewall to the engine?

Also, wheres is the best place to find a new-to-me wiring harness...or can you get one from a dealership?
 
Junkyard, or ebay. Junkyards are usually 20-50 for the harness, ebay is 50-150 or so.

As far as routing, the plan is to have everything coming from the rear of the bay. Movement shouldn't be an issue as long as you give yourself a little slack in the wires. with the upper motor mounts off, i rocked the engine back and forth as far as it would go to ensure no wires were going to be pulled on.
 


Any pointers about areas to stay away from or spots that are good for holding the wires? Also, just for my clarification, the wiring will basically be from the ECM to the connecter for each of the sensors right? I'm guessing a line to ground/power as well?
 
The wiring will be from the ECM to everywhere, and from everywhere to the fuse box, and a little in between.

In all seriousness, the bulk of the wiring you'll be concerned with will be from the sensors/connectors to the main wiring harness.

Keep all the wires away from the exhaust, throttle linkage, and radiator fans (and obviously any sharp edges)


Behind/below the fuel rails is a great spot to hide wires, so is between the driver side upper engine mount and the front valve cover.
 
Totally rehashing a dead thread!

Was curious how your tuck job has come Machinegunsquid.

Also, I'm hoping to find some free-ish time in the near-ish future and I was looking at all my projects that have since been placed on pause.

Coming back to this thread, I was wondering, If I make my own harness (from scratch) what guage/type of wire should I be looking at? Solid core? copper? steel? 18 guage? Any advice is welcome!

Also, speaking of cleaning things up, the fuse box:

Looking in the cabin, when I remove the center console and associated plastic, I notice lots of empty space and was wondering if the main fuse box could sit in there. If so, where is a good place to make an exit for the wire to go into the engine bay? Any advice here is welcome also!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top