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Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

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Kyle_christina

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

I realized i never have given a picture of the old harness so here it is. And i bought this wire gauge on amazon to help determine exact wire size that i need to buy. It was $8 and free shipping with prime.

1986 ford f150 2 wheel drive
302 modified
Bored .40 over dished pistons, windsor jr heads,
Performer camper cam, hardened push rods, roller rockers,
Double roller timing chain and stock intake (ran out of money at age 16)
Needs alot of work still.

85lebaront2

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

Administrator

That looks about as bad as the one my son had in his 1986. When I get over to Newport News VA again, I will see if I can get the box of 1985.5/1986 harness stuff.

Bill AKA "LOBO" Profile

"Getting old is inevitable, growing up is optional" Darth Vader 1986 F350 460 converted to MAF/SEFI, E4OD 12X3 1/2 rear brakes, traction loc 3:55 gear, 160 amp 3G alternator Wife's 2011 Flex Limited Daily Driver 2009 Flex Limited with factory tow package Project car 1986 Chrysler LeBaron convertible 2.2L Turbo II, modified A413

Kyle_christina

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

It is definitely in rough shape. Just about every wire seems to have been fixed at some point by grafting in wire in different places and alot of butt connectors lol. I appreciate your help. I am going to try to document what each wire size is. I found some 18 gauge, 16 and i haven't been able to get back to it yet to see what the rest of it is. My thoughts were to just buy 16 gauge for all of the harness minus the bigger stuff since i am going to be splicing most connectors in anyway. What are your thoughts?

85lebaront2

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

Administrator

The problem with buying a loot of 16 gauge, it makes the bundle a lot thicker. On splicing, do not rely on crimp splices, the sensor circuits are 5 volt across, so a little resistance will mess it up totally. I do have sources for some of the connectors and their innards and a pretty fair assortment I have salvaged. What I plan on doing for the 60 pin EEC connector is to take it loose from the harness as far as the wires run so you will have some to work with.

Bill AKA "LOBO" Profile

Kyle_christina

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

I really appreciate you going through the trouble to get that 60 pin connector and other pigtails. Thanks for the feedback about wire size. I am just going to go through and check every wire, document what size it is and order wire accordingly then. I didn't know how much it would affect the way it would run. I was just going off the fact that it ran with all of the butchered wiring the way it was and figured it would still be a night and day difference. I am not going to do any crimping unless it is new pins. I am going to solder all connections together. I know there is a large debate about that too! It seems to be about a 50/50 split with soldering vs crimping.

85lebaront2

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

Administrator

This post was updated on .

As far as soldering vs. crimping, IF you can get heat shrink crimps with the sealer in them to be heat shrunk down over the splice, then it MIGHT be ok. You might want to ask the ones who are in favor of crimped vs soldered and heat shrunk (a) how much rewiring they have done and (b) how long it has lasted.

FWIW, the man who taught me about wiring had an MS in electrical engineering from MIT.

Bill AKA "LOBO" Profile

Gary Lewis

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

Administrator

In reply to this post by Kyle_christina

I solder. And use adhesive-lined heat shrink.

The only crimps I use are for battery cables, and those are done using 16 ton hydraulic crimpers giving extremely tight crimps.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
Blue: 2015 F150 Platinum 4x4 SuperCrew wearing Blue Jeans & sporting a 3.5L EB & Max Tow
Big Blue: 1985 F250HD 4x4: 460/ZF5/3.55's, D60 w/Ox locker & 10.25 Sterling/Trutrac, Blue Top & Borgeson, & EEC-V MAF/SEFI

Kyle_christina

Re: Engine harness rebuild 5.0 efi

I like soldering because in my field we solder everything for our test equipment. I work for deere and setup tests on our construction and forestry equipment. Anyway our stuff gets rattled and beat to death and the solder joints are almost never the fail point if there is a failure. So it is hard for me to be on the crimp bandwagon too.