Hello everyone! 

 

I am a newbie when it comes to this so I just wanted to clarify before I do something dumb lol! I am swapping a '91 Legacy EJ22 engine and 5 speed in my '82 brat. I have the wiring harness stripped of the tape and shielding. 

For reducing the harness, am I just finding stuff I don't need and cutting off the connector, then taking the wires and following them back as far as possible and cutting them off? I just want to be sure before I do anything drastic. Also, I can run two different harnesses, the preexisting one in the brat in addition to the new one correct? With the EJ22 harness I wasn't planning on having the lights and stuff included since I have them already hooked up on the old harness.

 

Thanks for the help! I appreciate it!

 

Cheers

Basically. I find and identify every wire in the diagrams before I decide what to do with it. If it's not needed, I cut as much of it out as I can (I usually leave about 3", just in case I made a mistake). If it will be needed but not the connector, I leave as much as possible, and coil it up and mark it with masking tape.

 

Yes, the EA81 harness is extremely simple by comparison, so just leave it as-is and splice in where you need to. There will be a half a dozen wires or so that are made redundant, but no big deal. Easiest to leave it all there to control body circuits (lights, dash, etc.).

10 hours ago, Numbchux said:

Basically. I find and identify every wire in the diagrams before I decide what to do with it. If it's not needed, I cut as much of it out as I can (I usually leave about 3", just in case I made a mistake). If it will be needed but not the connector, I leave as much as possible, and coil it up and mark it with masking tape.

  

Yes, the EA81 harness is extremely simple by comparison, so just leave it as-is and splice in where you need to. There will be a half a dozen wires or so that are made redundant, but no big deal. Easiest to leave it all there to control body circuits (lights, dash, etc.).

What would be a case where you need the wire but not the connector?

Anything that connects to the body harness. Power wires. Temperature and oil pressure.

5 hours ago, Numbchux said:

Anything that connects to the body harness. Power wires. Temperature and oil pressure.

Okay man thanks!

 

Hey... did you write that conversion manual? If so thanks man that is the best damn piece of literature I have ever read!

Yep. It was almost 15 years ago, so a lot has changed, but mostly still relevant.

U know Numbchux, it would be really useful to actually take the time and revise the write up with things that we have learned and that works better. Just my 2 cents. 

1 hour ago, Naked Buell said:

U know Numbchux, it would be really useful to actually take the time and revise the write up with things that we have learned and that works better. Just my 2 cents. 

It would. It took quite a bit of time to do then, and I was single, and working part time, and "going" to school....well, enrolled anyway. Got a wife, 2 kids, career, old house, and a couple dozen other projects, now. I like to stay active and see what people are doing, and offer help when I can, but I can't see me sitting down and re-doing the manual.

Life does keep us busy. High school and homework and some chores doesn't look so bad when you look back. 

So I found it easiest to cut unneeded connectors off of the donor harness as your pulling it.While your pulling the body harness cut the connectors off for the horn,AC,headlights,wipers, all the wires to the instrument cluster,and anything further back than the doors, as well as the relay box(you will only need 2 relays and they are under the dash).The 2 relays you will need are silver cylinders, The ignition relay has a brown connector and the fuel pump relay has a green relay.Any wires that go to either of them leave them long and ignore them.

Then lay out the harness as it was installed in the car.You are gonna need a fairly large area that the harness wont be disturbed for a couple of days.

remove all the tape and wire looms.

Pick any cut wire and trace it back to its source.Many wires will end at a splice,cut the wire at the splice but leave the splice intact until its not needed.Some wires will end at the relays/ECM.Its OK leave them long and ignore them for the time being.At the end look up the ecu wire diagram to see what wires you cut are needed.Some will need power...Its a good idea to label the various cut wires (VSS,12+ switched,etc)

As your going along the alternator harness will fall out of the harness.Set it aside for latter.Eventually it will need to be wired into the car.There are some diodes in the harness they are important-they are little brown/black boxes with 1 wire in/out.

Some 2-4 wire connectors will end up with only one wire going to them.They can cut the same as the rest of the wires.They are probably grounds for components that don't exist anymore.

After you have ran out of cut wires I like to cut out the HUGE body connector and splice the wires because it saves space.ONLY cut/splice ONE WIRE AT A TIME!

I like to collect and group up various leads by function ie all wires that need 12V switched power,or 12V in run,etc

Tape the stripped harness every couple of inches and test fit it in the car, you may have shorten/lengthen varius wires to get the harness to fit how you want it to.Remove harness to modify harness,then test fit.When your happy with the harness remove from the car for final taping/wire looms.

 

 

On 3/18/2020 at 8:42 PM, Numbchux said:

It would. It took quite a bit of time to do then, and I was single, and working part time, and "going" to school....well, enrolled anyway. Got a wife, 2 kids, career, old house, and a couple dozen other projects, now. I like to stay active and see what people are doing, and offer help when I can, but I can't see me sitting down and re-doing the manual.

I am looking for this manual but I can't seem to find it. Anyone got a link???

12 hours ago, Skubaskott said:

 

I am looking for this manual but I can't seem to find it. Anyone got a link???

Its pinned in Retrofitting FAQ. 2nd topic thread. Several links in there too.

Edited April 13, 20205 yr by czny