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Well my upgraded engine wiring harness came in this morning and it looks as if it's in fantastic shape. If not for getting a little blackness on my hands from unfolding it I would swear that it was brand new. All of the wires look great and everything is really soft and flexible. Now if it was on the car things would be good.
I'm going to be tackling this job within the next couple of weeks (along with some help from a family member who is a mechanic). Does anyone have any advice on how to make the job go well and what, if any, potential problems I might need to look out for. Even though the harness does look rather intimidating I was relieved to note that I recognized probably 90% of the hookups I'll be dealing with which tells me I've at least got a chance of doing this job right.
I'm hoping that once I get this changed I will never have to deal with another electrical problem as long as I own this car. Pulling wrenches is no big deal but trying to figure out another electrical issue might just be the thing that sends me over the edge. :-)
Thanks,
Dave
--
I dream of a world where a chicken can cross the road without having its motives questioned.
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posted by
someone claiming to be schwied
on
Mon Jul 9 12:13 CST 2007 [ RELATED]
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Ditto to Pageda's warning on not mixing up the connectors for the IAC valve and the TPS. The connectors are the same, and at least on my car ('87 240) the wires did reach far enough to allow you to connect things wrong way. Check the wire colors on the old one to make sure you get the new one right (you can roll back the rubber connectors far enough to see. The Bentley manual also has this wire color information.
Even though the rest of the connectors cannot be mis-connected, it doesn't hurt to label them with masking tape and a pen.
The idea of taking pictures is a good one. I didn't do this--just memorized how the main harness goes down through the intake manifold. Other than that it was pretty obvious.
I did not remove and replace the intake manifold when I did this. It worked fine, with a bit of extra tugging.
The harness can look a bit complicated, esp. considering that you're working on a black magic system like FI. But it's really pretty simple--there is only a small set of things that need to be connected to. This is one of those jobs that teaches you quite a bit about your car.
DS
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Did the Harness on my 86 245DL this spring, got lucky and found a donor car at the PUP with a replacement harness in it. If you do not make my mistakes, it is not a hard job at all.
You do not have to pull the intake manifold or take off the Throttle Body unless you just want too. Had the benefit of having removed the donor car harness at the PUP and not having to be careful doing it. Just take off the Hose that goes from the intake box to the Throttle Body including the AMM and you can reach everything. Then remove the flame trap and the hose that goes to the throttle body. Took off the Constant Idle Motor and its hoses also and that really opens things up nicely. See the part about the motor mount later however.
Great time to clean the breather box and replace the o-ring. Also time to clean the flame trap and lube the constant idle motor. Leave it off the Flame Trap hose until you get the old harness out and the new one in place. Check all your hoses and vacuum lines for cracks and leaks. You will be removing most of that stuff anyway. Take loose all the connectors and make a note of color and location. I have digital pictures of the connectors before the harness was removed if you need any.
Did have a couple of hard learned lessons. When taking off the Constant Idle motor, put the bolts back in right after removing the mounting bracket. The bolts that hold the lower end of the bracket are motor mount bolts. Just put the bolts back in the hole and tighten them back down before moving on to the next task. Did not do that on Inga, and the mount slipped later in the job when the front end was raised to get to the harness that runs under the engine. Take care removing the connector to the hall effect on the distributor in the under the block harness. Busted Inga’s when I got carried away removing the connector and had to get a donor distributor and get it installed the next day. Watch where you put the spade lug on the starter solenoid. There are two spade lugs on that solenoid and the one that you want to use is kind of hidden next to the big red wires. There is an unused lug sitting out there in the open that begs you to plug onto it. Already knew about that one, but it is easy to do.
Remove the connector from inside the car from the computer and the FPR and pass the connetors through the firewall. Unplug the O2 Sensor wire and feed that part of the harness through the intake manifold. Unplug the old harness connectors and take a few clamps loose on the drivers side. Then the whole harness comes right out. Pass the new harness through the manifold from the drivers side of the car and make sure the harness lays correctly behind the valve cover. Then you are ready to start plugging things back in. Start inside the car plugging in the FPR and the Computer connector. Seat the rubber grommet properly. Then work your way from the O2 sensor, to the throttle body, then the connections under the manifold. Get the AMM Connector and Constant Idle Motor plugs close to where they need to go. If you are installing the under the engine harness do that before installing the battery connections or putting the hoses and AMM back. Getting that distributor connector through that hole by the block and the AC Compressor may cause the use of some of the 7 words you can not say on the radio. Once you get that feed through the connections are easy. Took about four hours from start to finish and that was with a whole lot of cleaning on the block. Plug the hole on top of the breather box before getting too carried away with degreasing things.
The Busted connection on the distributor delayed the completion of the job, but once the donor part got installed, she roared back to life.
Good Luck,
PT
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From reading on the BB it seems the connectors for the throttle position switch and the Idle air control valve are the same? Pay close attention to the colors of the wires on each of these as it is installed now and make sure you get the correct connector on each of them when you are done. If you cross them up you will burn out the ECU. All the rest of the connectors are pretty self explanitory when you lay out the harness, Dan
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PageDA is correct. For some reason I still have that oily old harness in the garage hanging on the wall and they are the same.
Never noticed that little fact.
And they are about the same length. So something to watch out for.
PT
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I just finished my 86 245's re-wiring. Since my harness was mostly bare copper inside of the cover, I cut it off at the firewall and installed GM style conector bodies there to handle the 19 wires. I used a good harness from another 86 that I salvaged a couple of years ago and cut it at the appropriate spot for the matching connectors. It took the better part of the day because I soldered every terminal connection, but the car fired and ran smooth on the first crank.
Definitely pull the intake manifold and don't route the wires back through the last runner. (I separated the injector wiring from the rest of the package so it would lay on top of the valve cover and give me more room underneath for the periodic cleaning of the oil separator.)
I've been running no flame trap on either of the wagons for some time now (the turbos don't use them) and just clamp the hose directly to the oil separator. There has been no oil in the intake and I haven't seen any flame that needs to be trapped yet.
While you are working on the flame trap, change the Coolant temp sensor also. It is cheap and much easier to replace with the manifold off.
Regards,
--
Will Dallas, www.willdallas.us, www.willdallas.org, www.willdallas.com 86 245 DL 222K miles, 93 940 260K miles, 88 765 GLE 152K miles
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Now you see the reason for putting that by-pass wire.
Never have I done a wiring harness, just luck - I suppose. BUT from reading the BB here's a few tips.
Flame trap relocation. This is a great opportunity for that. Look at the location of the flame trap, and the routing of the wiring harness. I have both a 1986 and a 1988 244, and I was overjoyed at the 1988 flame trap location. Servicing it take 15 minutes and NO skinned knuckles or dirty fingers (vinyl gloves).
The 1986 FT can be changed to equal the 1988. One way, my way, is to buy new parts - separator box, 0-ring, hoses, trap and holder, etc. The big problem on the was that the new trap hose comes up between Intake Rail #3 and #4 but on the 1986 that space is filled with wiring harness. So relocation of the FT means re-routing the wiring harness. Well...
So the job grows. Get a new intake manifold gasket, and a new throttle body gasket. Pull the throttle body for cleaning, probably needs it anyway, and you have good access to pulling out the old oil separator box. After the new harness its in, put in the new FT stuff, and the cleaned TB, being careful to adjust the throttle position switch correctly. The new harness goes below the I-manifold beween Rail #4 and the firewall.
Because of the harness work done under the I-manifold, lots of BBer's pull the manifold, too. Look carefully, if you run the new harness behind the manifold rather than through it, pulling the manifold may be unnecessary.
You can put in the new gasket without disconnecting everything attached to the manifold, it just needs to move enough to clear the studs. Good idea too, as a leaky intake manifold gasket is a tough vacuum leak to find and will cause a lean mixture on one cylinder which the 02 sensor picks up and tells the ECU to add fuel to all the cylinders.
Another tip - Take a lot of pictures before you start the job. Helps to see what connectors go where. There are three sensors on the intake side on the engine, knock sensor, engine coolant temp (speaks to ECU) and water temp (speaks to temp gauge). Two of them can be physically swapped, and indeed the connector to the IAC might fit a "wrong" place, too.
Make a little chart of where the wires are in the gray connector. Red, yellow, black and blue-yellow and four empty boxes. Look on the connector for little numbers. AAlmost every terminal on the car has a number. The D/61+ is terminal 61, for example. Relays, too, numbers are at the base of each lug.
Starter connection. Before removing the old wire, note which of the two spade lugs it connects to. There is an unused spade lug, might want to wrap it with masking tape. BTW, positive battery cable OFF for the whole job.
The harness contains the part that goes under the front of the engine. Plan on getting down there and making things clean. Vinyl gloves help. ($8 for a box of 100 at ACE hardware paint department.) If the bend-able tabs that hold the harness in place have lost their rubber tips, wrap them in several layers of vinyl electrical tape.
More folks will have other tips. Might want to print them off. the "Print" tab makes a good print format.
Good Luck,
Bob
:>)
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Pageda and Bob....
Thanks a million for the tips. Like I said in my previous post I do have a family member who is going to help me with this project and also a timing belt change at the same time. I think we are also going to tackle a differential leak on the same day so it should be a pretty full one.
Bob, I realize that your post must have taken quite a while to type out and I want you to know that I appreciate it. I'm going to print it out (along with all other posts I get on this subject) and have them handy when we begin the job.
The tip on taking plenty of photos is a good one and I'm pretty sure the digital camera will be put to good use before beginning.
I was already planning on pulling the intake manifold for this job. Not only is it supposed to make the job much easier it will give me the chance to clean the throttle body as well as either change or clean the oil trap. When I changed tha flame trap the last time I noticed that there was a minor buildup in the oil trap but (right or wrong) I had my wife start the car while the flame trap was off. When she did this, I got a face full of oil trap gunk. Little flecks of nastiness came flying out of that sucker and nearly blinded me. I figure that if nothing else it helped open up the oil trap so I don't see how that could be a bad thing.
I've done some reading on the flame trap relocation but I really don't think I'll do it. The last time I pulled the flame trap it didn't take any longer than 15 minutes start to finish. Now I will say here that I have a very good wife who doesn't mind getting her hands a little dirty and since she has tiny hands, they do come in handy for reseating the trap assembly. If she ever decides that I'm a loser and finds someone else, I might have to look into the relocation at that time. :-)
One other question that you might be able to answer for me is this....
When I do the timing belt change, would you recommend getting the new timing belt from the dealership or going with one from Groton? I see that they offer a timing belt, cam and crank seal, tensioner kit on Evilbay. I didn't know if I would be better off going with original Volvo parts or if these would be okay. Honestly I'm a little more anxious about the timing belt change than I am the wiring harness.
So, thanks again for everything. I've noticed that there are quite a few of you who are always quick to respond to questions (Pageda, yourself and Art come to mind right off) and for a newbie that means a lot. I can't believe how much I've learned in just a little over a week on this site. I've spent a lot of time on various sites while restoring my old John Deere garden tractors and many of them have been very helpful, but.... This really is the best site I've ever been on for technical help.
Have a great week guys,
Dave
--
I dream of a world where a chicken can cross the road without having its motives questioned.
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FCP sells continetal timing belts and they are as good as any. The tensioner is INA (i think) and that is OEM. Do the three oil seals with the timing bellt if any of them are leaking, get OEM Elring oil seals. Dan
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