Hey guys, Like many of us - my engine loom is very brittle and most connectors are stuffed. I often get a misfire which can be remedied by wiggling the loom. I have found out that its not really the connectors that are the problem but the actual body of the loom must have a broken connection or something. I know you can buy new looms for like $600 odd but has anyone tried repairing their current loom? I've already got a set of new injector plugs and I could also go get some coil pack plugs. I suppose I could then use new wire for the loom and join it to the existing loom at the back of the engine. I don't mind stuffing around with electronics - I was just wondering if anyone else has attempted this?
I'm not sure if anyone on this site has done this but it's doable - the loom is only a bunch of wires after all. I've seen auto electricians doing custom looms for unusual engine swaps so there's no reason that you couldn't do it to. Let us know how you go. Cheers, Evan.
It can be done. You will need a soldering iron, some heat shrink, new electrical wires (not sure what gauge?) and heat resistant electrical tape (yes there is such a thing) and most importantly bucketloads of patience. The OEM wires are all different colours, issues will most likely arrise when you attempt to aligning the different colours of your new electrical wire with the OEM harness colours. Be sure to label all the wires you cut using a consistent, logical labelling convention so that you don't run the risk of crossing over any wires when you splice into the harness. (that could cause some damage, depending on what wires you cross)
also i recall when i priced replacing most of the connectors on my EFI harness it looked as though it would cost more then $200 for just the connectors. Thats why I chose to just replace the whole thing ($450 USDM harness).
Buy a loom. I pulled my loom apart (unwrapped it) the wires inside looked pretty good, no cracks and supple. It was difficult enough to just re-wrap the thing. Imo your wasting your time, unless you?ve done something like this before and feel comfortable with the job, buy a new one!
you can just replace the plugs Caz1 supplies them its a cheap economical way to do it. The plugs and their pins fail also the conductor in the plastic covered cable just behind the pins,just cut the cables back a little and most of your problems will be solved. Caz saved the day at Cowra for one Zedder .
A local guy near me does Z repairs all the time. He says that just changing out the connectors is just as good as replacing the harness. Idea is to do all of them (injectors, idle control, AAC, FICD ,etc). Any connector with a torn/cracket dust boot needs to be fixed. Did 11 of them on my Z last year and everything runs great -- pain in the ass to do them tho. Pretty time consuming and boring...
When i did my rebuild I was tempted to replace the whole loom due to it being brittle and ratty etc. However it is just as cost effective to work out if the wire itself is buggered, if its not, most likely just your connectors are. I changed all mine from the "bastard" clip types to the quick release ones. Since all connections are now clean and secure - i have had no problems with it. If i did want it looking better... i'll just rewrap it all. Which would be a bitch of a job im sure. :bash:
