[Jeff Weiss]

I got out the large duffel bag that had all the wiring in it and proceded to practice cussing.
If you had it to do over what would you do if you wanted to keep things like the inertia switch, fuel pump, transmission, donor instruments, and the EFI.
I can strip it if I have to but would like to find a better way. I know that the donor instruments would be the first casualty.
Please just let me know your thoughts

Thanks
Jeff

 

[CobraEarl]

KISS. Keep it simple, Stupid.

Personally I went the Carb route and had the Painless harness. Do not regret it.

I hate interlocks and all that BS.

THE INERTIA Switch is a GOOD IDEA, tho, to me.

earl

 

[RacingRob]

I went with a basically stock build.(EFI) I maybe cut off a couple stray connectors that weren,t being used on the Mustang to start with. In other words, I didn't strip my harness at all. I tucked stuff up out of sight. The wires that would have been stripped out of the harness are all out of sight anyway. I don't see any reason to strip the harness other than weight savings.
I'm sure many will disagree with me on this, but I just don't think it's neccessary to cut down the harness.
RR

 

[Jim Smith]

I stripped some of my harness .If I were to do it over again I would send the whole harness out to one of the guys on the forum that strips them.This way you get rid of the misc B.S. but keep the ford connectors(they are all different pairs,you can only plug one male into one female)this way there are no mistakes .And be done with it.Good Building.

[ August 18, 2002, 09:14 PM: Message edited by: Smitty ]

 

[John Phillips]

I'm an electrical idiot, and built my first FFR like Racing Rob says: stock Mustang harness, didn't strip anything out, used Mustang switchgear and EFI harness and computer, etc. Plug and Play heaven! Four years, 62,000+ miles, every kind of weather and crap falling from the sky, constant abuse on the street and lots of autocross. Never an electrical problem or failure...until the whole car burned to death a few months ago (we think the Ford alternator harness started the blaze).

New car is a Painless harness build, because I wanted to try it, and thought it'd be more sanitary and a simple matter to graft the EFI harnesses onto it. I repeat I'm an electrical idiot. I've now spent lots of hours trouble-shooting electric problems, most caused by me, and missed my first chance to autocross the car today because I've done something that caused the battery to drain itself down to the level of a stone, so the car couldn't be started. I've been cussing myself for not taking advantage of the FFR K.I.S.S. electrical design using the stock Ford harness, cause it would've saved much time and been easier for me given my particular lack of electric skills. I know the Painless harness is a quality product, and will be reliable once I straighten out a couple of gremlins, but who needs the grief?

So, I'm a big fan of the stock Mustang harness, if you're going EFI. If it's gonna be a carb build, then use the Painless. That's my opinion!

[ August 18, 2002, 09:27 PM: Message edited by: John Phillips ]

 

[falcon2500]

Here is how I was planning on doing it.
Nail the whole harness to the wall as if it were in the donor. Mark doors, trunk, engine compartment, etc. I plan on marking every connector some way to identify it. Then get one of those good schmatics and start cutting out what is not needed. Seat belt connectors, power windows . . . . .

 

[DARTER]

I have the wiring diagrams for the mustang harnesses. (the good large prints) I went and copied them to single sided sheets and taped them end to end. (this makes them much easier to follow/read) When you unroll these prints they will be about 16-18 feet long.I strung it up on one wall of the garage and used it from there. If anyone is interested I can run somemore copies and mail them to you. I will have to go to a copie center that has the machines for large copies. As I remember it was a little pricey. I can check....

Forrest

 

[Jim Smith]

IMHO most of the general purpose manuals that have prints in them are junk .Many have inaccurate wire colors,and who wants to second guess the prints every time you do something .The best I've found is the Ford EVTM(avalible at your Ford dealer),or if you are really lucky you may be able to find a shop that has acess to Mitchell software,and is willing to print you a copy for your particual year.This software is expensive and very good.It allows the user to print accurate schematics on one continuous page,from battery to fuse to load and everything in between.But the Ford EVTM is much easier to find

(has to be ordered for your year),and very accurate,you just have to deal with flipping pages back and forth.Good Building

 

[dpmac]

I had my harness cut down by Weatherbee Speed. Great job, no complaints. I did that because I did not remove the harness from the donor and was quite intimidated by the large "Box O' Wire". Since then I have helped wire 2-3 FFR's. I am a wiring kind of guy and would have no problem stipping a harness knowing what I know now.

If was to build another FFR I would just hide the unused connectors. Tie wrap everything out of sight and get on with the build. The 300 bucks or so for a wire diet can be spent on go fast goodies.

Just my .02

 

[Richard Oben]

Easy, Send it to Roger or Rob and forget it. I do this everyday and the painless is not. The Factory harness cut down is the answer for EFI. I have done many of each and will never do an efi car without a dieted harness. I send them out in a 38 pound box all mess and nasty. They come back in an 18 pound box all clean and rewrapped. Plug and play. From box to running in about 20 minutes. Cheers Richard.

 

[Micobrael]

I am not an electrician or anything but createing circuts has never been a great mystery to me. I started from scratch. Spools of 12 and 14 guage and some 8-10 for main battery a fuse block and assorted switches and such from hot rod suppliers and have not had to redo anything every thing worke first time. All the wire is inside wire looms, One that runs to the rear of the car and one to the front, They run down one side then accros the noseand tail to keep it clean looking and used several different colors as to keep it less confusing. Other than switches the bulk of wire and parts come from Home Depot! Just make sure to any one doing this themselves You Solder every connection and use heat shrink, I don't like the crimp connectors because they eventually fail and cause intermitant problems wich are the worst to locate. I say don't be afraid to do it from scratch just do it right.

 

[paul burchett]

I agree with Smitty. The EVTM (Electrical & Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual) is the book to use. The wiring diagrams from Helm are detailed and accurate but not very user friendly. By the time you trace one wire from page to page to page and back again you forget why you were looking at it. Each circuit is on one page (two pages for EEC circuit) in the EVTM, there is a short description of how the circuit works, all the connectors are numbered with an index locating each in the Mustang, etc. I used the EVTM to strip my harness with zero problems. It is printed by Helm. The part number is FPS-12121-xx. Insert your model year as the last two numbers.

 

[n559br]

When I got out my harness I found some bare wire where the insulation had been either burned back or just worn out with age. So I have gone with the Wire Works harness for bot the EFI and chassis wiring. I'm glad I did. All brand new wire routed the way I want it. Both fuse box and computer in the trunk.

Ben

 

[BROWN TROUT]

I labeled everything that I needed and then cut out the remainder of the junk. Then added a few wires for additional items.
There is no way that I could stand to think of all that extra junk being tucked away "somewhere" Nothing wrong with that, but just not possible for me.
I deleted the oxygen sensor harness and ran those wires through each side harness.

 

[Jeff Weiss]

After reading your replys the answer popped into my head. Mock it up, make it work, strip the extras and get on with it.

I only need two things now to complete the basic build. A 140 MPH speedo cluster and a proM 75 bullet for 19 Lb injectors. I just was told by local junk man that the 88 GT did not come with a 140 speedo, is that true? Was it an option?

Thanks
Jeff

 

[CobraEarl]

Originally posted by Jeff Weiss:
After reading your replys the answer popped into my head. Mock it up, make it work, strip the extras and get on with it.

Thanks
Jeff

SOunds to me like there are folks that like every concievable option on the wiring. SO, we must not be able to go wrong.

earl

 

[Wes Tausend]

If I had it to do over again I would mark each connector more carefully as I stripped the donor. The problem is that I wasn't always sure just what I was unplugging and should have looked it up and marked it thusly. There were a few ends that took a little longer to figure where they went. Some of my masking tape/ballpoint tags were hard to read and I skipped some that seemed obvious during teardown but not as obvious during plug-back-in time. Still it was no big deal.

 

[BatMobile]

Western Union!!



LMAO

ROTFL

I kill me sometimes!

lol

Neill

 

[n559br]

If you need help with the connectors let me know. The wire-works harness came with a sheet with a diagream of each connector and its' function. It is great for those of us without a donor.

Ben

 

[DrDave]

Jeff,
140 mph speedos arrived on the scene in '89. They have them at MPS but you'd probably get a better price at your local boneyard.
-Dave