Its coming back together nicely. You must be pretty chuffed with been able to do it all properly and sorting out a few other things along the way. Keep plodding along.
Yes, I'm pretty pleased so far. Main issue is wanting to do too good of a job and finding all the right pins for most of the connectors. I want to do the splice a bit of old to the new routine as little as possible.
So we're a couple of weeks on from my last update here. With many a side step into other honey do’s and appointments I’m still running wires…
I’d gotten to the point that I had the full ecu wired up to the connector ends. From there I decided to go connector by connector to fill in the missing wires that didn’t have a direct relation to the ecu. These are usually of the type that go from one connector directly to another or go to ground or power.
In doing so I came across some dubiously documented wires. It all made sense when I wrote it down, and it wasn’t wrong, just confusing when it came to the rebuild. It just didn’t seem logical. For instance: a connector of 0.25mm2 wires that would seem to connect to a 2.0mm2 wire in my registration. But when looking at the connector you’d only see the 0.25mm2 wire. Turns out these type of issues occur where these wires join a junction. You basically have a bigger 12v feed to said junction and 5 other wires take off from here. Including the thin one. But I used the least likely connector as the target in my registration.
Anyway, those types of issues take time. I’ve had to double back a couple of times to verify my work just because I found something weird in my registration. But in the end it seems I’ve done everything right so far, there are just some things to be mindful of when it comes to actually adding the connectors, crimping them. So where am I now? Well, 30 wires away from completing the loom and 29 away from a meltdown. After adding the final wires I’ll be ready to add the connectors. I’ve found and ordered most of the pins I should need. Not all unfortunately, but fortunately those are mostly located in the bit/connectors between the new loom and the “ end user” like dash gauges or PATS reader. Bits that are still fine, that I’ll only rework if necessary for a nicer fit. All the major signal and power and ground carrying wires will have new pins on both ends. I’m expecting them any day now. So I should be done in a week or two.
My goal is to end up with a loom that is partially wrapped so it stays in the right shape and can be fitted for a test. I’ll hook it all up and then pray to whatever entity I need to prevent another meltdown and hope for a smooth fire up of the engine. From day one, the engine has always been good at starting so I hope it will do so after my intervention. In essence I’ve only been remaking what a friend made for me years ago… But the fact I still have no real clue why the ground wires burnt in the first place casts some doubts…
Honestly though, the past weeks it has become more and more difficult to work on the wires. Wet weather preventing me from making enough room in the garage meant working on the dinner table, but slower going. The afore mentioned issues in the registration and the extra checks did nothing for my mental state. Sometimes I felt I was going crazy going in circles checking checks I had just made. The fact it usually had to be done in short stints due to other commitments didn’t help either. The sheer amount of work left felt like a mountain to climb. The fun of it all had begun to make way for a need. I didn’t want to do this job anymore I simply needed to do this job. Like it or not. And I’ve been in an or not period of late. The realization I’m only 30 wires from completion and then a good session of crimping and fitting pins to connectors and soldering or crimping in the bits left came just in time.
So coming weekend I hope to finish the loom. Spending the next week or so crimping pins and transitioning the connectors I cannot re-pin. Then I can work my way to the test run. If successful the loom can be wrapped, the other systems plumbed in again, front end put back together and the interior as well. So still a good bit of work left, but at least there’s some hope I’ll have the car back together again before year end.
Now one thing I’d like is to find someone who can help me with some 3d printing…
Post by grumpynorthener on Nov 17, 2022 13:33:47 GMT
Alex - Thanks for the update - keeping plugging away at it and it's not just you that gets to a point whereby you start to question yourself / abilities - My current Jupiter project in the workshop has thrown no end of challenges at me but when I get to the point where it becomes hard work I just tell myself that there's no magic fairy going to come along and do it for me - stick at it - you're making great progress - maybe not has quick as you would like but great progress none the less
Spurred on by the imminent yet unknown arrival of the pins for many of my connectors, I felt I hade to make some headway on the loom this weekend... I had some obligations that cost my most of my Saterday and part of my Sunday so Friday morning was my best opportunity.
By nine I had watched the previous nights car shows from discovery channel and had the loom and all the new wire etc. layed out on the dinner table and around me. Laptop fired up and just going through the list of connectors. Turns out I had only a few PATS wires to run and the rest was mainly power and ground/earth stuff. The most important one being a collection of several items that ground through pin 91 of the ecu via a bus bar. New pins for this are in the expected order so I skipped this bit. The other earths were also going to a junction, one that I'm not yet sure where to position. I feel that in order to finish the loom properly I will/might once more have to put it in the car so I can cut all the wires that have a bit over over length to size and decide on where to add the relevant earth points (jury's out on this one).
So having concluded the above I decided to make a start with adding the first connectors to the loom. There are a pair of 16 pin conncetors that both only have very thin wires going to them. The 0.35mm2 gauge wire I bought to replace these is thick in comparison. One connector is the PATS one and the other the dash/gear shifter module one. So I started by adding the Pats one in. This one has a some 11 wires actually pinned. And there are some overlaps to keep track off. A good test to see if I have all the wires I was supposed to have. Turns out I did! Also all overlaps/crosslinks etc. seemed to be in place. So I soldered these wires together. Shrink wrapped them and wrapped this bit of loom up. With the one PATS connector came a bit of loom leading to another (the PATS ring hey reader) so I added that in as well. By the way, I tried crimping these wires on a bit of a test piece, but wasn't happy with the results of the pull test. The crimps I had were too large in size to work well on this wire thickness so I was forced to solder them. I do hope that the PATS signals will not be bothered by the solder joint.
And that was end of play. I had wanted to label all power feeds so I can more conveniently group them on the fuse box but ran out of time.
As we speak the loom is still on the table (thankfully I have a pretty understanding wife) and I hope to continue on the loom tonight. Revisiting the grounds/earths that remain for one and doing the labelling I wasn't able to before. I can also now start to de-pin the connectors to clean and prepare them for the new pins. I also need to check if I now have all relay wiring in place. So despite being well on the way now, still quite bit to do and all with the need to be precise...
I must say that once I was back at the job i enjoyed it again. On the other hand I also still felt that it was very easy to choose other things over continuing the work... In that respect I'm not fully there yet... but I did get on a bit so I count that as a partial win.
Well, with the pins finally in house, I really couldn’t have much reason not to make a push on the loom this weekend. So I tried… As expected with all that was planned I really only had part of the Saturday to work on it.
And so I did. I did underestimate how much time it would still take so obviously I didn’t quite get as far as I had liked. But the results so far are almost factory. I may sometimes have deviated from the original wire Colour in the diagrams (made note of that for future reference) but for look and feel with new pins on both sides of all the important bits I’m pretty happy.
First things first though, I wanted the two main connector wires separated into two bundles. From the ecu to the connector(s). By adding wire after wire to the loom they weren’t all running in an orderly fashion anymore. Some twists and crossovers made it a bit untidy. And as some wires split to go to more than one connector, they got a bit tangled. And I like things a bit more orderly. So each of the wires for these connectors were threaded back to the ecu and then ran back to the connector, much more orderly. In the end as both these bundles run in the same direction, they will probably end up wrapped as one for 85% of their length. But to make good decisions on the best way to wrap things I want to lay out all the wiring before wrapping. So in the mean time I try and hold its structure by using tie wraps.
Anyway next up was actually sizing up the wires as they were still a bit over in length and then crimping on the pins and threading them into the connector blocks. The crimping went very well, decent crimps on both the copper core as well as the insulation to keep it all in place. It wasn’t fast work though. Cut to length with one pair of pliers, another to strip the insulation exposing the core for 5mm and then using the crimping pliers to actually crimp on the pins. I used my excel registration to feed each wire to the right hole thereby at the same time checking my work. I also labelled all the power feeds I came into contact with so I can more easily combine the right wires to the 12 fuses I have available.
By end of work I had the two main connectors wired up. But there wasn’t more time to continue. And worse, I really should vacate the dining table with all my mess. So I tried to transport the loom as best as I could to my workbench in the cold of the garage. But the workbench is a bit short for it all. And at the moment it’s not a good working environment either. It’s cold for one, but it’s also too dark as last week first one light died, then later the other one as well. So apart from a meagre light source over my work bench I’m in the dark.
Also with these main connectors now wired up I feel like I’m at a point where I will have to put the loom in the car at least partially so I know where to cut the excess of some of the wires. Also, I used the wiring diagram to investigate the wiring to and from the fans and fan relay to make sure the way it was wired in before was correct (and it was) but as a result I held off running these wires and the best way to do that with minimal waste is in the car. And doing that requires access to the car from both sides which means putting it outside and it has been wet the last few days as well. Not the right circumstances for the jobs at hand.
So what do I do now? Well I think I’ll try and organize the other half of the loom from the ecu to its connector so the wires aren’t crossing. Probably determine from that where I need connectors splitting off the main loom and how to bundle it to wrap it all. The goal is to have a short section from the ecu where it all is one bundle only to split off soon after that to the right places. It’s a bit busy, that first stretch, because of my opportunity to now relocate some control units and making wiring to length, a lot of the important connectors stay close to the ecu location. I’m sure in the end it will be nicer than it was before. Additionally there are some connectors I can start to add even now as their location is relatively known and it’s no big deal if a section is a few cm’s longer than strictly necessary. One of these is again one that needs to be soldered. So work will continue as and when I can.
Biggest hurdle: mentally getting myself to actually do it. It’s hard to choose a cold garage over the warm living room and a decent movie on the telly. On the other hand, when I do work on the loom I feel quite good about it. As every little thing you do gets you closer to the end. Or to put it simply, each connector switched over is one less to go.
Note: On this first wire I had to crimp the insulation twice to get a good grip on the insulation. Turned out to be due to the positioning of the pin in the pliers. Any I didn't like I gave a little extra crimp.
Wow, is it me or are the weeks just going by faster and faster with every passing one? This year has gone pretty fast in general, but the past months that I’ve been working on getting my loom fixed just seem to be nothing but a blur…
Anyway, I had set myself some goals, so let’s see how much of those I managed to achieve, or not…
It actually went wrong pretty quickly, when after having to put the loom back in the garage on the workbench, the sheer cold in there meant there was no way in hell I was going to work on it in there. This gave me some more motivation for later in the week. By work week end on Thursday afternoon I still felt good about the progress I was going to make on Friday. So I made sure I was good to go and left it at that. Spent some quality time with the wife and kids.
So Friday came and although it’s my day off, the dog(s) still wake me at 6:10 at the latest and the kids both had to go to school. One was gone before 8 the other before 9. The wifey would be gone from around 10 or so. So I was up early enough and still highly motivated by the idea of having a full day with no (well almost no) interruption. So I started prepping the theatre…
I laid out the loom, all tools required, all pins and other materials like wires, crimps and what not that I could fit and organized the lot. When the wife left I put on the stereo (I love my (vintage) home system and new speakers) and got to work.
The work consisted of organizing the loom and adding connectors. In general all wires were running in the right direction, but by adding one here one there in the process they had become somewhat entangled or crossed. So now I was prepping to add the connectors to each end of their respective sections I wanted all wires going to that connector to be bundled together from the beginning. I could then also choose if I wanted to make a central main section with split offs or wrap some wires separately from the start. This obviously meant pulling these wires back through the loom and running them back to the same location only without entanglements. Keeping the right wires together once I had cut the bindings off that kept them together at their ends was sometimes quite challenging. One tangle usually impacted other wires going to other connectors so it became quite the puzzle and I needed to keep focus. It took me several hours to get it all neat. Everything now bundled in little sections.
It was now time to add the first connectors. The goal for the day was adding all connectors to the wiring that was confirmed as the right length and around the ecu section so that first central bit of loom could be made up. I also wanted to label any power feeds I hadn’t already.
I documented the connectors in situ on the old loom for fallback purposes and de-pinned or cut the first few off the old loom. The first one I added was the MAF connector. I had new pins for this and new water proofing caps. The cap got away from me a little on the first one, but it was still secure. The others went better. It felt good having made a start on adding more connectors, combined with the musical backing meant I really had a good time doing this. Feeling sort of euphoric even! And that totally drug free, lol.
It was then I discovered a mistake. I had previously added the first two or so wires to the bus bar that was used by Ford. It was easiest for me to keep this in tact given the 7 wire join that was made through it. But I had used the 16 pin one that groups four pins together (times four). Damned! I should have used the 8 wire one that groups all together as one. Thankfully I was able to remove the pins from the wrong one and add them back in the right one. Throughout the bundling work I added these in one by one and it became my second connector of the day that was completed. I wrapped that little section and a little bit around it as a temporary way of keeping it all in place.
Next up I cut the wires going to some dash LEDs and added connectors to them so they would not need removal from the dash if ever the loom has to come out again. It is now made to be fully detachable at the ecu location.
Then I went for one of the main dash connectors feeding gauges and power to certain systems. It was a bit of a mess originally as the connector was sort of repurposed to combine these functions in this one connector. A good idea but with solder joints, not the best execution. As I also had pins for these connectors I just fully re-pinned the wiring and seated them. Upon completion checking this against it’s counterpart to make sure all wires were where they should go. Keeping track of all I had done in my excel to be able to stop and continue as needed. Pleased with this section as well, I wrapped it to keep it secure and I wrapped the bit immediately after the ecu to fix the different split offs in place.
I did the AC clutch wiring and the AC dual pressure switch wiring which is only there in case I ever add in the ac I was planning at the time. Then it was time to do the ODB2 or diagnostics port. Again a system that is mounted to the dash so I split the wiring with a new connector to make future removal of the loom easier. The diagnostic port was one connector I couldn’t get new pins for (and I didn’t want to by a complete unit) so I was forced to use the end of the original wires. Although I generally try to avoid that, it simply wasn’t possible everywhere. But this is in car wiring, which means it has suffered much less so I had no problem using the last 10-15mm of it. I crimped these using the wire extension crimps you guys had pointed me to before. Made a nice and solid connection and all shrink wrapped all the way back tot the pin so the end bit of the wire gets extra protection and wrapped in tape to be nice and secure, yet somewhat flexible.
Next up was the gear shifter connector. This one is funny. It’s the same 16 pin design as the dash one. It has around 14 wires or so connected, but mainly in three pairs. A few wires go to one ground point, 4 others all join one feed wire, 3 others another. So it was nice to have the right crimps for this job as well again thanks to this board. Again all nicely shrink wrapped. I didn’t yet take a picture as this was the final connector I got to work on, but I still have the ground bit to do. In fact all I have to show that is left, is the end of play status before having to clear the theatre again and moving all stuff back to the garage.
So in the end I made a good spurt but didn’t quite get where I had hoped to be. The goal set should have left me in a place where I can do a final test fitting to ascertain which wires can be shortened and if all still goes to the right places. I didn’t get that far. I’m about one and a bit connector short. But none the less quite happy with the progress. I’m sure I’ll be able to get to that point during the week. Then it’s a matter of finding time during a dry spell to put it all in for a trial fit.
I need that trial fit to add the final circuit, which is for the fans, but as I haven’t bought overly much of that wire thickness I don’t want to make guesswork of that. Then I’ll need to finish the power feed and ground sections (which should mostly be checks but some wires for the fuel pump etc. will need to be added. This may require opening up and re-wrapping the currently wrapped bits of the loom. After that I should bundle the power feeds so I can crimp multiple ones to ringed crimps so I can get them to the right fuses and then I need to either remove the loom again and finish it or finish it in situ and do a test… Which is a big thing in my mind, because what if it won’t start/run? What if again there’s wire damage? I’ll have spent a medium fortune without any result. And given the fact both the engine loom itself as well as the ecu to engine loom has been changed there’s quite bit of potential for failure…
So plenty to do still. But getting closer. Not sure exactly what goal to set for this week. Verifying/completing the ground/earth connections and the three main relay connections as well as finishing that last 1,5 connectors so I can do the test fit would be a good start. But despite motivation, Monday evening came and went without anything done on the loom… I really should get a move on as I know this Friday I won’t be able to repeat last Friday’s massive push as the morning is taken by something that could prove exciting or a total bust…
Well the loom itself now seems to be ready for fitting. As usual it took much more time to get here than expected, but hey isn't that just par for the course? All connectors are present and accounted for. Of all the joints I think only 4 or so are soldered, all others newly crimped to replacement pins. I think that is a respectable result.
As such I didn't get to fit it. I searched for the grommet that originally is in the firewall on the donor vehicle, but I couldn't find it at all. So I'l have to enlarge the current hole a little and make something myself. But I need a bit of dry weather for that and time. And as always other priorities to deal with first...
With the loom fitted comes the task of hooking up all power feeds and grounds. And the task of making new leads for both battery to starter/alternator and battery to body/engine. But I need a little bit of a think on that before buying the final end pieces to make those. And then....well then we should be ready for a trial.
Post by grumpynorthener on Dec 20, 2022 8:00:54 GMT
Alex - Great progress - ok probably not in the time frame that would have liked but its not just you that is singled out for project creep & one week jobs turning into 3 months work - We all suffer the same fate of things getting in the way of progress / other priorities along with freezing cold workshops & garages (exactly why I have excluded myself from the workshop for the last few weeks and found work to do on the house) Looking forward to hearing the car running again
This is likely going to be a bit of a substantial update…
But first things first: Happy New year to all! May 2023 be less miserable than 2022 has proven to be! Although I’m not yet holding my breath…
Anyway, I left all of you thinking I had at least finished my loom. And that still holds true. As I’m writing this quite a bit after the fact some details may be fuzzy.
December 23rd early morning was the first opportunity for me to get back to the car. I rolled it out of the garage to a damp morning with rain forecast for much of the day. But I wanted to press on. I needed to know if my loom would fit in all the right places. No biggie I thought, well I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I was about 30 minutes in enlarging the hole to get the loom and ecu connector through and getting it fed back in the car as far as I needed it to go. At this point I was both happy and uneasy at the same time. Yes the interior bit of the loom fit where I needed it to go, but I also saw that some of my take-offs for connectors could or should have been made even closer to the ecu. It all fits and all connections will be made in the designated area, but the perfectionist in me would have liked to see it even better.
The good bit was that the first bit of the under bonnet part of the loom also ended up right where it needed to be. Both the wiring to the relay bank of which the first three are the BOB control relays and the major block connectors connecting the ecu loom to the engine and gearbox loom ended up in the right place. I didn’t have enough hands available to fix the bracket for the latter in place just yet, but at least it will go in once I have a few extra hands.
At that point the trouble would really start. I’ve said before that wrapping the loom made it stiff. Maybe I wrapped it too tightly, but whatever the cause, it was stiff. Not helped by having spent days in the cold garage. So to proceed I needed to start removing bits under bonnet. The coolant reservoir needed to go, the vacuum cannister for the EGR control needed to go and then I had enough space to get the loom fed further to the front. It was at that point that I experienced my first real issue with the loom itself. Despite a trial fit, it turns out that the fan relay wiring section was too long. It wouldn’t go where it went before in a decent fashion. And given the work involved I was not going to unwrap and shorten these any time soon or rather ever! Fortunately a solution was available that if I hadn’t just told you all that it was by mistake, I could have gotten away with as having been the plan all along. I fed the extra length of wire and the connector block through an access hole in the radiator support that is there to have wiring run from one side of the car to the other. Doing that the darned thing ended up exactly in the same spot as originally intended, however on the other side of the panel! I was even able to use the original screw holes, just from the other side. One problem dealt with! Obviously this is going to get some new edge protection fitted against chafing. However this had a bit of a knock on effect… I’ll get to that shortly. Thankfully all of this had no implications for the EDIS wiring, which went exactly where it needed to go, the fan 1 connection which also had plenty of reach or the ground connections I’d need to find a place for. The knock-on effect was however that I now had too much wiring between the fan relay and fan number two. By quite a bit actually. And as this is heavy gauge wiring it was even stiffer than the more normal thickness bits. And again I was not (yet) willing to revisit this just yet. I tucked the extra length away so it follows a natural path for them and there’s nothing they can chafe on. But I might revisit this one connector after all.
I fed the unused but prepared AC component connectors through the same access hole where they can live safely and tucked away protected by the lower grille surround sheet metal. So the last big thing was seeing if the MAF wiring would reach or be much too long as well. Fortunately this was a little long but not overly so And with it all secured it will be no issue.
Several sensor connectors as well as the HEGO’s also seemed to go exactly where they should so all was pretty much ok and in place! A milestone after 6 months of meticulous and continuous work on it.
Still the feeling was a little muted by the fact that some stuff could have been done better. I guess I should have done a better trial fit, making room to feed the loom into the car as I think this is partly where the extra length originates from. On the other hand I shouldn’t be too hard on myself, as there’s really only one connector that could really do with a revision. Still after all this meticulous work it felt a bit of a blow that what I consider doing my very best wasn’t flawless. I quickly refitted all the bits I had removed to complete the installation of the loom.
All of the above meant I now had a great big mess of between 25 and 30 power feeds and some earth/ground wires just spewing into the interior that needed to be brought back to the engine bay located additional fuse boxes. I could have kept that all under bonnet, but it would have been messy to get this thick bundle of wires to the fuse boxes in a neat fashion. So I decided early on to bring these all inside and back out through the firewall.
Rain and darkness stopped play that day however, so I got a bit of an unwanted relief to get to grips with the loom being in, the way it was in.
It being Christmas and my birthday and all meant that the next couple of days were filled with obligations and some lovely new family memories. It was a warm Christmas where I was most surprised by our kids who’d actually form their own volition had thought of a Christmas gift for us as parents as well as the lovely contact they had all day and during dinner as well. I felt very warm seeing that. We’d been seeing an increase in contact between them ever since our summer holiday, a good thing as when we’re gone they’ll only have each other. The next day on my birthday I saw the same again.
Anyway, after some other obligations like setting up my dad’s new multiroom but centrally based audio system as a way of giving him back the pleasure of music which is probably his greatest passion and celebrating his 80th birthday I managed to get back to the loom on the 29th. Again I rolled out the car to a rainy day. I forgot to say but both the previous session as well as todays, were dominated by repeatedly pulling in and moving out the car due to rain.
The work started with me finishing a loom section by hooking up the relays. This all went rather well. I was able to wrap the wires back to the central loom and they all had mostly the right length so only short bits needed trimming. Crimping on the right terminals was also simple though somewhat uncomfortable due to wire length not being excessive. The crimping tool is quite bulky. It was all going great until I had an extra wire that should connect to a pin I had already connected… uhm, what’s going on here? Thankfully I pretty quickly realized that it was the earth connection for that relay and that I had already created this when creating the switched and unswitched fuse boxes. I did this so far back to see where I would need to run my power feeds to that I hadn’t realized I had this covered when I checked off my Excel list of wires not yet present. So it got doubled. Well, there are worse things than ending up with an extra ground connection on a bank of relays as I’m sure the seats and what not will also need them anyways and I also couldn’t really consider this an error in my loom either. I was mostly just glad I had all the relays wired as they were before.
Play was ended for a while. Upon resuming I decided to put the ecu back in and hook it up. That went smoothly although the location is not easily accessible in future. I’ll always need to drop the lower dash pan requiring the console to be removed.
After that I had made a start at feeding the power wires back to the engine bay but I wasn’t happy with it. Rain and the loss of daylight meant it was time to quit for the day. I cleaned up and hoisted the car inside again.
Next day I once again found some time to work on the car. I started by rolling the car outside. I wasn’t happy with the wires fed through the firewall. The wires were getting messy again, crossing through one another. So I yanked it all back into the cabin and fed the wires one by one. Guiding them though the firewall and also following that up on the engine side. This went a lot nicer, but obviously slower, and with a fan of wires now in the engine bay it was time to make them to length and hook them up. But not before another splash of rain halted me for a bit.
The rain was not going to let up anytime soon, so I decided to carry on in the garage. Access was limited and it involved a lot of hanging over the engine. Thank god for a smooth cover with no pointy bits sticking up, lol. Light was a problem as the ceiling lights have given up a few weeks ago and I didn’t yet have funds to replace. So using an ex hanging desk light bar as my source I pushed on.
I had previously designed my fuse box layout based upon the power feeds documented and their purposes. I tried to group them logically as much as possible. So with that as a guide I just dove in. I started with the unswitched fuse box as that only had three fuses to start with. The good news was that I found I had all the wires I expected and wiring that up was pretty easy, apart from the wielding of the crimping tool sometimes. Feeling a bit encouraged by the early results I went on to the switched side. I had 5 wires that had no marking on them, all others I had fortunately marked, but because of a decent registration I could determine what was what easily enough. Again I had all the wires I had expected there to be. Not one more or one less! I worked my way through the box fuse by fuse. It obviously took quite some time but working methodically and seeing the fuse box filled more and more felt almost as meditation. Very satisfying.
The end result I’m quite pleased with. I need to fix the fuse boxes to the heater box still. And I’d like to find someone who can help me design and 3d print a cover to hide it all. The heater control is not hindered by the wiring around it and the wiring is in no danger of contacting the lever either. This also means I’m a big step closer to a trial start.
I couldn’t find time to drill a hole for a grommet for the earth section of the loom that has to connect to the fuse boxes. This requires access and therefore the car outside. The hole for the power feeds is quite full now so It’s more convenient to give the ground/earth section its own hole.
I think there are three basic jobs to do before I can fully test the wiring. Obviously I need to complete the earths. Then I’d like to refresh some of the interior wiring that connects to this new loom section with new fresh wiring as well. Cleaning it up some. Although it should work just as well as is. And finally I’d like to make and fit new battery leads. Although again the old will probably do. I just want to be safe and update these as well. That should see me either successful or in tears with a box of matches in hand, lol. Unless the loom self-destructs in a puff of magic smoke or fire. Does that mean I’m done? Unfortunately not. After that there is some more stuff to wire in again: the doors (mirrors, windows and locks), the audio (head unit and amps), the bonnet popper and the power/heated seats. That is also why I have left three fuses undesignated and combined groups of power feeds to one fuse. With these systems also wired up, I expect the fuse box to be maxed out or with one fuse free.
So that is basically the story of progress over the past week and a half grabbing a moment here and there. Motivation to finish is high, yet time is always the issue. I need to order the final crimps and new battery clamps and covers to finish this job.
Thanks. Working on the same stuff for 6 months is a big ask from the gods of Mojo, but getting nearer the end of this job (hopefully) does boost mojo. It also instills plenty of fear. Will my work have been good enough, will I not have made mistakes or forgotten wires....??
Thanks. Working on the same stuff for 6 months is a big ask from the gods of Mojo, but getting nearer the end of this job (hopefully) does boost mojo. It also instills plenty of fear. Will my work have been good enough, will I not have made mistakes or forgotten wires....??
Very much like my own apprehension just prior to applying the paint to a vehicle - is my preparation good enough / will the paint flow out has planned / will the colour match be perfect / will it polish up well when dry or will the gremlins intervene and spoil all the hard work
Thanks. Working on the same stuff for 6 months is a big ask from the gods of Mojo, but getting nearer the end of this job (hopefully) does boost mojo. It also instills plenty of fear. Will my work have been good enough, will I not have made mistakes or forgotten wires....??
Very much like my own apprehension just prior to applying the paint to a vehicle - is my preparation good enough / will the paint flow out has planned / will the colour match be perfect / will it polish up well when dry or will the gremlins intervene and spoil all the hard work
Good to see that even the experienced amung us still deal with these types of thoughts...
Update later as I have yet to type it out after a few days with massive headaches.
Will this be the mother of all updates over the last 6 months of working hard on fixing my Granada’s loom damage?
Well…… yes!!
and no…
It’s definitely one to sit down for though! Your knees might not hold out long enough if standing.
To continue on from where I left it, with the power feeds to the fuse boxes fitted, next up were the earths. I procrastinated a lot about these. I had to drill a 13-14mm hole for the grommet I had, but my step drill was nowhere to be found. Going out several evenings for a bit to find it, I had no luck. Then I was struck by an attack of massive headaches. Simply debilitating headaches. Spent the next two days mostly in bed or on the sofa “watching” tv or napping. But no amount of pills could shift the headaches.
By Friday I thought I felt somewhat better and I was also crawling up the walls so I decided to try and do something at least. It was a nice dry day to boot. I pushed the Granada out and decided for now to just drill an 11mm hole (biggest metal drill I could find) and feed the earths through without a grommet just to get them situated and connected. There’s only 6 or so, so undoing them, feeding them back in and opening up the hole should be easy enough at a later date. And at least that wouldn’t stop me from finding out if the car was going to work.
I quickly felt I had overdone it for my head, but I needed some relaxation as well so I carried on regardless. Hoping that getting a bit ahead on this project would help settle my head. There’s just so many worries going around in it. I’m far from feeling my usual self currently unfortunately.
Anyway getting those 6 earths fitted up was rather simple after the 30 or so power feeds. And I had that done pretty quickly. I then shifted my attention to making sure all connectors under bonnet were hooked up/seated fully. I had the edis plugged in but not seated when routing the cables. Same for the ecu to engine and gearbox connectors. So fixed all that. Next up I added the final two earths. One near the fan relay, and the other in the car near the gear shifter. As I had gotten this far and in my hurting head had decided I was now dedicated to working toward a first start I decided to hook up the battery with the old clamps and leads. They are going to get replaced but they themselves weren’t damaged so should do for a test.
At that point the under bonnet bit could be called done. And I was at a bit of a crossroad. I was pretty close to getting it all hooked up ready for testing, but should I or should I not improve upon the wiring on the in car bits that I hadn’t touched? In the end I decided that having used thicker gauge wires for power feeds I’d carry that on where needed. So I redid the connections to the ignition switch and fuel pump in the same thickness of wire. I hooked up the PATS bits to the ecu and key reader and plugged in the gear shifter. I added the gear shifter light to the loom as well at this point as its length could now be determined and fitted that. After that I was left with basically one last connector to plug in. This carries some dash things and the reverse lights and a connection to the general lighting and the final one to the ignition start. I first took out all the pins that weren’t relevant to clean up the connector a bit. Then I inspected how it was made but any improvement I could do on it would result in practically the same end result. I also saw that the wire thickness wasn’t reason to change out the wires. So I just plugged it in and made it fit better. Getting rid of over lengths and putting on a plug here or there instead of the old cable shoe/bullet terminal. I even went as far as reinstating, only nicer, the rev counter relay that makes the old type counter accept the new type input. With that I only had the diagnostic plug and four led’s to wire up. As the diagnostic plug does nothing that could prohibit starting the car I let that be for now as the light of day was starting to fade. I decided the same for 3 of the 4 LEDs. I just hooked up the PATS LED as that one shows if the key is read or not.
And with that at the end of the afternoon I was ready to fire it up. I was cautious enough to first put on the power without any fuses in my fuse boxes. These should then show a no continuity led. Most of them did but a few didn’t (the fan feeds and one relay feed). I don’t really know why, but they were wired in the same as before which worked so it should be fine.
With the new loom now connected to the ignition feeds, I could also test if the switched fuse box went live with the key turned and it did! I kept it on and put in 10 or so 20 amp fuses and one 10 amp as I didn’t have an 11th 20 amp one. Worst case it would blow. Obviously I did this one by one to see if there was any magic smoke disappearing. But all was fine and I saw the system come alive when the PATS light lit.
(Sorry for the lousy pic)
So now there was nothing in the way of me testing the car, at least not to my knowledge, right?! So that’s what I did in my enthusiasm and with my pained head, hoping for a real pick me up and boost to mojo….
So I turned the key a few times as the PATS reader doesn’t always read the key in the first try. I tucked it away a bit and that may be the cause. Anyway, the key was read as the PATS light went from blinking to lit! Yes, that is at least a small win I was worried about before. Now there was nothing left to do but turn the key. The engine turned but didn’t fire. Again, and the same. Again and there were hints of trying to run. And then it ran!! It ran!!
But my joy was only short lived……….no time for a happy dance just yet….
The engine ran like utter curse word! Totally uneven and popping everywhere upon a bit of throttle. So something was definitely amiss…I might be a do it yourself mechanic, but I have amassed enough knowledge to know this was not going to fix itself in warming up or anything.
I shut the engine off and could feel that one side of the block was warm and the other almost cold still. So one side was not igniting like it should. No spark, no fuel or no compression was my quick and dirty first evaluation.
It is when I went to shut off the engine that I felt more stupid than I had ever felt before or very close to that. I saw oil dripping onto my relatively new floor mat and the carpeting on the transmission tunnel… I immediately knew why though… In my enthusiasm for FINALLY FF-ing reaching this point I had totally forgotten about the mechanically fed oil gauge. And that line was diligently spurting out oil onto my dash. Fortunately most of it landed on the lower dash panel in a channel, but that channel has holes so from there it dripped. I tried to save what I could but I felt both incredibly stupid and mad at the same time. That panel will need to come out again. With my head on straight this would not have happened. But I was blinded by finally reaching this point. With that misery at least mostly cleaned up the rest of my emotions came running…
I really didn’t know what to feel. Disbelief for it running like curse word and me thinking I can’t have made such serious mistakes in the wiring. Anger and disappointment for not being more successful after such careful preparation and the months of work leading up to this point. Happiness for the wiring not going up in smoke, fuses not blowing, PATS reading the key and the engine at least coming to life. Then obviously the tremendous feeling of stupidity. And feelings of really not knowing why I even persist… persist on pursuing fixing this car but alas also persist in living life when there’s so little to enjoy. All fighting for domination.
As light was fading and I had sports to go to and I needed to eat I quickly cleared the tools away and hoisted the car back in.
And then the thinking really started in anger. Still distraught by the situation there was again or still the impulse to find out what is wrong and fix it. But my mood was ruined and my head even worse.
Next day I obviously fitted the gauge to the oil feed and did some more basic looking/running of the car. It ran two rounds around the block, it shifts etc. but just runs poorly.
Right now I can’t think of anything other than three reasons for it running bad; no fuel, no spark, no compression/timing error.
I think spark should be the first to rule out as this engine uses one coil pack and seeing as the one bank does everything it needs to, that obviously is able to do something. The spark plug leads are hooked up same as before as seen on photographic evidence and as these are different lengths, I think it’s hard to get this wrong. Still I’ll check again to be sure. But that sounds too simple, lol. The Edis module is one I had to pay special attention to as it had several wires of the same Colour combo and it needed some shielded wires so I’m confident there are no errors there.
Fuel is a possibility as the injectors are fired individually. Maybe I put the wrong lead on the wrong injector somewhere? Although again I think I did this based on photographic evidence. Or maybe they aren’t firing, getting a signal. Which would then point to the looms, question is: does it point to my loom or the supposedly good one that was never proved 100% in practice, although in theory it was given a clean bill of health after testing for continuity etc. But were the pinouts tested as well?? Thinking about it now, with this engine and box loom on my first engine (all green wires), the same side of the block was not working properly!!!! Also staying cold. But that was then diagnosed with a compression test to be the engine itself as compression was down on that side and even 0 on one cylinder. A leak test then confirmed the exhaust port to be wide open always. These were indeed found bent upon dismantling of that engine. So is this merely a monumental coincidence? It does feel like a reason to say it’s not my work that is bad… I find it a coincidence hard to ignore!
And then finally, timing or lack of compression. No heat in the exhaust means that there is no ignition of fuel. If there is spark and there is fuel, than that only leaves timing. The timing however cannot be set on these engines other than with the chain. Any timing changes are controlled by the ecu after that. Having experienced once before such an engine running on half of the necessary two chains, I wouldn’t put it past the engine to be broken mechanically. It only takes a jumped tooth or so. Maybe that was the start of all this misery in the first place? So a compression test will be my next move. The realization above that the first engine on this engine loom also behaved badly on this side of the engine and the fact I knew this current engine to be good right until that final attempt to start with dire consequences does however point me more to a problem in that loom. A mislabeling of injectors perhaps? I think that would be the next step if the compression test proves normal. Even if it doesn’t it might be wise to try and ascertain that the injectors are wired correctly. Fortunately all my homework means I know which wires feed the injectors so they can be traced from ecu right up till the injector itself. Problem as usual is access as the injectors are buried in the V valley of the engine under that massive intake system.
But, that is currently the problem… I have all these guesses in my head and one is even harder to test than the other. Fortunately there are still some top blokes in this world as a shoutout to this community’s SamJ meant I had a compression tester and some new thoughts present within a day. Sam was more inclined for it to be a wiring issue and with my latest epiphany on this loom bit and previous experiences he may even be right.
I guess I should rush that compression test but in reality I can’t do it before tomorrow and although they are advised on a warm engine, I can’t get both sides of the block warm so I’ll have to do it cold for an honest comparison.
Well so that is where I’m at. Not where I had expected to be really. I sort of did take into account that things might not turn out ok in the first go, expecting molten wires and magic smoke, but at the same time I had sort of dismissed the thoughts on that as well. Given my attention to detail. And an issue with a loom bit that was declared healthy and not of my making or even the engine itself I hadn’t even considered.
I’m still in turmoil on it all, yet as always committed to resolving this latest issue as well. I just hope it proves doable. I'm just very disappointed that I still can't drive it...
Post by grumpynorthener on Jan 10, 2023 9:09:29 GMT
Alex, Alex - You remind me of how I used to work for the first 5 years of my career - Work & plan everything precisely but when it didn't go as planned I would throw everything into the same box (brain) all jumbled up then go on to make a few small but stupid mistakes and overthink the situation - please don't take that as a criticism of yourself in the slightest - It takes decades to get things perfect and even then with the best planning, resources & talent at hand it can and frequently does still go wrong - Just take for example the Formula 1 teams they have everything and still get it wrong with the stupidest of mistakes that an alert 10 year old could point out to them and just because they have won the last race doesn't mean that they will win the next - Just because they have the best car, best driver, best sponsors, best support etc doesn't guarantee that they wont blow an engine or crash out in the next race.
Personally if the car / work was mine I would be thrilled that the majority of the electrics work after such an extensive custom rewiring, The neatness of the work executed by yourself looks far better than what most professional automotive electricians would turn out - On the other hand I would kick myself for not connecting the oil gauge pipe but its not the end of the world - I've made myself some more work but its a typical minor error that we have all made in one way or another - I'd be laughing about it once I'd finished telling myself off. Many years ago a wise workshop foreman advised me to think about little boxes and only ever daring to open them one at a time as I contemplated removing a engine out of a V12 Jaguar engine bay to facilitate / access accident repairs to the inner wings & chassis legs - It had pipes, wires, hoses, linkages & connections going everywhere - this was long before you just photographed everything or just looked it up on the internet which wouldn't yet be invented for another 15 years - just looking at the engine bay then the thickness of the factory workshop manual would have you reaching for the paracetamol.
So going back to the little box thing - you are on the right track - split the jobs out and stick them in a box / compartment / whatever and only open them one at a time but never open them all at once ! - take huge credit in what you have single handled achieved to date - learn from the minor mistakes but then forget about them - Just work one at a time through the diagnostics that you would do on any non running or part running engine - Its pretty typical that these things come out to haunt us / keep us awake - But by far its not just you that the gremlins come out to play with - Keep at it - we are all here to help in anyway that we can even if that just moral support and a few words from across the water - Good luck - Chris
Thanks for that very kind reply. I'm trying to do just that. Box things up and work through one at a time. But it's pretty hard to do. My head just consideres so many factors at once. But working through them I can only do one at a time anyway.
And yes, a couple of days on and I am pretty proud of what I've done. So many hours, so many wires, such high cost, but also no smoke and the difficult stuff like key detection and the engine being released for starting working in one go are no small feats in reality.
Given the epiphany that this same green engine/box loom was on my first bob engine that also ran like crap on the same bank has reinforced my belief that there is an error in that loom (made by a ford dealer as I understood at the time).
But in keeping with going one step at a time. I'm thinking compression/timing check first. Injectors/injector wiring second.
You have certainly achieved alot to date. congratulations for getting this far with it. As Chris has said you need to rule out 1 thing at a time, starting with the simplest stuff. Do not assume the loom you have copied is correct, it is most likely that it isnt or maybe you made a mistake when drawing it out, its easy done i know. And speaking of mistakes that just happen sometimes, the other day a colleague who is a skilled electronic engineer and has been for nearly 30 years wired up a plug wrong, twice and that only has 3 wires. so check your work piece by piece and im sure the fault will reveal itself. There are many experienced autoelectricians that would not have done such a good job on that oom as you have achieved.
I hear what you are saying and I'm not saying I can't have made a mistake in my bit of recreated loom, because I've caught some while building the loom. But with my work process, the amount of times I double checked and went back to the old loom etc. I do have high confidence that the loom I made is good. So I do find the chance of mistakes to be limited. At least I find it a lot less likely than there being something wrong with the all green engine/box loom I now have on this engine as that loom acted exactly the same on the previous engine, while that was on the original ecu loom that later was proven fine when it was coupled to an unmodified original ford engine/box loom.
But as you say I'll try and stay with one check at a time. And if I did make a mistake in my bit of loom then I'll eventually find that as well.
Is there any possibility you have trapped a wire for the non firing bank under the plenum? One trapped wire could/might be enough to cut out the full bank.
