Biting off more than you can/should chew

[Xephius]

Hey all,

I was working on the van today and was finding myself running into walls on what I could do because I am waiting on parts. So, realizing that I need to sort our the stock wiring harness I dove in.

Because I am using a stand alone LT1 engine harness, chucking the ABS, Airbag and stock gauges, there is not much use for the stock harness save lights. So I spent about an hour trying to isolate the lights out of the wire harness. This lead me to thing I would be better off removing the stock harness and just building my own.... Because that would be so much easier right?....... Yea....

SO, I have most of the stock harness out, going to start removing the parts that I am going to use, and scraping the un-needed bits. Then I will rebuild a harness that I hope to interface back into all of the stock plugs.. BTW, why did GM decide that you need both hands, feet and a screwdriver all simultaneously depressing tabs in opposite directions to remove some of the stock plugs attached to the steering column?

Yea, so this was probably a bad idea to do, but I have started it. I am sure that in the end I will be happier for it, but like the engine build itself, not the easy way.

Has anyone else gotten the ABS to work on a swap? I am planning on gutting it. On that note, has anyone removed the stock ABS controller from under the hood and if so, what did they replace it with?

Thanks,
-X
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[Xephius]

Since everyone has obviously been waiting on pins and needles for an update, I thought I would do just that.

So I disconnected everything inside and out, then labeled where the connectors went. (That was a very important step!) then unbolted the firewall plate where the bundle passes through next to the steering column. Then carefully, I removed the harness all in one into the passenger compartment.

Next I laid everything out on the shop floor, and started at the passenger headlight end of the harness and started to open the harness and separate the needed parts from the unneeded bits. All said and done, the engine compartment was very easy.

Once I got to the firewall I cut off the connectors that I didn't need, then from the passenger side of the big hot melt plug, I pulled the unneeded wires out. Then I think I got rid of all the redundant inside wires. Tomorrow I hope to plug it all back together, connect up the battery and see if the lights/blinkers/AC controls work. If they do, then I can move on to mounting the ECU and wiring it in.

One step at a time...

-X
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[Smiliesafari]

Those of us who are contemplating a V8 swap will be watching this. Take lots of notes and pics. There will be lots of questions.

[SoCalli V8]

I`m following along here....

[Cobra]

i'mma watch this too (curses whoever put that LQ9 idea in my head)

[Xephius]

I have been, in a greater and lesser capacity, logging my progress. I threw up a image gallery with a bunch of images, most not labeled, that you can take a look at.

I will take some more photo's of the work I am doing now in case it can help anyone in the future.

http://www.xephius.com/?page_id=73

-X
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[peter]

Man, I wish I'd seen this thread earlier!


You will cause more headaches for yourself ripping out all the "unwanted" wiring than simply identifying what does what (very simple) and taping up the few wires you don't need.
On ZZ, my ABS, cruise, speedo, air bags and a/c all work as before. I had absolutely no wiring issues whatsoever. The engine has it's own stand-alone ecm, as does the tranny. The only difference is that I had to yank the "service engine soon light" because the ECM was having a heart-attack trying to figure out how an engine-less 4500 lbs vehicle could start and propel itself down a highway.

[Xephius]

Yea, well, tis too late. That's ok, it was all extra weight anyway.

I knew the Airbag/Cruise would work, and I will probably keep cruise, we will see. But I was fairly sure the ABS wouldn't work because of the different signal types from the ECM. Apparently there is some level of communication between the two and without the stock ECU in place, it wouldn't work. But then again, maybe it would have.... I will never know. The up side is I get to loose the massive ugly silver box hanging out under the hood.

I will upgrade the brakes all around when I am done and remember my training from before we all had ABS available on cars..

-X
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[Gordon]

Any updates?