Wiring harness repair kit - eliminate your electrical gremlins! Rate Topic:

[FricFrac]

I've managed to source connectors for the stock engine wiring harness for the early FI S30 and S130 cars. I'm just posting here to see if anyone else would be interested in a kit and I'll order in some extras. The kit will include nine EV1 connectors for the fuel injectors, cold start valve, idle air and thermal switch, a three pin connector for the TPS and the seven pin AFM connector. I'm redoing all the connectors on all my harnesses and I ordered in extra connectors for a few members on the forum who requested a kit. Price will be $50 shipped in US/Canada. There is well over $100 worth of connectors so this is a great deal. If you have a 280Z, 280ZX or engine swap EFI and you haven't replaced the 30+ year old connectors on your car yet you need this kit! A lot of the problems on the car have to do with corroded or loose connectors. Cleaning the male side of the plugs is possible on the AFM, injectors, TPS, etc however cleaning the female side on the connector is difficult and doesn't often last. The reason is that the male connector is easily accessable and are usually solid brass. These can be cleaned/polished to new condition. The connector side is plated and the disimilar metals cause corrosion and the plating is destroyed in the process. Cleaning the corrosion is difficult because they are physically difficult to access and with the plated material missing the base material will quickly corrode and the problems will come back.

A lot of the problems associated with the idle and running of the car are associated with the AFM connector. Often the clip from the connector is missing causing poor a poor connection which can cause intermittant faults which are often difficult to track down. The replacement AFM connector includes the new body and clip as well as new pins to get rid of the many problems this connection causes.

I would also highly recomend replacing the stock negative battery cable with a heavy cable to the starter and one to the chassis. I also recomend a ground cable from the chassis where the battery cable mounts to the ECU and from the ECU to the ground point for all the sensors on the manifold near the Idle air valve. Replace all the connectors with this kit and you have an excellent base for your electronic fuel injection system.

Replacing your connectors isn't going to solve all your electrical problems but it will give you a good solid base and eliminate a lot of potential problems and prevent future problems.

[jimbob_racing]

I'm interested but what kind of tool do I need to crimp the new connectors on?

[grantf]

me want!!! need. pm on its way. And you may not need to ship them, An excuse to take a motorcycle trip to Victoria!

Edited January 14, 2012 by grantf

[rcb280z]

All I need is the 7 pin and 3 pin connector. Will you sell only those two to me? I have already replaced the rest of them. Nice score though!

[SteveJ]

I'm interested but what kind of tool do I need to crimp the new connectors on?

For these lugs, I prefer the crimpers like in the picture I attached. First, use long-nosed pliers to bend the tabs on the lugs in enough that they fit in the part of the crimpers where I drew the arrow. Then slowly squeeze the crimpers so the tabs curl into the wire.

You can find crimpers like that at Fry's. They can also be found through vendors at Amazon.

[FricFrac]

For these lugs, I prefer the crimpers like in the picture I attached. First, use long-nosed pliers to bend the tabs on the lugs in enough that they fit in the part of the crimpers where I drew the arrow. Then slowly squeeze the crimpers so the tabs curl into the wire.

You can find crimpers like that at Fry's. They can also be found through vendors at Amazon.

Those will work. The die is the right shape but the crimpers I use have a set of six for the wire and a set of six for the insulated portion of the pin. I recomend crimping and hitting them with solder but just enough to bond to the pin and wire not a blob and not enough to run up the wire into the insulated portion.

I can add a pig tail to the connectors for those who aren't comfortable soldering the wire to the pin

[FricFrac]

Ok I made a little video up to give you some pointers on repairing your wiring harness. I did the AFM which is the most complicated of the ones we'll be replacing. It's a little embarasing because I messed up the connector trying to keep the video time short but I left it in. It's a good reminder to make sure you've got everything in place before you solder or crimp your connector on. I do this sort of work all the time and I should know better - shows you what happens when you rush. Anyhow if you have any questions the video doesn't answer feel free to ask!

[grantf]

really cool.

[FricFrac]

I'll make a video on how to wire in the pig tails and water proof those but it will be a little while before I can get to that. I'm getting everyone's orders ready to mail out as my number one priority.

[FricFrac]

*** Please note I've had to make some minor adjustments to the kit pricing unfortunatly. The kit will increase from $50 to $55 to cover Paypal fees and Air postage which cuts shipping time in half or less as well as insurance. In addition I've had a few requests for some other options with the kit. For those who would like a trackable insured shipment there is an additional $15 fee (and I believe shipping time is reduced to 4-6 days). If you don't feel comfortable soldering pin to wire I can add pigtails (a six inch piece of wire coming out of the connector) so you can solder wire to wire for an additional $10. The pig tails take about 45 minutes to do. These are professionaly fabricated (crimped and soldered) and populated into your connector ready to go. I highly recomend water proof heat shrink (heat shrink with a meltable inner jacket). I can supply it for $5 per kit (24 pieces) for as long as my current stock remains then I may need to adjust the price. You will only need the heat shrink if you are using pig tails and need to water proof your solder joints. You should be able to get water proof heat shrink as well at your local electronics supplier.

Edited January 15, 2012 by FricFrac

[jimbob_racing]

Have you ever thought of having people send you their harness and you do all the work and ship it back to them? Might be worthwhile to some people.

[FricFrac]

I can definately do harness repair. I would think shipping back and forth would be expensive though. Right now I'm making a custom wiring harness for S130 for plug and play MegaSquirt setup then I'll be developing an S30 kit as well.