Carpokes

My car experienced an electrical glitch a few months ago and the more I investigated for issues in the harness, the more convinced I was it was time to replace it. Just way too many patch wires and splices over the years to feel good about, and every time I bent a wire it would crack. So, I ended up ordering a Kroon harness! I'll try to document the installation process here in this thread, probably over the next few weeks since I have a number of "while you're in there" jobs to do.

I've now pulled out the old harness, and must say it's a mess!. I've copied by removal notes below, which serve as something of a checklist for getting it all back together.

The @Kroonwireharness harness is a piece of art. Such a pleasure to handle a harness that is new and flexible. The quality of their work and materials is just outstanding, and the harness is very true to the original, down to wire color code, connector colors/types, etc. For those obsessed with originality, they did use spring loaded JPT connectors, but I'm sure they'd use the spring clip variety if you prefer (I don't). From what I can see so far, I'd argue this harness is better than a NOS harness from the dealer (if even available) since it hasn't been sitting in a warehouse drying out for years/decades. Stay tuned for the install!





Harness removal notes:
Disconnected battery negative terminal
Detached cc cable from actuator and removed M6 bolt holding it to the top of the intake
Removed vacuum hoses from FPR and damper
Loosened clamp and removed fuel hose from FPR
Removed hose from damper with 19 and 21mm wrenches
Removed plastic fuel rail cover and set aside
Removed 4 injector connectors
Removed 2 hoses between intake runners (replace front with 951-110-221-00 )
Removed vacuum hoses from banjo between runners
Removed air snorkel
Removed blow off valve and ISV hose and removed throttle side I/C Pipe
Unclipped TPS and AFM connectors
Removed boost bolt hose
Removed clip holding hard-pipe to air box
Removed i/c pipe on turbo side
Loosened j-boot at AFM
Loosened front 2 Allen bolts on AFM
Removed AOS pipe fitting from b-boot
Removed rear Allen bolt on AFM (change to hex bolt)
Removed spark plug wires from plugs
Loosened perch bolt at front of intake
Removed bolts from fuel rail to cam tower
Removed EVAP line under Throttle Body
Loosened and slid out bracket holding speed/ref to rear of intake
Loosened and slid dip stick tube off perch bolt (it came out anyway-- replace o-ring)
Remove 8 intake bolts
Removed Intake with TB, Fuel Rail and dip stick attached – dip stick came off anyway
Removed electronics tray from glove box floor (disconnected all connectors and vacuum– unique to my car)
Removed connectors from DME and KLR
Disconnected red 4-pin connector
Disconnected Altitude Sensor connector
Disconnected 2 weatherpac single pin wires (unique to my car)
Removed glove box to see where harness goes through firewall
Removed KLR banjo bolt and hose/tube from KLR (it runs through harness snorkel)
Got main harness snorkel out of firewall and started pulling it out
Removed bracket from behind glove box clip (m6 nut) and pulled connector out of bracket
Worked all harness wires out of fire wall
Disconnected speed and reference sensor connectors. Blue band was on top connector.
Disconnected O2 sensor connector
Disconnected temp sensor spade connectors
Disconnected blue DME temp JPT connector
Disconnected connectors on oil sender and ran a chase wire when pulling wire up
Disconnected connector on top of turbo temp switch (need to replace switch due to frayed wire)
Note: Found a used thermo-switch in good condition among my old parts, so polished it and installed with new aluminum crush washer.
Loosened ISV hose I plan to replace; removed hose
Removed curved hose coupler on turbo outlet
Removed smaller hose plugging into j-boot; capped at other end of 3-pipe manifold on my car
Removed M6 bolt holding 3-pipe manifold to bracket
Removed hose on AOS
Removed (cut) small hose at back of 3-pipe manifold running to boost bolt
Removed 3-pipe manifold and set aside
Removed knock sensor connector
Removed ISV connector
Removed turbo temp thermos-switch with frayed wire and replaced it with good used part I had
Removed cover on firewall (2 screws) for Kostal block connector, and disconnected connector
Removed bolts holding diagnostic port in place and pushed connector down and out
Disconnected the 2-wire alt exciter connector (blue and red wires) near firewall
The Kostal block connector and diagnostic port harness are snaked under brake hard lines
Disconnected the braided hose going to the evap diaphragm to make room to remove harness
Worked Kostal block connector and diagnostic port out from under brake hard lines (!)
Put bellhousing block off piece in place
Removed both grounds on bellhousing (M8 and M6)
Removed harness from engine bay, detangling from vacuum lines, etc.

Awesome detail Tom. I'll never cease to be amazed at what you do!

I'm literally unwinding my harness this week as part of the engine removal and have about 1/2 of these steps done so far. Nice roadmap for the rest!
Will definitely need the install instructions in a few weeks!

Read my mind....I've been reading about our old harnesses and issues of being brittle, corroded, broken. chopped, ETC for several years now, and given my recent poor running issue and the what now as well as the what's next questions, I've been thinking of replacing to avoid future issues. Thank you for the detailed write up.

whalenlg wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:14 pm I'm literally unwinding my harness this week as part of the engine removal and have about 1/2 of these steps done so far. Nice roadmap for the rest!
Will definitely need the install instructions in a few weeks!

Is your motor still out of the car? I pulled this harness out when I swapped motors in 2008, and really cleaned it up a lot with new connectors and such -- never a better or easier time to do it. The harness is so intertwined in the engine compartments, it's virtually impossible to inspect it thoroughly in car. You can't make it young again, but you can find and fix a lot of potential problems. One of the things I was going to do is create a checklist of connectors, so I can make sure everything is in place before firing it up. Stay tuned on that.

ROB III wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:29 pm Read my mind....I've been reading about our old harnesses and issues of being brittle, corroded, broken. chopped, ETC for several years now, and given my recent poor running issue and the what now as well as the what's next questions, I've been thinking of replacing to avoid future issues. Thank you for the detailed write up.

Once I had the old harness out side-by-side with the Kroon, I had zero regrets about doing this! I say go for it. Even if the old harness was working fine right now, mine was just too crusty and brittle to feel good about.

Tom wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:54 pm

whalenlg wrote: Tue Jan 20, 1970 4:48 pm I'm literally unwinding my harness this week as part of the engine removal and have about 1/2 of these steps done so far. Nice roadmap for the rest!
Will definitely need the install instructions in a few weeks!

Is your motor still out of the car? I pulled this harness out when I swapped motors in 2008, and really cleaned it up a lot with new connectors and such -- never a better or easier time to do it. The harness is so intertwined in the engine compartments, it's virtually impossible to inspect it thoroughly in car. You can't make it young again, but you can find and fix a lot of potential problems. One of the things I was going to do is create a checklist of connectors, so I can make sure everything is in place before firing it up. Stay tuned on that.

Engine is still in the car. I’m planning to separate the harness from the engine instead of pulling the dme and klr connectors through the firewall to minimize collateral damage to the older parts of the harness (lost my j boot already).

whalenlg wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 2:02 pm

Tom wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:54 pm

whalenlg wrote: Tue Jan 20, 1970 4:48 pm I'm literally unwinding my harness this week as part of the engine removal and have about 1/2 of these steps done so far. Nice roadmap for the rest!
Will definitely need the install instructions in a few weeks!

Is your motor still out of the car? I pulled this harness out when I swapped motors in 2008, and really cleaned it up a lot with new connectors and such -- never a better or easier time to do it. The harness is so intertwined in the engine compartments, it's virtually impossible to inspect it thoroughly in car. You can't make it young again, but you can find and fix a lot of potential problems. One of the things I was going to do is create a checklist of connectors, so I can make sure everything is in place before firing it up. Stay tuned on that.

Engine is still in the car. I’m planning to separate the harness from the engine instead of pulling the dme and klr connectors through the firewall to minimize collateral damage to the older parts of the harness (lost my j boot already).

Once the motor is out, pulling the DME and KLR connectors out through the firewall is super easy. But you'd still need to wrestle with the harness branch that runs along the firewall to the 14-pin Kostal connector, which was a bit of a pain on my car, made tougher by extra wires and plumbing I have up there. Probably worth it if you plan to spruce up the harness.

With many of the 'while you're in there' projects behind me, I turned my attention back to the harness today. There are two things needed to prep the harness before installing. First is the red, square 4-pin connector down by the DME -- the one that carries the tach and boost signals. (Later cars have a different connector.) The Kroon harness comes with spade connectors on those wires, ready to plug into your original red connector. See details below. After that, I'll need to come up with some way to feed the KLR tube through the rubber firewall snorkel. Stay tuned on that.


Below: the red connectors (on early cars only) have 4 spade connectors inside. Each spade has a little tang that clips it in place. You can use a small screwdriver to press those tangs flat, and the connector will slide right out. Just be sure to keep track of which wire goes where. On the Kroon harness, the wire colors were all the same for the most part, making it easy. One small difference, on my original harness the tach signal in the red connector (from DME pin 21) is green with a black stripe, but on the Kroon it appears to be a black wire with green stripe. Not sure if that was intentional, but I kind of doubt it since the DME harness already has another signal using black/green on DME pin 31. Or maybe it's just hard to tell the base color from the stripe color on the Kroon wire?

Below: a clear picture of the little tang that needs to be depressed to remove the spades from the connector. Textbook crimps too.

Below: the tangs all faced the outer walls of the connector on my original harness, so that's how I put them back in. It looks like they'd go in either way, but no harm in following the factory I figure.

Below: original connector populated with Kroon wires and ready to go!

Happy to say I got the KLR tube through the firewall snorkel today. The hole through the rubber is quite a bit smaller than the diameter of the KLR tube, so just pushing it through with brute force is never going to work, no matter how much soapy water you use! After several failed strategies, I finally hit on a winner. I hunted all over the internet and can't find a single reference to anyone feeding the KLR tube through the snorkel, so consider this a Carpokes exclusive!

I ended up threading a 6-32 threaded rod into the end of the tube. It's a very tight fit, and I actually needed to double nut the threaded rod in order to 'torque' it into the tube. I went in about 6 or 7mm deep and that really locks it in there, which is a good thing because you really need to pull with a lot of force to get the tube through the rubber. Here are pictures of the 'tool' and process.




Below: this is a 6-32 threaded rod from Ace Hardware (99 cents!). I 3D-printed the little bullet-shaped white piece to help it all push into the rubber, but I'm not sure it's needed. You could also screw the rod into the tube a little deeper and then smooth out the end of the tube with a razor blade. Double nuts on the end are needed to screw the rod into the tube. You have to take those off before pushing the rod into the rubber, of course.
Below: I screwed the rod in this far. It was more than enough even when pulling as hard as I could.
Below: ready to push into the snorkel. The fitting on the KLR side comes off the tube, so you need to remove that, insert the threaded rod, and push it in from the engine side of the snorkel toward the cabin side. I bought a new tube from the factory, which comes with the engine-side banjo bolt installed and the KLR-end open.
Below: the rod is fairly easy to push through the rubber -- a little tight but not a problem. Push it until it stops at the tube. Be sure to lubricate the tube with soapy water.
Below: I could not pull hard enough on the rod itself to get the tube through, so made this little pull tab.
Below: With the pull tab on the end of the rod, I was able to pull the tube through. It took a lot of pulling force, even with the soapy water. There's no way I could push the tube through the rubber without this tool!