to cut OR not to cut

[slide86]

ok. today is the final straw. should i cut up the 4agze loom and use the plugs on the microtech loom?
OR
should i splice the microtech loom into the factory one?

I am leaning towards the first option. i think it would look a bit neater in the engine bay and it would be easier to wire up. Are there any downfalls to doing it this way?

Im looking for peoples past experiences and thoughts cause i dont want to make more work for myself! haha

[Cuzzo]

i would say if you have the time and money. run a complete new loom. Looks much neater and you can just copy the old loom and use the plugs. If not cut the 4agze loom for the microtech.IMO

[psychofox]

I wired up my 20V 4AG, which had a cut loom to my Microtech LT10s by using what was left of the factory loom and splicing the Microtech loom to it. I have had no issues whatsoever with wiring. for about 90% of the wires soldered the wires to each other and heatshinked over them, for the rest I used crimp splice lugs.

[Draven]

chop ouit everything of the old loom and run a completely new microtech loom - well worth it, and it's much easier to work out what goes where

[turbo ke20]

i think u run a complete new microtech harness like the others said.
it will ten times better and will be heaps neater and you can hide it alot easier.
do it right the first time instead of taking shortcuts it will be a much better outcome in the end.

[slide86]

thats what i figured. ill start chopping the plugs off the loom in the morning then. time to get out the gas soldering iron.

i think it will be worth it in the end tho. much neater and easier
thanks for the advice

[Draven]

remember to leave yourself plenty of room to solder and slide heat shrink wrap onto. I cut my injectors a fraction too close, and it made soldering a pain in the arse!

[slide86]

yeah i done that at work to many times. i go to ask the sparky what to do and he just smacks me cross the back of the head......

strange that! haha

[bansheebuzz]

Leave the original harness complete. Go and buy new plugs for the job and make a complete new harness.

[slide86]

TOO LATE. loom already hacked. making the new one at the moment.

its coming along pretty good actually, not as hard as i thought it would be

[Draven]

there's no way new plugs are worth it - the best way to do it is what you're doing. throw out the old loom and solder/crimp in 5-10cm from the plugs

[Toobs]

New plugs would be nice (but expensive), however, to do the job properly you're going to want all of the moulded plastic bits that go over the engine anyway so you'll have to hack up the old loom to some extent.

Personally I prefer to totally pull the original loom apart and remove all the unnecessary crap and splice the looms together on the passenger side of the firewall.
This way you have all the factory colour coding but none of the unnecessary junk.

[slide86]

you should see all the dodgy crap the person who did all the conversion did. man, most of the stuff in the loom was just wrapped together with electrical tape.

must havfe been a shortage on solder that week.

[Toobs]

Damn... that's would have been fun to diagnose electrical faults on!

[mullett]

How hard (and expensive) is it to get the new plugs for making new looms? This is something I'll come up against pretty soon...

RM.

[Toobs]

You can actually buy the raw plugs from Toyota... this would end up quite expensive.
You can also get pretty much any connector you could ever want from Tyco but it will probably take you a billion years to go through all their catalogues to find the right part numbers.
Tyco - http://www.amp.com/
You can get injector connectors from most auto parts stores and some of the others from specialist EFI wholesalers like Petroject.
Petroject - http://www.petroject.com.au/

[TooF]

if for nothing else but the sake of keeping the original intact (obvisouly too late for this occasion but for reference/discussion)

why not go buy a loom from a camry/corolla etc that is common as mud. most of the connectors would be able to interchange... would allow you to make a complete fresh loom fairly cheaply without hacking up the original ?

just food for thought, havent done this but just tossing up the idea.

[The Witzl]

TooF is correct, most of the plugs you are going to want to keep are common across MANY other toyotas - thus a trip to Pick'n'Payless or similar would get you a pocket full of suitable plugs....

I also dont like "CHOPPING" the plugs off old looms... i try to remove the pins and repin the plugs on the new loom, making plug/socket connections in various locations to make servicing/removing the engine bay/wiring loom a heck of a lot easier and NEATER.

My method:
- remove complete engine loom
- strip loom back to just wires and plugs, and loosely cable tie the loom to maintain the joins and shape
- lay microtech loom over engine loom
- remove everything from the engine loom that is no longer needed.
- combine the remainder of engine loom with microtech loom
- remake the loom
-......
- profit

[TooF]

just think how awful it is when you buy a car and find a bunch of electrical mysteries. if your wiring up from scratch just try to prevent the nightmare of twisted and mismatched wires.