LadyDriven

I'm trying to remove as much as I possibly can this winter, to get my car down a few pounds by race season. I want to remove a few options (rear dome light, hatch release, rear defrost, power antena wiring, etc) but have heard horror stories about weird things being linked into each other, and other things not working after removal of seemingly unrelated options. Is there anything I should be careful of when I'm doing this, or can anyone give me any input on this? This is my first time attempting anything to do with the wiring, and I'm scared half to death.

Amanda

MrElectric03

iTrader: (71)

Also interested!

Fb0dy0nly

iTrader: (10)

I would send a PM to "the merv" as he has made his "own" wire harness from a stock one when converting his 95 to an Ls1. Im sure he would have some diagrams or knowledge to share

airfix

iTrader: (30)

It was a lt1-ls1 swap not a v6 swap.

SScam68

iTrader: (20)

I've you're going to go that far just completely redo the wiring for the chassis and keep the PCM. I looked at what I needed and chased the wires to the PCM and disconnected it from there. You can find PIN assignments, wiring diagrams on here but I would recommend supplementing that with the service manuals.

Pics when I first stripped the wiring.








Just recently pulled the engine to finish up the clean up job. Going to strip the BCM and keep the basics i.e. power windows, gauges, tailights etc.

913MOTOR

iTrader: (1)

I just finished my outside body harness tonight and it can fit into a standard plastic walmart bag now. I will post pictures later on.

Doughboy692

I guess I am doing it the lazy mans way. I bought a harness for the engine from painless wiring. I am running the engine through the factory Ign switch and ns switch with a harness that I made. Then I only had to run wires to run a cooling fan for the engine and one for trans cooler and one more for a light on the back for racing at night. This is a race only car so it is not as much work as a street car would be. Only down side is the price of the harness but I got lucky and found a new one on Ebay pretty cheap. Dont know how much weight I saved because the car I started with was gutted theft car bought at aution as a roller. Does anybody know how much the entire (ENG& body) harness wieghs in these cars its not critical but I would like to know if possible how much I did save doing this.

InsaneAuto86

iTrader: (60)

Best way is to do what everyone else suggested, trace all unneeded wires and cut them out. I've been chopping away at mine for a year and havnt had any problems yet.

LadyDriven

Ok thanks, that's pretty much exactly what I was looking to find out. I've NEVER done anything like this before, hell, I only really started working on my own car by myself this year, my boyfriend has always helped me with it before. My plan was just to untape all the bunches, and start plucking wires out as far down as I can.

SUCK MY SS

iTrader: (14)

if its your first time, make sure to label all important circuits before you start cutting... that way you dont get lost and make more work for yourself trying to backlog everything you have cut.

LadyDriven

What do you mean?

Fb0dy0nly

iTrader: (10)

It dont matter if it was a vtec motor he was swapping out. POINT IS, he made his own stock custom wire harness and is someone who can help her if she has SPECIFIC questions. Telling her to go rip it apart, oh but make sure you label everything, is not much advise, that common f*cking sense...

either way good luck with the harness, takes lots-o-patience.
here is a link to the mervs swap in his "LT1 Z28"
https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...to-95-z28.html

LadyDriven

I think I'm just going to unwrap the harness as I go, and pull the individual wire out, then wrap up again behind it as I go. It'll take forever, but whatever, its going to **** down rain for the next 3 months here on the island, and at least this I can do sitting inside the car for the most part!

I just wanted to make sure taking stuff out wasnt going to give me issues down the road.

y2k_ta

iTrader: (80)

Get ready to be up to your eyeballs in that gooie black electrical tape that GM used.

SScam68

iTrader: (20)

lol, I was going to say.....

get some disposable latex gloves. You can pick them up at Autozone. Trust me on this, it's MESSY job.

You're going to go nuts trying to pull one wire at a time and keep the wrap.

Undo the wrap and use some zip ties to maintain the junctions and just pull the wire through as needed.

It's not that bad. Careful with grounding points, if you cut at the wrong place you can take out a lot of stuff.

oh yeah, you're fingertips are going to hurt

LadyDriven

What's a grounding point? Just where the wires are grounded to the body?


Spent an hour or so on it last night. Removed all the wiring for the power antenna, trunk speakers, stock CD changer, and stock amp. Almost 2lbs. Not bad

LadyDriven

Oh, and yes, it was VERY VERY messy. Had to scrub in the shower like you wouldnt believe. I had goop halfway up my arms. Yuck. The zapstrap idea was great.

JL ws-6

iTrader: (50)

That's how I did mine, after I had everything out of the car I as removing, (radio, amp, antenna, hvac, abs, tcs, cruise, air system, rear o2's) I jsut cut teh connector off, then pulled the wires out one by one, cutting it out as I had to until it was all out. real pita, but there's 15 lbs of wire you don't need, and it cleans the wiring up alot.


Now, I'm going to take it to the next level. Buy a BS3 that has it's own engine harness, then just cut everything out and wire it from scratch. Build a panel out of delrin plastic, mount all the relay's, distribution blocks, etc, wire them all up to a switch panel that will probably have 13 circuits on it, then run everything to distribution blocks, etc. and go from there. I will remotely attach all grounds near the device (water pump, fuel pumps, lights to the chassis etc) and use the chassis as ground... this should help reduce the # of wires needed and keep the wiring as light as possible.

Big job, but in the end it makes more sense then having the factory stuff laying around like it is, big fuse boxes that aren't needed, etc.

I just have to find an overhead switch panel that can activate everything like I want to, and then get a fuse block that I can mount in the dash that will look right mounted in the dash panel and I'll be good to go.

LadyDriven

wow, thats way more hardcore than I'll ever be able to go!

SScam68

iTrader: (20)

Yep, you need to chase them. You might find a single grounding wire (bolted to the chassis) but if you chase it through the loom you'll find it might split up into 2 or more wires.