I’ve been searching boards (like every newbie should rather than asking questions already answered )for the last 2-3 weeks and the common motif (if you will) i’ve encountered with SR swaps and its problems is the wiring/harness installation.
srswap.com has a detailed explanationon the wiring of the SR harness into an s13…this shoudl eliminate any wiring issues (IMO)
Yet i see countless posts along the lines of " i dont know where these plugs go!" “motor in car, 4 plugs left!”.
Why do people just not take the time while the engine is out to map out either via internet. paper, labels or actually making all the connections to the engine (at least in relation to the bay) while its out of the engine bay rather than struggling once its bolted down? :o
Werd Ive Done and Helped on 4 Motor Swaps and I have to say not once have we ran into trouble except with mikes the O2 Sensor cought us off guard but ya everything went as planed.
I dunno, im still trying to properly decipher all the wiring listed on srswap.com. Maybe ill run into smiliar issues myself hehe…
Btw, a bit OT but, where’s a good place to get a clip/full set in the eastern Canada? (GTA/MTL) I’ve been reading a lot and have come across a lot of scams and shady so-called importers!
The problems with wiring generally are that the motors we get don’t come with complete wiring harness, just a harness cut off a the back of the rocker cover. If you can find a clip, or motor set, with full wiring then you can follow all the instructions on the web… No one details how to build a wiring harness using teh cut harness and the KA harness. The information to do so is only partially available the rest you have to figure out… I spent many many hours figuring this out.
Another problem, as you pointed out, is many people take stuff apart that they aren’t familiar with and don’t lable it.
Then there’s the lower harness… you don’t see much mentioned about this. there are connectors to be changed, some plugs that don’t match up, pins to be moved etc. I generally use the harness from the KA and change teh plugs for teh tranny.
So all in all wiring can be simple - if you start with a clip - or complicated if you don’t. Most people should ba able to handle the wiring from a clip as it’s well documented. Most people cannot handle building a harness using the KA and cut SR.
that is what my 12v trainers said,
“mechanics usually dont know to much about the wireing and we usually dont know much about the mechanics, so we should really just do what we know”
Crimp attatching isnt as good as solder IMO. I solder everything.
Crimping if ur working right beside the ECU and have over 120 crimp connectors gets verry bulky and hard to work with and if u make a mistake with limited wire ur fudged. Solder you can just de-solder and re-attatch. Another plus to solder is it makes a way better connection beween wires. expecuially in a car where theres dampness and serrious issues of corrosion. I crimped one thing under my hood and heat shrinked it kuz i didnt have much time, and to my suprise when i went to resolder was all corroded. so thats just my two cents on this topic. Oh and about holding longer ive never seen two properly solderd wires come apart.
if ur talking about using butt connectors they wouldnt hold as long as solder… if u know how to solder, IMO the best way to do ANY wire is to solder the wire and shrink wrap the wire, it takes like 30 seconds and its the best way it can be done.
well soldering is good for applications that you can deal with the wires with enough room, soldering upside down while rewiring the lower engine harness = bad (and painful). soldering the tiny plugs next to battery while rewiring very difficult.
anyway’s i would have totally agree’d with you guys except i was talking to 2 seperate electricians (at separate times) and when i told them i was soldering, they asked why, crimping will hold just as well if not better and both will give very little resistance.
i totally agree like when i’m rewiring something at my desk or something and i want it real clean and tidy i solder but trying to deal with for example the 2inch o2sensor wires that were cut, and doing this with engine installed the soldering is difficult.
whatever to his his own. but these are my reasons why i crimped.
and yea i can see why u would use them, its a much longer process to solder, thats for sure, but in the long run its the more permanent option, but sometimes it also may not be worth the extra effort to you.
but ya, as u said “to his his own” hehe i mean “to each his own”
i mean “to each his own”