the three main engine bay plugs

[bmxkelowna]

i need to know how many wires are in those three plugs, the two square and one round one.

[kleinkid]

I have a couple of harnesses outside and can look, but dark now and stupid cold out there with Canadian air down here. I wll look and count in the morning.

[bmxkelowna]

haha okay, im pretty sure the square and the rectangle are both 16 and the round is 8 so there should be 40

im on the hunt for a mil spec style round plug that can hold all 40 wires with out costing well over 250$

[Binford]

Not all pins in the plugs are used:

16 pin plug has 12 pins
12 pin plug has 10 pins
round 8 pin plug has 8 pins

For a total of 30 wires

That's what I've got from a random harness I just found laying in my shop, I believe it to be from a '90 Legacy.

[PhyrraM]

IIRC, and it's a post-facelift.....

The round connector is all grounds and can likely be condensed.

[vrg3]

Here are some notes I made a while back; I believe they were based on a 93 EJ22T engine harness:

Code: Select all

~           _____=====_____
~           | 1  2  3  4  |
~          .| 5  6  7  8  |.
~          '| 9  10 11 12 |'
~           |_____________|

1       Brown           Idle switch
2       Black           TPS ground
3       Red             TPS power supply
4       White           TPS signal
5       Black/Yellow    Water temperature sensor
6       Red/Green       Sensor ground
7       -               -              
8       -               -
9       Green/white     Oil pressure switch (for warning light)
10      White/green     Water temperature sender (for gauge)
11      White           IAC valve open end
12      Black           IAC valve close end

~           _____=====_____
~           | 1  2  3  4  |
~           | 5  6  7  8  |
~          .| 9  10 11 12 |.
~          '| 13 14 15 16 |'
~           |_____________| 

1       Yellow          Injector power supply
2       White/Blue      Canister purge control
3       Yellow/Red      CPC and IAC solenoid power supply
4       Yellow          Ignition power supply
5       Red/Green       Cylinder 1/2 ignition coil
6       -
7       Blue            Cylinder 3/4 ignition coil
8       -
9       Brown           Injector 1
10      Light Green     Injector 2
11      Blue/White      Injector 3
12      Blue            Injector 4
13      Yellow          Injector power supply
14      -
15      -
16      Yellow          Ignition power supply

~             _===_
~            /     \
~           /  1 2  \
~          | 3 4 5 6 |
~           \  7 8  / 
~            \_____/  

1       Black/White     Ignition relay, and oxygen sensor ground
2       Black/White     Ignition relay, and oxygen sensor ground
3       Black/Red       ECU and MAF ground
4       Black/Red       ECU and MAF ground
5       Black           Ignition ground   
6       Black           Ignition ground   
7       Black/Yellow    Injector ground   
8       Black/Yellow    Injector ground

[bmxkelowna]

would I be able to connect 4 of those grounds together to fit them all in a 26 pin plug?

[Legacy777]

No, each of those grounds need to have their own wire due to the amperage draw through them.

[bmxkelowna]

are any of the wires shielded if i was to find a 30 pin plug?

[vrg3]

None of those wires has a shield that goes through the connectors. The TPS wires have a shield that's connected to sensor ground on the engine side and to the TPS shield wire on the car side.

You could probably get away with combining all eight of those grounds into one 10 AWG wire with a ring terminal at the end that you could attach to the intake manifold, and then just use a 20-pin connector for the remaining wires.

Keep in mind that many of the other wires carry a fair bit of current, too. The injector, ignition, IAC, and CPC wires (and the connector pins they go through) should be designed for more than just low-level signals.

I don't know what you've been looking for, but GM-style Weatherpack connectors are probably the way to go if you're trying do this fresh: http://www.amazon.com/Delphi-Packard-We ... B0017NR110

[vrg3]

(But not that particular connector -- its pins can only go up to 18 AWG, which probably isn't heavy enough.)

[Legacy777]

I think he's looking for a quick connect/disconnect style connector that's meant to be connected/disconnected many times without degredation in the connection. The mil spec connectors will certainly provide this.

[vrg3]

Oh, I see... They're not round, but would these do? http://www.surplussales.com/computeracc ... nnect.html

[bmxkelowna]

ya i guess I should have said I was looking to convert the three plugs into one mil spec connector.
just trying to find one that's not like 300$ haha

http://www.uxcell.com/pin-straight-nons ... 25004.html

i found this one, might it work?

[vrg3]

That store sells a lot of stuff that's cheaply made in China. I'd steer clear. That thing is definitely not mil-spec.

What is your reason for wanting to replace the connectors with one mil-spec connector? Is it what Josh was saying about wanting to be able to easily disconnect and reconnect it lots of times?

[bmxkelowna]

mostly so i only have to put one hole in the side of my new tubs instead of a big one to fit all three plugs

[vrg3]

Woah, cool. So you may not really need mil-spec; you just need it to be suitable for automotive underhood use.

Well maybe a Weatherpack connector would work for you then. Here's a version of the same connector I linked to above except for heavier-gauge wire: http://www.amazon.com/Delphi-Weatherpac ... B005O0V5JQ

That's a bulkhead connector, so you could actually mount it in the side of the tub. I feel like the wires in the stock harness aren't heaver than 14 gauge. You would still have to figure out something to do with the grounds though.

[Legacy777]

Yeah that connector looks like it might work out.

[bmxkelowna]

so i pulled the intake manifold harness all apart to re-tape it for now until i find a plug

the round plug with the 8 grounds is only connected to a ring terminal which bolts to the intake manifold. so really those 8 wires dont need to come though at all as long as they got grounded on the other side in the fender.

also i counted all my pins, i have 30 of them not 28?

[vrg3]

I believe a California engine will have one extra wire that just gets grounded to put the ECU in California mode -- this is the "Jurisdiction ID" pin of the ECU. Is your engine from California?

Not sure about the other extra pin. Where does it go?

I wouldn't put those grounds on the fender, unless you also run a heavy-gauge ground wire from that ground point to the engine. The alternator and knock sensor ground through the engine, and the oxygen sensor grounds through the exhaust which primarily grounds through the engine too.

[bmxkelowna]

nope not a California car, but it is canadian?
looking in that list i dont see the oil pressure wire and maybe the second coolant temp sensor?

sorry i didnt mean on the fender i just ment for it to be grounded some where behind the fender

[vrg3]

Canadian and non-California US setups are the same.

Oh, you know what? I left the oil pressure and temperature gauge wires out because I was only focusing on engine management at the time. My mistake!

The oil pressure switch is pin 9 and the temperature sender is pin 10 on that 12-pin connector. I'll edit the above post to reflect that too.

Again, I wouldn't ground these anywhere except the engine. If you have to ground them somewhere else, I would run a heavy-gauge ground wire from that ground point to the engine.