In the midst of an oil pan swap, I'm finding loose wires everywhere. There are about a dozen wires that just sprial around the engine compartment and end in a cut. I'm having a nightmare trying to figure it all out.

Does anybody have a wiring diagram that might help me out a little. BTW, it's an 82 t/a with a lot of mixed in 86 equipment and all the emmissions torn out...

I would really appreciate any help you guys can give me.


ps: and in case anybody asks if it works fine anyways, the answer is not really. The car has been down over a year, and before I had countless eletrical problems... mostly dead batteries.

 

If you can clean off the individual wires and post the insulation colors, we can probably make a fairly reliable guess as to the circuits involved.

 

Actually, I just found a bunch of diagrams at http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBr...3d801eef19.jsp . I'll see if they can help me out...

 

Hey, that's a handy little Java applet.

 

Actually, I have a wire I can't quite identify on the wiring diagrams. It begins in a connector behind the passenger-side fender (rear of the wheel). Most of the rest of the wires are clipped but a few seem to go through the engine bay and back into the firewall opening behind the engine. The orange wire wanders around beneath the fender rail until it exits near the battery. I'm guessing this was intended to hook up to the battery positive terminal. It also looks a little fried...

Any idea what this renegade wire is?

 

Umm....copper??

Just a WAG, but it could be the ECM power circuit that should have connected to a fuse under the hood. Most Firebirds have the battery in the LF corner of the engine bay, and the fuse holder is adjacent to that. I'm not sure about the '82, however.

If you have/had an electric fuel pump, that same fuse would have supplied the relay for it.

Again, just a guess.

 

Actually, I found the place where it was originally hooked up... to the battery. I can't trace it on the inside of the car. I'm guessing it might have been to the ecm or electric fuel pump, which have both been removed. There aren't any fusible links anywhere on the wire, either.

Should I just hook it back up to the battery? Any other ideas?

 

I wouldn't connect it. In all probability you won't have a problem with it, but if it's damaged, you do run the risk of it grounding out on the body somewhere, glowing red & starting a fire.