I recently bought a 305 out of an '86 Trans Am, with a complete wiring harness, the only thing it was missing was a MAF. I purchased what I believe is a Borg Warner 3in MAF, which I thought would plug right in, but it seems that the wiring harness plug doesn't match the MAF. From what I can tell, the wiring harness has a 5-wire plug, but the MAF I bought has a 3-wire plug. To verify it should work, I checked with the parts america online catalog, this is what I have and what their catalog says should work: http://www.partsamerica.com/productd...pe=473&PTSet=A
Are there different versions of the MAF for an '86, and can I adapt the harness to work with the MAF as long as I know what wires to use? The ECM # is 1227165. I do have a wiring manual that should tell me what wires go to the MAF, so I will attach the 3-wire plug to the harness if that will work.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks!

 

The Maf requires a 5-pin plug. You bougth yourself the wrong Maf sensor so it will not work.

 

What is the difference? All the MAF's listed on the parts america catalog show a 3-wire plug. If what I have won't work, what do I need to look for to find the right one?

 

Thats the wrong MAF. Its the late model LT1/LS1 type from Delphi that uses high frequency 3kHhz - 12 kHz pulses to relay the flowrate. I have this MAF and a later model TBI PCM. Its actually one of the better MAFs out there. Its better then the stock MAFs teh 3rd gen f-bodies use. The stock 3rd gen MAFs are a voltage type that transmit a 0-5V signal representing the airflow.

Your options at this point are to buy a converter and use the late model MAF, or return/sell it and get the correct model MAF for your application. Using the later model one with a converter would be better, but the converter costs an extra 300 dollars, and would require you to recalibrate the MAF tables, which would require prom burning. The stock MAF would be the easier route. There is also a preferred replacement MAF to have rather then teh garbage Bosch unit. Do a search on TGO. There have been numerous threads on which one to buy.

 

Ah, now that makes sense, thank you for clearing that up. I would really like to keep this MAF, but that sounds like more work than I can afford, time and money, so I'll have to go with the stock unit for now. ... btw, Anyone need a MAF, I have one for sale? hahaa j/k.

thanks, dimented24x7, for the useful info!

 

Just out of curiosity, if I wanted to convert my setup to use the newer MAF, what exactly is the converter I would need? And how would I go about burning the PROM?

Thanks.