Hi Guys,

My transmission died a few months ago, and I took it as a sign it was time for a rehaul.

I've got a 1985 TransAM with a 350TPI motor, T700r4 transmission and 9bolt open diff.

The car has been coverted to right hand drive for Australia, but the wiring job was pretty crap, with redundant wiring, multiple joining wires all of different colours, and a slew of electrical issues, most of which I fixed one by one.

The car also has a 2004 Holden fuse panel installed in place of the stock '85 one which was heavily corroded and was using a piece of speaker wire in one part to link the rails.

I now have a 410SBC motor with a mild 270HR comp cam and heavily ported set of 1040AFR heads read to go in, along with a HSR efi intake, and getting the t700 rebuilt.

Before this happens I want to get rid of all the electrical issues so it is easy to wire the painless standalone wiring harness into the rest of the car.

I've removed the factory air con, stereo wiring and will probably remove the dash gauges as well.

From what I can tell the remaining wiring will be:
Rear brake/reverse lights
Indicators (front & rear)
Horn
Headlights
Interior Light
Wipers
Ignition
Fuel Pump
Fuel Sender

I will strip the inside of the car this week to get a better look at what I'm working with, and post the pics and wiring that gets replaced.

At the same time when I get to the engine bay, I'm looking at trying to set up a somewhat dual boot system in relation to the EFI.
I'm putting the 24 tooth reluctor and crank sensor so i can upgrade later to obd2 with the 0411pcm which i already have.
Because of this I want to also install the 0411PCM and wiring harness so that it can be easily plugged onto the PCM and run that way.

Hopefully with the information on here and the manual I should be able to piece it all together quickly.

 

Send a PM to "Pocket", he is on my friends list. Tell him the details of your swap and he may be able to build you a new plug and play engine harness.

You didn't list the ECM wiring which is quite a lot.

 

Thanks for that, will do.

I've got a painless wiring harness for the 165ECM, and 98 Firebird harness as well as an old 165 Harness for the needed connectors etc.

The little I've read about the 98bird harness says it's a pain to re-wire, but doesn't mention how it is so much more painful.

I've almost acquired a whole Vortec turnkey motor for $900 including serpentine setup, so that alone will supply the rest of the parts I need for my engine, and I bit the bullet and bought a 4L60E rebuilt and toughened transmission so it's looking full steam ahead for obd2.

I'm still looking for a proper 0411PCM on the cheap as mine is the 98 version which is apparently the same but slower 12638212 / 16239740 PCM which requires turning off the car between flashing when tuning.

 

RHD conversions always seem to create a mess of the wiring.

Can't imagine why anyone would install a Holden fuse box. Mine still has the original fuse box.

Keep us updated, I'm also interested in moving to OBD2.

 

I missed the total rewire part from your PM. In that case, Id grab a xx circuit chassis harness and a basic LS1 stand alone harness. Repin the LS1 PCM for the firing order change and rearrange a few connectors to fit the SBC and the car's wiring is a wrap. Contact the wiring company and they can likely modify the stand alone for extra length and the pinout change

You can rework the 98 and 165 harnesses into a plug and play harness, read over the LS1 harness threads in the LS1 forum. The 24x reluctor means any LSx PCM can be used with a basically stock LS1 tune

 

As I said mine had been a right hack job (see speaker wire) and the holden one was new and shiny.
I did it the hard way and just chopped the whole stock fuse panel out of the car, and then sat there for a week working out each wire and attaching it to the new holden one.

I don't mind the work involved with the 98 firebird harness to convert it to 0411, it seemed daunting until I figured I can connect all the plugs to the HSR intake and then repin the connectors.

 

Update:
Went the lazy route and grabbed a VX HSV commodore PCM and harness (0411 for aussies) and will re-pin for firing order and splice into a spare 165 ECM for dash/body connectors.

Leaving the 165ECM wiring out of it, as I can plug that into the existing bits if needed at a later date, but I've invested in the obd2 with the x24 reluctor and avt852 tuning cable.

Brake/taillights are done, removed cruise control wiring and a few other a/c bits that aren't needed and cleared most of the junk from the dash and engine bay.

Next step to re-relocate the battery back to the RHS and tidy up the main wiring.