How does the ecm connector under the passenger side kick panel going to the engine bay come off? Im ready to just rip it off uggh

 

There is a u shaped clip . The clip is on the inside of the car .

 

I removed that and it still wont budge

 

Also ive cut all the wire going from the ecm to the engine bay there are still a few wires that go the the connectors that go behind the dash do i ditch those too? Carb, 350 TH350

 

Cutting the wires is completely unnecessary. Everything unplugs...

 

Maybe on your none crusty non mouse eaten wiring. But on mine the bulk head connector doesnt budge and the the other connectors have wires that go thru the bulk head but are not attached to the ECM I freakin hate Fuel injection and 30 year old computers its like a freakin commodore 64.

 

After the clip is removed, use a screwdriver to push the "ears" on the plastic bulkhead connector inward and it should come out of the hole in the kickpanel...

 

Right. Remove the u-shaped clip and then squeeze the tabs to pull it out of the body.

It's not actually a connector though. It's just a pass thru filled with water proof potting material. The wires will be stuck in the potting material. I used a heat gun to make it softer and scraped it all out with a screwdriver.

You shouldn't remove all the wires though. There is one or two ground wires in there needed for the gages and VATS ground wire.

 

What year did these cars have VATS?...

 

Late 88-92

 

Maybe on an 83 but on an 88 the wires intermingle in multiple looms with other accessories. it does not simply unplug and remove.

 

To give a more detailed description. #1 the connector does not come in to the inside of the car it pushes out to the inner fender area. #2 you must remove or loosen the passenger side inner fender well to get access to the clip that holds the harness. #3 there is nothing easy about this process on an 88 you will have spahgetti wires running every which way with many going to the drivers side and integrated with other looms. It doesnot i repeat does not simply unplug and remvove.

 

Once the U clip comes out there are tabs that must be depressed to remove it. Also the foam seal it will feel like it is glued to the body, so you may need to pry from the outside at the same time.

 

If you take the time to examine the situation and understand what you're doing, it's really not that difficult. If you approach the problem from the mindset that EFI and wiring is a nightmare and you can't stand it, and just want to rip it out, you're going to have problems. If you had to cut wires, you were doing it wrong.

 

No problem I will simply remove the entire wiring for engine management all i need is an alternator, coil, wipers, horn and fan i can route those from the fuse box. BTW I like wiring just not overly complex wiring.

 

There really isn't anything complex about the wiring for EFI or our cars. There are just a lot of wires since there are a lot of things that need to be wired, doesn't equal overly complex

 

Is this tread relevant?

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...apart-ecm.html

 

Ok I guess I didnt phrase the question properly. I dont want to completely remove the engine harness as it removes everything I only wanted to remove the ECM related wires (which is not possible without filleting the harness). I have the harness off and after reading dozens of posts about ECM removal I have found that they are all misleading. You cannot simply remove the entire harness to just get rid of ECM related connectors.If you remove the harness you get rid of everything under the hood except AC and lighting including starter circuit and the main feed to the dash and lighting.

 

Read the swap guide then. The thread about preping a 3rd gen harness

 

Ive read several where can I find "prepping a 3rd gen harness"? Sorry found it. Clear as mud (trying to cover too many options LT1 LS and carb) ill just change mine to what I need.

 

Regardless of what you're doing the prep of the harness is the same, LS/LT/Holley/EZ etc. You need the same wires for any swap.

 

Well, I did it. And the main engine harness is in the SAME bulkhead connector (C100) as the lights harness. Remove ONLY the harness that comes from the passenger side fender well...