Hey guys, got some questions here. I have sucessfully taken out my 305 and dropped a 350. Now the engine is looking good but all of these wires are driving me crazy!! About 90% of them I have no place to hook them up. The old 305 had just so many sensors and junk that I'm not using so can I cut these wires or just yank them off the firewall?
How can I find the control module where all of these wires originate? I have a chilton's manual of the car and it is a tremendous help. It has a complete wiring diagram, and most of the things shown on the diagram are sensors and vacuum things so I don't need them. These wires are taking up a lot of room in my compartment and makes it look tacky!
So I guess my main question is which wires are absolutely vital for the car to run and the instrument panel to work? Obviously I have power going to starter, alternator, distributor, and a few other places, but what else do I really need?
Also, if I cut these wires or just leave them unhooked, will it throw off the computer because it's not sensing anything? Any help I can get here would be great because I am almost ready to turn the key. Thanks a lot

 

If you can remove the entire engine wiring harness from the car, complete and uncut, there are people here who would buy it from you. Cut harnesses are next to worthless.

Keep the temp gauge sender on the driver's side head, the oil pressure sender near the distributor. The rest of the gauges are elsewhere in the car.

 

Are you still running an ECM? Do you have a camaro or firebird? I just went through this on my car so I can give you a nice little rundown.

 

I am not running my ECM and I have an 86 camaro. I really just need to know where and how the speedometer is hooked up. I believe it goes to the trans, which I have hooked up, but it went to the computer, which is no longer there. I have the wires marked from the trans but I don't know where to put them since there is no computer.

Also, I need to know how to get power to the distributor. Those wires were also leading to the computer. Other than that, I have the engine compartment looking pretty decent and should be ready to start it soon.

Thanks again for all the help

 

If your speedometer is original, then it's a mechanical speedo. It didn't hook to the computer at all. You should only have a cable coming out of the tailhousing of the tranny, running up the firewall, then thru the firewall on the drivers side under the brake booster thereabouts, and it plugged straight in to the guage cluster.
About the other wires, you can pretty much take out the ENTIRE harness that had to do with the ECM in the engine bay. All your guages on the dash hook straight up to the sensors on the motor. Your temp guage is wired straight to the sensor, you oil pressure guage straight to the sensor, fuel, wipers right to the control arm, and tach straight to the tachometer. GM made the '82 - '89 camaros really easy to wire up the guages. None of those sensors on the motor went to the computer.

To make this easy for you, lemme recall the wire colors:
oil pressure sensor - tan wire
tachometer - white wire
fuel guage (shouldn't have to touch)
wipers, shouldn't need to mod these wires
temp guage is green


If you have a stock auto tranny, you will have to wire up a manual torque convertor switch. I don't have the schematics for it, so you'd have to look up some diagrams. That should be it. You should have one CLEAN engine bay after this.

Ohh, you'll probably have to wire up your own switch for the fan....not a biggie. That's it!