After quite a bit of searching (forgot my list of donor cars - doh!) at the Pick 'N Pull I pulled two 1227747 computers from Astro Vans (an '87 and a '90). I noted that the wiring harnesses on the vans looked fairly easy to remove. The one problem I saw was that both harnesses had one 3 wire connector cut off. On one the 3 wires were purple, pink/black and brown. On the other they were purple, purple and red. One of the wires on each was a large guage - possibly power to some accessory.

My question is could a carb to tbi swap be done with an Astro wiring harness? and what were those removed connectors? Could I use the Astro distributor and coil? (with a V8 cap & rotor) The car to be converted is my '78 Malibu with a carbed 350...getting ~10mpg.

Thanks,
Chris

 

Keep in mind I have a G-Body, so I need a G-Body FI harness...

The Good: got a 4.3L FI Monte Carlo wiring harness
The Bad: lost flesh getting it out AND it was raining
The Ugly: took too long to get it out and the Pick 'N Pull locked me in (locked their gates so I couldn't drive out.)

Life Lesson #823760234: when the junkyard folks honk their horns that means they are leaving, not in a minute, but now.

Now I need to get the remaining sensors & a fuel pump. There were 2 Montes with the 4.3 but both had ruptured fuel tanks. I guess thats how they drain them.

Broadcasting my bonehead mistakes so you guys don't repeat them.
Chris Lindh

 

I grabbed a harness from a full size van, it worked out great!
I just pulled a coupla 747s from astros a few weeks ago. The computer was inside pass side. I didn't see how the wires got inside. The full size vans have no fire wall connector, all wire end to end ( worked good for me).
I unrapped the whole harness and followed all the wires and added and changed a few as I saw fit.

There are wiring diagrams at DIY-EFI that will help you figure what the mystery wires are. But I would think the Astro harness would work well.

 

Chris, you can not use the V6 dist because of the relucter( the thing pressed on the dist shaft that has six fingerlike thingys instead of eight thingys, forget what you call them, so that you would never get the dist to fire but maybe one or two plugs because of the misalignment of the rotor button). Something like that. You shuold be able to find a decent dist out of a V8 at the same pick n pull place that you foubd the ecm's.

Steve

 

An Astro harness will work well for any TBI application. Just remember it's SHORT. In a loooooooooong car like the F-body you may end up extending every wire or mounting the ECM under the hood somewhere it won't get wet.

Just an observation.

 

Not meaning to poop in anyone's breakfast cereal, but after many experiences that I have had with 'donor' wiring harnesses having problems (it's one of the reasons why I'm going carb), I'll buy my harnesses 'new'. I've had too much trouble not finding what I need, or it being incomplete, or having shorts, etc., etc., etc. Just my experience. Some people seem to have much better luck than I do, but I personally wouldn't use a wiring harness off of a car, unless I saw it running first.