Those who have a painless wiring harness. What route did you hook the ALDL up to? I mean... Did you cut a hole in the firewall? Or, did you just run it from where the computer is.

 

The only Painless harness I've worked on had plenty of wire to mount the ALDL almost anywhere (about an extra 5' or more). Mounting it in a "conventional location like near the fuse panel under the dash is relatively easy. I would hesitate to mount it under the hood like Ford did on some of the EEC systems, since the connector is exposed to contamination, heat, and chemicals that can screw it over.

 

^^^
Another vote for keeping it under the dash.

Its a total pain in the **** trying to connect a scanner to a connector thats been left out in the elements for a while. Esepcially like on the f150's ive worked on they are usually packed full of dryed out mud and whatnot.

 

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Sticking the meter probes in there for a code reading is no treat when it's been full of crud.

 

I have my ALDL hookup running from the diagnostic port to under the ashtray. So when I want to log some data, I just pull out the ashtray and pull out the serial cable. Put it all back when I am done. Stealthy and handy.