Removing unused wires?

[85 Jimmy]

I have TPI in my blazer and since I swaped from a carb'd body to a fuel injection body I have all the extra TBI wires under the hood. Ever since I did the body swap all the extra wires have bothered me, so here's my idea.
Get a schematic and a terminal tool and take ever extra wire I can out of the TBI harness, then route everything back so it looks decent.
I don't want to just cut the wires off. So how does my plan sound? I already have the old TBI harness pulled from the old ECM under the dash and its hanging out in the engine bay until I either clean out all the extra wires or just put it back.

 

[Jessie James]

If it ain't broke ....

If you are really that anal, consider covering things with wire loom.

 

[nvrenuf]

That's what I did on my K5. I uncovered all the wiring and sorted out what I wanted to keep and marked them, everything else I cut down to about 6" to get them out of the way. Once the overwhelming mass was gone I unplugged the connectors and pulled the pins out.

No special tool needed, I grabbed the blade connector itself and pulled it out with a pair of pliers (from the terminal side, not the wire side).

 

[Russell]

Make sure you re-seal the open terminal ports so you don't let water into the connectors! Trimming un-needed wire is rarely a bad thing...

 

[kellyjohn]

I'll be watching...

I like this question....
I've also been pondering asking for feedback for this problem.

Now with the Fast system installed, 95% of the old wiring is just in the way.

Hope you don't mind if I keep an eye out for the replies.
Sorry I don't have any valuable info to add...

 

[85 Jimmy]

I like this question....
I've also been pondering asking for feedback for this problem.

Now with the Fast system installed, 95% of the old wiring is just in the way.

Hope you don't mind if I keep an eye out for the replies.
Sorry I don't have any valuable info to add...

That's why I started the thread

Like you, when I swapped to TPI most of the original TBI harness is unused. I think I'm only using the coil power wire, starter wires, A/C, and alt wires from the original TBI harness.

I see all these guys swap in LS motors and always wonder what they do with the extra wires

 

[85 Jimmy]

That's what I did on my K5. I uncovered all the wiring and sorted out what I wanted to keep and marked them, everything else I cut down to about 6" to get them out of the way. Once the overwhelming mass was gone I unplugged the connectors and pulled the pins out.

No special tool needed, I grabbed the blade connector itself and pulled it out with a pair of pliers (from the terminal side, not the wire side).

You may have to show me this blade connector trick. I'm sure I could get it done with just a pick, but it seems like the tool would be faster.

 

[85 Jimmy]

So I've got most of the wires out. I just took one of my wife's hair pins, straightened it out, and pushed the tab in to release the terminal.
Now I'm at the bulk head connector at the firewall and can't seem to figure out the tabs. The whole thing is covered in what I assume was dielectric grease at one time, but now it's more like tar. So I can't look into the connector to figure it out.
Anyone have any tricks?

 

[Blue85]

I don't know if you'll get it apart at the firewall bulkhead. Personally, I would leave extra wires there in case I want to route signals through the firewall later. There is always something else to add later and this is a much better way to do it than drilling new holes/grommets/etc. Just heatshrink the ends and cover the wires up in loom like everything else.

If you're working with a sealed connector, you need a blank seal to close up the connector again after removing the wire. Otherwise moisture can get to all of the connections. Even open wire can let water wick into the connector. A quick, butch alternative is to shoot some RTV in the hole. For covering up the ends of cut wires, the heatshrink with adhesive inside works great. If you can't get that, you can use regular heatshrink plus RTV by shrinking it only partially at first. Or some people fold the wire over itself and slide the tubing over that. Not really sealed, but better than nothing.

I'm like you - I want the wiring as clean as possible. Even when you try to do a good job it can end up a mess and the simpler you get it, the easier troubleshooting will be in the future. My situation was easier, as I went from carb to TPI, but I built everything to fit my setup instead of starting with a TPI harness. So I re-used whatever wires I could just to keep it clean. The old choke wire now excites the alternator, some of the grounds were re-assigned, etc.

I actually made wiring diagrams for the engine harnesses with wire colors, terminal numbers, etc. so that I can go back and change things or troubleshoot later. So people can stop calling you anal now.