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Best way to clean a dirty 17 year old engine harness?


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Posted

Well, I finally got the spare harness for the Cutlass. It's dirty as all hell, whats the best way to clean it. I'm not to keen on spraying degreaser onto the sensors. Chris (slick) thinks I should take it to a quarter car was and go to town.

 

What do you guys think?

Posted

Quarter car wash with some simple green and a brush should do the trick.

 

If your worried about sensors, remove them from the plugs! LOL.

Posted

I told him to do it today, once he is done, wrap it in a couple towels, put it in a box, and take it back home. Then, immediately, open up the towels, and let it lay out in his basement to dry.

 

Tony, if you really want to, you could hit it with an hair dryer for like 30 minutes. That should pretty much take away all of the moisture.

 

Oh, and like I said, remove the wireloom on part at a time, and replace it with zip ties every 5", even before attempting to clean it. That way come Saturday when I'm working on this harness, I don't get dirtier than shit.

Posted

If ANY of that is wrapped in electrical tape, be prepared for a sticky mess. I hate working on wiring that has been wrapped in electrical tape, the adhesive basically seperates from the rubber and just creates a huge, sticky mess that gets all over your fingers. :puke:

Posted
If ANY of that is wrapped in electrical tape, be prepared for a sticky mess. I hate working on wiring that has been wrapped in electrical tape, the adhesive basically seperates from the rubber and just creates a huge, sticky mess that gets all over your fingers. :puke:

 

LOL, oh, I know, i'm getting soooo excited to work on it come saturday morning....

 

 

I told him to bring 5 rolls of electrical tape, all new wire loom, and some spades for the grounds I need to re-do for him. I have zip-ties here, so I'll just use mine.

Posted

IMO the wire loom have kept the wiring somewhat clean. And if you're replacing it all anyway, that's all I'd do.

Posted

I'm not to sure about that. I've replaced a harness before, and the one I got, from a junkyard, in the same condition that Tony's was in, there was more sand, grime, and dirt inside the loom than there was on the outside of the loom.

Posted

haha, nice. The only wireloom I've been into was the one in the cutlass. And is was pretty clean. I guess the only way to find out how his is, is to rip the thing apart.

Posted

We planned on replacing the wire loom as it was anyways, and re-wrapping all the wires with electrical tape, so why not have a clean surface to start with. That why I would just degrease the hell out of it with something like simple green, take a brush and scrub it, then spray it off with a hose or some sprayer of some sort, and let 'er dry.

Posted

Well, I was talking about getting the water onto/into the plugs, and then water just sitting in the wiring and corroding it. Like I said before I think I'm going to clean it by hand then go to town afterwards at the carwash.

 

I'm going to go to Walmart today and pick up a new battery, and while I'm there I'm going to get some degreaser, and a wire brush and some towels and stuff.

 

Damn, I'm getting excited to work on the Cutlass again!

 

Chris, I took pics of all the wires that where cut, and they are all thicker wires so I can only assume they are grounds. I talked to Brian and he said they should be all grounds but if I'm worried to cross reference against my service manual/and my car.

Posted

When I cleaned up and resoldered the tail light harness on the TSTE I went to Auto Zone and picked up a can of "Electrical Parts Cleaner" and used it like brake clean on the whole harness. I then re loomed what needed it, and wrapped all the looms with fresh electrical tape. Looked just like new!

Posted

Just cross reference to make sure, but most of the grounds that I had were of decent size, so I am going to assume they are all grounds. The only two I do not know about are the two that you mentioned to me, so I would trace them back to one of the accessory panels just to make sure. I mean, if anything, we will be able to tell right away if they are not grounds. You car will throw a code if something isn't right.

Posted
When I cleaned up and resoldered the tail light harness on the TSTE I went to Auto Zone and picked up a can of "Electrical Parts Cleaner" and used it like brake clean on the whole harness. I then re loomed what needed it, and wrapped all the looms with fresh electrical tape. Looked just like new!

 

Ok, I thought autozone carried something like that.

 

Thanks man I'll stop at the ma and pa store on the way home!

Posted
Sweet, well soo much for the carwash idea LOL.

Well, I still might do that, but I just don't like the idea of water, and electronics.

:lol:

 

 

I need to get a tarp so I can do this on the garage floor at my house. Since it is to fucking cold other wise.

Posted

Might want to pick up a big tube of Die-electric grease too, put it in all of the plugs, and such. Can make things much easier when you get it all together.

Posted
Might want to pick up a big tube of Die-electric grease too, put it in all of the plugs, and such. Can make things much easier when you get it all together.

 

Yeah, I might, I don't know if I want to spend that much money. :lol:

Posted

just amke sure all the connections are tight, put some dielectric grease on it and put that bitch in. It's not like its your Z

Posted
just amke sure all the connections are tight, put some dielectric grease on it and put that bitch in. It's not like its your Z

 

Yeah, and it's not like I don't have to drive the car everything during the winter.

 

Why cut corners?

Posted

just FYI, relooming is not as cheap as you'd think. that shit gets expensive when you're trying to redo a whole harness... trust me, gave up awfully quick on the TGP's. Salvaged what I could of the old loom.

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