Another place to inspect engine wire harness

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Joined
Aug 26, 2007
Threads
9
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392
Location
Southwest WA
We all know how the engine wire harness near the EGR valve is susceptible to damage, but there is another area that is at least worth a look. Part of the main engine wire harness is routed very close to and is likely touching the glove box reinforcement bracket as it takes a hard bend out of the ECU. This bracket can rub through the vinyl tape around this wire bundle, through wire insulation and cause a wire (or wires) to short to ground. This happened to the #4 fuel injector wire on a previous cruiser and left me stranded on the side of the highway over 100 miles from home. The fuel injector shorted to ground, flooded the cylinder and caused a misfire on cylinder #4 throwing code PO304. I believe it is less common than wire insulation damage near the EGR valve, but it has happened to several people on this forum.

Initial symptoms were persistent shaking and bucking that worsened with increasing RPM. Check engine light came on and scan gauge showed code PO304. I didn't have my FSM with me and couldn't do any troubleshooting so I had to be towed home. That was the last time I traveled without the FSM. The local dealer couldn't get to my car for 2 days and I was able to fix the problem on my own thanks to this forum. I repaired the damaged wire insulation and padded the problem bracket. Once I burned off the extra fuel and smoked out the neighborhood, the cruiser ran fine.

I decided to preemptively pad this bracket on my current cruiser before it caused any trouble. It seems to be an uncommon issue, but it takes little time to fix. If you open a beer before you start, it will still be cold when you finish.

You'll need to remove the glove box, the passenger dash speaker cover and a few bolts to allow the suspect support bracket to rotate down for remediation.

First remove these 4 screws, glove box and speaker cover. The speaker is connected to this cover and needs to be unplugged.
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You can see the bracket has been rubbing on the wire harness, but has yet to get through the outer layer of vinyl tape.
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Then remove 4 bolts (one bolt missing from picture) and swing the bracket down to work on it. There is a fifth screw affixing the bracket to the left side of the dash that it will pivot on.
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Pad the bracket. I used a small piece of rubber tape and affixed it with standard electrical tape so as not to add bulk to the front of the bracket. You could also grind down the bracket to reduce this hump. You may be able to grind it enough so that the wire harness no longer touches the bracket, but I do not know as I did not go this route.
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No more sharp edge. Install the 4 bolts, glove box and speaker cover, 4 screws and your're done.
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Search Keywords: Misfire, engine shaking, PO300, PO301, PO302, PO303, PO304, PO305, PO306
 
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Great advice and educational write-up. It's a lot easier to preemptively fix this than to ever worry about tracking it down later on.:beer:
 
How funny. I noticed my loom nearly rubbing through at that same spot when I was doing my speaker upgrade. I just mounted a rubber pad under it and rewrapped the loom at that area.
 
Not sure I follow...
I have to set down an open beer??? This is going to be harder than it seems!

Thanks for the write-up, wasn't aware it was a known issue.
I saw the chafing last time I was in there so I just wrapped the harness. I think I'll go back and add the rubber for a more permanent fix.
 
Thanks. As I am catching up on my PM, fixes like this move to the top of the list.
 
Maybe this is part of the other shaky engine
threads etc that have done allot of pm (Esp valve cover pcv stuff) and still have a "miss " or shaky loose motor mount feeling. Great writeup. Seems like I see several posts of yours that are very helpful. Thankyiu for the help
 
glad I saw this thread. I had been meaning to pop the glove box out for sometime because it doesn't like to close, but it wasn't up on my priority list. This thread was the perfect excuse. The crappy wiring and routing from the stereo was the glove box culprit :doh: and I rewrapped the loom and since I didn't have any rubber I put a pretty thick layer of duct tape on the metal side and rerouted the stereo wiring up and out of the way :beer:

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Thanks for the heads up Breathed, was surprised to find the wires resting on the metal support with no protection. Thankfully none of the insulation was damaged.
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Also found another part of the harness on the metal support farther to the right under the speaker, it did have tape.
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Had some heavy duty heat shrink left over from the 2/0 winch power cable install, put that on the wiring & support - very tough stuff.
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Here was my damaged wire from resting for 20 years on that sharp dash support. This yellow wire was shorted to ground causing my #4 fuel injector to stay open continually and flood out my engine and make my 1997 40th Anniversary Cruiser undrivable. Thanks to this forum I found the problem. Wrapped it up and I'd say it's good to go for another 20 years.

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This was just covered as the fix to a #4 injector on a 100% duty cycle. But good write up. Hopefully Soon to be a non-issue for myself as I have schemes slowly coming to fruition....
 
This looks like a good candidate for the FAQ
 
Just as an FYI, after looking at the photos above I removed my glove box door on my 1994 to see if i had this problem. After removing my glove box, it seems that this rubbing problem only effects model years 95, 96, and 97. I think the reason for this is due to the fact that these late model trucks had their dash updated so a passenger side air bag could be installed. When that was done the placement of the ECM was moved along with it's wiring harness, and because of that the ECM's wiring harness may rub on that metal frame. So if you have a 91, 92, 93, or 94 model year truck, your wiring harness comes no where near that metal frame, so you don't have to worry about this problem.
 
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