Damage to main engine harness

[Jordan345]

Last night i brilliantly hooked up my new rigid LED lights up front and in the process of drilling a hole through the rubber grommet that enters my firewall on the DS, I chewed a wire or two on the main harness. oops. i'll take some photos tonight and post, but i checked on pricing the whole thing, it appears the wiring bunch will run towards 2K. It looks like the most cost effective approach is to solder and heat wrap the two (or three) wires that where chewed up. I'm really pissed at that stupid mistake, but i'd be happy to hear if anyone else has done this or can attest to the approach on the repair. I was surprised that nothing seems to be affected in the truck - all runs normally; electrical systems seem good. I hope the wires that are affected are not system critical or even better, wire to an unused plug.

i made a quick attempt at getting the wiring harness out of the truck, but its super buried and tight along the DS engine bay, attached underneath various fuse boxes etc.. it also looks tight up under the dash with multiple points of attachment into more components. any recommendations or tricks for removing these items that lay ontop of the damn harness near the battery and fuse boxes?

i looked through the FSM and can't find what this bunch of wires connects to. if had more certainty that some wiring may be redundant and i can forget the repair, it would make life sooo much easier.

does anyone know what this main wiring harness (the thickest one there on the DS going to the firewall) is for?

oh, the lights are wicked bright by the way..

 

[Mxndrnks]

You could just splice in New sections of wire. Not perfect, but if done right should last.

 

[ENGINE er]

Just cut, solder, shrink tube, and weather protect and you will be fine.

I had a lot to re wire on my Nissan after an engine fire at the track, a lot more damage than that and 5 years later she is still running strong.

 

[Jordan345]

that is my conclusion as well. the price is silly for replacement. I am still astounded nothing has been impacted, but getting access to the harness will be the challenge. i've got to remove alot out of the way first, the easy part with soldering.

i'm still curious to what those wires connect to.

 

[highonpottery]

Well, on the positive side, it's a good the lights you added work!

Yeah, like everyone said - you can cut out the bad sections and splice in a new piece. If it's not that damaged, you could probably get away w/o replacing the wire - just put new "sheathing" on the outside - but it really depends on what the wire feeds. For sheathing, I like to use liquid electrical tape on the exposed section, then shrink tube over this - I just feel it gets a little more "weatherproof" this way.

Luckily it was YOU who did this and not a surprise when you come to turn on your rig. My in-laws live out in the country and the field mice/rats like to chew on things in the engine bay.....

Good luck!

 

[pfran42]

Not to berate you but for the benefit of others reading this thread..... DON'T USE A DRILL for punching through the firewall!!!! A large philips head works very well.

Hope you get the harness fixed up without dropping too many F-bombs!

 

[jgray]

I have a number of additional accessory wires running through the same firewall grommet, including a 4 gauge power wire that runs to the back of my 100. I carefully cut a small hole in the grommet and used a fish wire (metal coat hanger will also work) to pull wires through the first time... There is a main bundle of wire that runs down the driver side of the vehicle which you will see if you take your interior panels apart... I would take everything on the driver side apart (at least to the back seat) so you can pull up some of the tabs that hold the factory harness down with clips to the body... If you pop the factory harness out enough you should be able to free up enough slack to repair the damage to the wires... Solder and heat shrink them carefully and you should be fine... Take pictures and post your results... Oh and good luck... This is one of those things you do once and learn a hard lesson...

 

[Jordan345]

don't worry about berating me, i learned this as soon as i broke through.

jgray, thanks for the guidance, i will have to take quite a bit of connections apart, plus get some wiggle room in the engine bay.. i'm not sure what side would be easier to access - engine bay or floor of ds.