Frayed Stainless Steel Stranded Wire

I've been doing some work on my 88XJ 4.0L and discovered a frayed wire coming out of a wiring bundle under my intake manifold at about the level of the 02 sensor. The stranded wire appears to be stainless steel and shielded? Does anyone know what this wire is for? All my sensors are hooked up so it can't be a sensor wire. I thought that maybe it was a reinforcement wire for the wiring bundle, but the shielding around it rules that out.

Best regards,

CJR

Hard to tell from your description, but it might be the ground strap from the back of the cylinder head to the firewall.

Sounds like the lead from your knock sensor. It's standard copper wire with copper foil wrapped around it to prevent "falsing" from crosstalk from other wiring. Does the end of it look like the plugs on your fuel injectors? If so, then it's your knock (and that's the only RENIX sensor I can think of with shielded leads anyhow.)

You can tape the wires (if either of the inner wires has been rubbed or melted bare) with friction tape and electrical tape over that, and the foil shielding can actually be quickly repaired with strips of aluminum foil - just make sure the wires are once again covered fully, and that the foil you put on has good contact with the foil already there - and that the patches where they contact are clean. It's an electrical shield, so you want them to have very good contact.

Nevada City Sparky

I have a short braided stainless steel wire running from the head to the firewall. The frayed shielded wire is coming out of a wiring bundle.

5-90

My knock sensor already has two wires attached to it. Is this shielded and frayed wire a ground for the knock sensor? All my sensors are hooked-up and appear to be working well. I guess the next step is to open the wiring bundle and trace that wire to the C101 connector and see what terminal it's attached to.

Best regards,

CJR

CJR said:

Nevada City Sparky

I have a short braided stainless steel wire running from the head to the firewall. The frayed shielded wire is coming out of a wiring bundle.

5-90

My knock sensor already has two wires attached to it. Is this shielded and frayed wire a ground for the knock sensor? All my sensors are hooked-up and appear to be working well. I guess the next step is to open the wiring bundle and trace that wire to the C101 connector and see what terminal it's attached to.

Best regards,

CJR

Click to expand...

Hm - can you post a picture of the 'far end' of that wiring? It would help - the only shielded wire I can think of, as I'd said, was for the knock sensor...

is it the shielding over the fuel line where it goes by the firewall