Fuel Injector Wire Harness Removal

I'm in the process of pulling my 4.0 to replace with a reman engine. The FSM states to "disconnect injection system wire harness at the dash panel" and includes a picture of the connector. But, the FSM does neglects to tell me how to remove it (or I haven't found it yet). Do you need to remove the screw between the two harness connectors, or do you sqeeze the two tabs at the back of the right side and slide the assembly from the back plate? Both methods were providing some difficulty, and I did not want to chance breaking something, so stopped. Can someone clue me in on how to disconnect the injector wiring harness at this point?

if you are refering to the engine harness you ahve to loosen that scrw in the middle, I think is 1/4. I have found that a 1/4 drive deep socket and universal with an extension helps. Then you press the tabs and work it out. Do not pull it by the wires.

I am not sure why they would have you remove the connector since all you need to do is remove any wires from the wiring harness to the motor and move them out of the way so that the new motor can be put in. If they are worried about shorting something out just disconnet the battery.
Am I missing something here ?
Dave

My guess is that the instruction in the manual assumes that you're taking out the engine with the harness on. This would be appropriate if, for example, you were removing it to do body work, or to do something other than a complete rebuild/replacement, but I see no reason why you couldn't pull all the connectors and leave the harness in the vehicle, as long as you keep it out of the way.

That is how I removed my motor on my '88. Then once it was out of the rig I pulled all the other accessories and labeled the wire leads as I removed them. Once everything was removed from the motor the harness was free from the motor too. It's a good way to protect the many leads when lifting out the motor. The only down side I could see is that the main (101 connection - I think) connection is troublesome sometimes and a lot of guys don't like to mess with it. I used some dielectric greese on the connections when I reassembled the connection and it seems to work fine. Good Luck

Woody

Ghost said:

if you are refering to the engine harness you ahve to loosen that scrw in the middle, I think is 1/4. I have found that a 1/4 drive deep socket and universal with an extension helps. Then you press the tabs and work it out. Do not pull it by the wires.

Click to expand...

So, you do both - remove the screw and squeeze the tabs? Just for clarification, these are the tabs at the very rear of the connection assembly - the ones that protrude from the back plate on the left (drivers) side?

Honestly, I hadn't even thought about leaving it connected, although I can see that should work easily enough. I was just following the FSM instructions. Now if I can figure out how to disconnect the throttle and cruise control cables.