• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

97+ Harness Compatibility

R

Rockwood

NAXJA Forum User
Location
San Diego
Time has come to swap out my engine harness. My XJ, like many, had a hard life with the previous owner. The intermittent O2 sensor CEL I was getting has turned to near permanent, and after swapping a couple of sensors (yes, I used OEM), I went into the wiring and discovered the culprit: most of the over exhaust engine harness has gotten hot enough to fuse the insulation together. Since this makes a simple trace and replace impossible... New harness.

Looking for donor year compatibility for the 97: i.e. Any 97-99 injector harness, or I have to match the computer and injector harness, or I just need to carry over XYZ part or swap ABC connector? Found more general things on the forums about TCM, etc, but nothing about the injector harness.

Anyone know?
 
I would venture to guess a 98-99 would swap in. Since 97 was the crossover year and has their own set of issues and 00-01 are coil on plug. Your issue becomes since yours is the 97 that will make things a little tricky since well 97 can be a mixed bag. Would you be able to figure out your production date and possibly find another around that same time period?
 
smokeyyank said:
I would venture to guess a 98-99 would swap in. Since 97 was the crossover year and has their own set of issues and 00-01 are coil on plug. Your issue becomes since yours is the 97 that will make things a little tricky since well 97 can be a mixed bag. Would you be able to figure out your production date and possibly find another around that same time period?
Click to expand...

Yeah, what I was afraid of. Finding a 97+ XJ in the wrecking yard is hard enough as it is. Specifically finding a 97 is even worse.
 
If the ECU side is the same and the connectors are different, no big deal. If the whole thing is different, unpossible for me since my harness is currently a 1-piece and there's no way I'm making heads or tails of ALL the traces.
 
I recently just rewired mine, + the sensors on the intake manifold.
They turned to coat hanger wire!
The middle plug on my 97 ECU serves the wires on the intake, + temp gauge, possibly one back back to dash.....
I trimed/cut the loom of these wires from second plug about 10" along the harness. Then fitted a female deutch plug here.
Then continue unraveling these wires up towards the fire wall.( Painfull mess of black tape).
Keep a heap of small cable ties handy, and fit lightly where needed.
Once you hit the T-intersection from fire wall down the motor you have more than enough uncooked wire to trim them there.
Then fit these loose wires to the male end of your deutch plug. And run them basically straight across from the first cut/deutch plug.
Now you have plenty of extra wire to rejoin to the sensors.
Cut and solder just near plugs, or fit new connectors.
You may need go extend temp gauge wire.
I fitted a brass link bar just near the tps and connected all the grounds to this, and one thicker wire to the engine for extra ground.
A similar set up can be done for the injectors cut and trim near fire wall and fit deutch plugs there. And buy new injector terminals. See an auto electrian , a yard of each colour will cost bugga all.
I made a new higher rail to keep heat away a bit more.
 
Down under said:
I recently just rewired mine, + the sensors on the intake manifold.
They turned to coat hanger wire!
The middle plug on my 97 ECU serves the wires on the intake, + temp gauge, possibly one back back to dash.....
I trimed/cut the loom of these wires from second plug about 10" along the harness. Then fitted a female deutch plug here.
Then continue unraveling these wires up towards the fire wall.( Painfull mess of black tape).
Keep a heap of small cable ties handy, and fit lightly where needed.
Once you hit the T-intersection from fire wall down the motor you have more than enough uncooked wire to trim them there.
Then fit these loose wires to the male end of your deutch plug. And run them basically straight across from the first cut/deutch plug.
Now you have plenty of extra wire to rejoin to the sensors.
Cut and solder just near plugs, or fit new connectors.
You may need go extend temp gauge wire.
I fitted a brass link bar just near the tps and connected all the grounds to this, and one thicker wire to the engine for extra ground.
A similar set up can be done for the injectors cut and trim near fire wall and fit deutch plugs there. And buy new injector terminals. See an auto electrian , a yard of each colour will cost bugga all.
I made a new higher rail to keep heat away a bit more.
Click to expand...

Seems like some of the wires branch off to multiple items though, with no way of knowing where they go...
 
For example: re-wired my O2 sensor directly to the ECU since that was what was currently wrong with it, EVERY sensor on the intake manifold crapped the bed and resulted in a no-start condition. Was hilarious watching all the codes pop up though :D
 
RCP Phx said:
A little long but informative.........
https://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1145993
Click to expand...

Nicely done sir!

But... Probably need to start with a better harness on mine. Yay for tracing via multi-meter... Problem I have now is with it all melted together there, I have no way to know for sure if I'm reading a shared circuit, or if it's shorted. To do that, I need to know if the 97s (mine is a federal emissions) are completely different, or the same as the 98s and 99s also with federal emissions. Since it's Chrysler, I'm assuming no.

Think I'll start by looking at the turn there by 5/6 and see if anything jumps out at me.

Ugh, wiring.

deja_q_hd_046_resized_6484.jpg
 
I have seen diagrams on the net of the 3 connectors to the ECU.
It was a painfull job. You could just make up a new injector harness and run it all the way back to the ECU, trim 10"s before it, and join with deutch plugs.
Write down the colour codes for each injector in order.
Get an auto sparky to pro fit new injector connectors using same colours, long enough to start at number 1 plug, back to fire wall etc.
Get some heat shrink to suit width of the colour wire and ground wire together. Cut 3/8 pieces and slide them up the cable, and space them apart every 6"s?
This will help stop a spaghetti kitchen.
Once you get back from the motor to the fire wall, the wires will be more supple, and colours are easier to identify.
You can cut/join here, then run it to the auto and get him to fit the deutch plug. They are a bit fiddly to fit.
But once you fit an independent loom for it, so much easier for testing and removal later on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
92 XJ ECU connector
Replies
5
Views
137
Rob Mayercik
R
R
Compatable Dash Harness Years for 1990?
Replies
9
Views
2K
RedBolide
R
L
Manual to Auto transmission swap
Replies
9
Views
201
lvcanyoneer1
L
C
Looking for Wiring Harness for 2.8 to 3.4 conversion
Replies
0
Views
55
CaptainSteve23
C
K
96 XJ Cable Identification
Replies
3
Views
1K
clean96XJ
C
Back
Top