Replacing wiring harness
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New User
Joined: May 2003
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Replacing wiring harness
Hey folks. Have a chance to buy an 87 F/150, 4.9, auto, air in good shape except the wiring harness was burned up by a fuel leak. How hard is it to change, and how easy to find? Can get truck for $450. Thanks.
Lead Driver
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 9,555
Likes: 40
From: Concord, NC
How damaged is it? It might be possible to fix it if you can't find one. I'm not exactly sure how hard it is to find one, I happened into one for my '87 which was pretty lucky. You should be able to use a harness from an 87 or 88, but I believe it will be specific to the 4.9. Depending on how damaged it is, and how dirty it is will determine the ease of replacement. 17 year old connectors have a habit of getting stuck and then breaking when they finally release.
Post Fiend
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 6,214
Likes: 13
From: New Jersey
Replacing the underhood wiring harness on an F-series new or old isn't *awful*, with the older trucks like yours being a lot easier.
Trying wiring a Northstar V8 in and old chevy citation sometime ;-)
Anyway, finding one is the trick... I'd comb junkyards as well as ebay, and see what you can find. Like EPNC said if its not *that* bad often you can do some rewiring, replace a few connectors, etc, but personally, I'd just swap the entire thing out just to be safe and have a clean harness.
Its *extremely* important to get the same harness, 87 through 89 will work, 4.9L only, as well as AC only. If any of the options are different (manual, no air, different engine) its not going to work right.
Also, if you snag the harness from the junkyard, might as well take the ECM just in case the one you have experienced some kind of temperature-related torture. Spares never hurt for what they cost (20-40 dollars usually).
Trying wiring a Northstar V8 in and old chevy citation sometime ;-)
Anyway, finding one is the trick... I'd comb junkyards as well as ebay, and see what you can find. Like EPNC said if its not *that* bad often you can do some rewiring, replace a few connectors, etc, but personally, I'd just swap the entire thing out just to be safe and have a clean harness.
Its *extremely* important to get the same harness, 87 through 89 will work, 4.9L only, as well as AC only. If any of the options are different (manual, no air, different engine) its not going to work right.
Also, if you snag the harness from the junkyard, might as well take the ECM just in case the one you have experienced some kind of temperature-related torture. Spares never hurt for what they cost (20-40 dollars usually).
