I want to clean up the engin compartment and am wondering if anyone has any ideas on hiding the wires any tips or trix ???

 

My tip is: don't mess up. This is how a lot of wiring fiasco's get started - trying to fix what isn't broken. From the factory, the engine is wired pretty efficiently in my opinion, the only way to hide things even more would be to splice in extensions to make things longer which I don't recommend.

 

I cleaned up the wiring under the hood of my Bronco by routing the wires for the aftermarket stuff along the factory wiring harnesses and securing them every few inches with tie wraps.

fmc400 is correct - the factory wiring was actually done rather well and in the interest of reliability, one shouldn't mess with it too much.

One of my trucks had EXTENSIVE wiring modifications done to it under the hood by former owners for off-road lights, winches, electric fuel pump, dual alternators, etc. When ever some electrical gremlin rears its ugly head, it turns into a real project. The factory diagrams are only so much use as so much of the wiring has been changed. I basically have to "go back to the drawing board" and figure out what every wire does to get things back to working. For example, the truck has an electric fuel pump which started cutting out intermittantly. I had to trace which relay in the bank of six was running the pump and trace every wire to find the one with a bad connector that happened to be behind and below the brake booster.

 

IMO, leave well enough alone, just get some any colored (to match your truck?) plastic anti-chafe wrap or get some steel braid hose dress up kit and detail it where it is.

Post a pic when you get it figured out.

 

Just thought I would pick some brains,ya never know ya no?

 

On my '74 F100 302 mtx, there really aren't that many wires. There isn't any smog crap, no A/c crap, and no Power Steering crap, not even power brakes. Even the jack that goes in there is gone. The Wiper Fluid Reservoir is the most frivolous item under my hood. You can stand on the ground in the engine bay! ~I could use a few zip ties though~

My brother has a '84 302 atx that looks like a cluster ****! While all the harnesses are factory, there's barely room for the tiny engine for all the random crap under his hood. We're gonna yank anything related to the non-functional A/C system next week to give us some room to breathe while working in there.

Ford has a terribly elaborate smog setup compared to my old Chrysler from that same era.

 

Hard to do unless you add more sheet metal I just put mine in wire loom

 

Do what you wanna do with your truck, its your truck. I see alot of car builders that clean the engine compartment up and you see nothing, to the point where it does not even look like it runs. IMO it looks good, I am going to do the same thing and I was going to research to see why they placed what they did and why, if theres no reason......I'm hiding it.

 

I've only found 3 wires that will need to left alone 2 gage wires and the positive batt cable and I think i can re run that too.

 

Here's what I think you want to hear:

Simple things like running the starter solenoid and front lighting harnesses under the fender well (gotta drill holes and use grommets) will clean it up a lot. You can also change the two exit points of the engine bay harnesses to a lower, more discrete location for added stealth. Just drill a big hole with a hole saw for new holes (same size as factory grommets), and put a body plug in the old holes. You can delete the windshield washer fluid reservoir and hoses too (I probably will), as well as the jack and it's mounts. A lot of the work can be done without patching in wire extensions, depending upon the level of stealth you want. Just think: out of sight, out of mind.

Be sure to ~properly~ patch and/or grommet, as well a re-loom. That's where the wiring gremlins come to play! Try to keep wire colors the same when patching. You may even want to keep up a new wiring diagram, especially if you have to patch in different colored wires or go with exotic new paths and buses. No duct tape **** it!

You got me thinking about this one, so thanks Pooreboy. Let me know if anyone else has any good ideas on this one!

 

I was thinking the same thing because I have them there fender incerts what ever there called,but will make for good protection along with some wire cover should do the trick.
Thanx

 

Just remember, any wire you hide will be that much more difficult to test and diagnose when trying to solve electrical problems.

 

i hid a lot of relays for lights ect under the front fenders above the splash sheild attached to the inner fender i found that i soldered/shrink tubed all the connections with dialtictic grease/used the black split loom i have had no problems so far but a little more work to get to there is nothing more gastly than a nice car/truck at a car show with sloppy wireing
bugs the hell out of me

 

This is how I did mine. Cleaner looking than stock, but not too hard to do. The wiring is between the inner fender panel and the plastic fender liner in corrugated tubing. A few clamps hold the tubing to the panel. I did put the ignition box inside the cab though. Kind of a PITA. A handful of grommets, clamps and some tubing and you should be all set.

 

that looks neat I wished I had done thatto mine