87 electronics to smec??

[mo' parts]

i picked up a new project car and, well, the wiring is in a pretty big mess.(underhood) i may just need to get a new harness from a donor car, but i have been thinking about the conversion to smec wiring.... i have a socketed smec.
from what i understand, it's a pretty big challenge to accomplish. anyone care to share thoughts/links on this?? would i be better off keeping the 87 electronics and running the MP csx,shelby z stage 2 lm??(until i get a tu cal)
im no electrition, but i do have a pretty good basic knowledge of electronics.

on a somewhat different note, but still relevant, im just getting this car up and running on an 2.2 8 valve motor while i go throught the basics(elect.,brakes, susp, ect), the car has been sitting for a while, then im planning a hybrid 2.5 w/ a neon head. so in that case would the smec electronics be best?
i just dont have the cash for stand alone, yet. any thoughts/suggestions welcome. thanks in advance
oh, here's a couple picts and i do have the other 2 crabs. lol

[Mike_Shepard]

Looks like you've been busy

[GLHSKEN]

The will be the bulkhead connector. If you can compare them you'll have your answer. Get FSM diargams for each.

I have a mint 88 underhood daytona wiring harness.. (SMEC).

[85lebaront2]

PM me if you need some of it. I have 83,85,86,87,88 and 90 FWD car FSMs and 89 and 93 Minivan FSMs.

[mo' parts]

thanks to all.. i think im just gonna go through what i have now, just because im unsure of what works and what doesnt. alot of the cars history is unknown, but someone has definitly had their hand in it. its got a 525 in it and 2 if not 3 pistons can be pushed down 1/8-1/4 of an inch. but i will be doing the conversion at some point.

mike, yep, been busy, just need to get it here at the house.

thanks ken, i think i may have read this is one of your specialtie?? lol
i may be interested in that harness.. but it will be a short while, pm me a price when you get a chance.

85lebaront2, i'll send you a pm. i would def. be interested in the 87 t2 diagrams and 88 t2 diagrams. this way i would have plenty of time to research and study for it. i would like as much downtime as possible as spring is coming quick it would be nice to swap the wiring and neon head at the same time.

so basically ill need the complete 88 harness with bulk head connector?? and the fsm diagrams, lol. if the 88 harness is a t1, ill just have to add a pin for the air charge temp sensor correct?

[GLHSKEN]

My harness is an 88 TII...

[Una]

'88 T1 Daytona harnesses are identical to '88 TII Daytona harnesses.. They came pre-wired for the charge temp sensor.

[GLHNSLHT2]

Well considering I have the same car cept mine is t-tops I guess I should chime in. 1st I'd take ken up on his 88 T2 harness unless you can find a good 88t1 setup in the yard. Anyway, in 88 a bunch of things changed. They moved the 50 pin connector inside and then changed the sexes on the plugs. So you can't just take a 88 engine bay harness and plug it in. Also in 88 some wires that went through the 50 pin in 87 now go around the 50 pin and will go back through it the other way to god knows what. The ignition wiring is a bit tricky as well as cruise and a/c. Oh and 88's are wired for fog lights. Yes this took me a couple days and some research on the net to figure out. I tracked down one pic of an 88 Euro Spec tona and down in the lower spoiler it has fogs mounted in it. Looks totally sweet and I'd love to trace down some more info on it, Part #'s and such, but haven't been able to find out more about it. Anyway, you'll want the 87 diagram book and the 88 book even an 89 too would be beneficial. Took me and a buddy 4 hours to go through both harness and label the 88 for the correct pins to the 87 bulkhead connector. I grabbed an 87 T1 daytona bulkhead connector with about 8" of wire on it towards the engine side. I then cut and and soldered/shrink wrapped each wire from the 88 harness onto the spare 87 T1 bulkhead wires in their correct location. That took another 4 hours or so. But in the end it looks stock and you can't even tell anything was done unless you know what computer to look for in the car. Make sure you have good 88 subharness' too. The plug for the CTS and the wiper motors are a bit different and will have to be switched too. Everything else plugs in. In the end with a flashable smec and Dcal it's worth it. If you're gonna go the route of getting a puter from a vender I wouldn't go through the trouble. I wanted to play with the programming and didn't want to have to pull chips each time.

[85lebaront2]

I rewired my 85 K LeBaron to use 87 electronics. I had to deal with the change from 40 way 50 way bulkhead connectors. It was easier for me to get an 87 K LeBaron dash harness from a donor 4dr (same one the T2 service engine came from) and add my cornering light wires and modify the digital dash plugs to fit mine.

[mo' parts]

GLHNSLHT2, thank you for the well laid out explanation. seems as though with the correct manuals it should be accomplish-able for someone like me.
i do not have cruise or a/c, so the ignition may be my biggest obsticle.
i really do want to get into the d-cal program, ive been on the list lurking and reading for some time now, its amazing how far it has come. oh, and i think i will be taking ken up on the harness, i dont think i could get a better deal from a better person, LOL

85lebaront2, that is one heck of an acomplishment.

if anyone else has any info/experiences to share, please do.

thanks again

[Juggy]

I have an 87 Shelby Daytona running 88 harness....there was a guy up in london his name is matt something, he is the guy you want to do it, if you dont want to bother with it.

Ill tell you right now, that I love my 88 harness with 87 bulkhead....I have only the one computer right at the driver fender, and I have no part of the wiring harness, running into the vehicle, as the new harness was chopped and spliced for the 87 bulkhead. If you think about it, its the most easily PLUG N PLAY harness you can get. I just need to plug the hole on the passenger side now, where the old wires came in through for the logic module.

[GLHSKEN]

Good thought.. Take the interior 87 and just swap the 88 pins to the 87 bulkhead connector.

[mo' parts]

ken, so with that thought, i would be changing the pin ends on the 87 int. connector and re-locating them to their new location in the 87 int. connector?
just want to make sure i got this straight.LOL and in doing so, i would not have to cut and splice the 88 harness, correct? i do not have the two connectors to look at, so im assuming its just the pin ends that are different according to the previous post.

[GLHSKEN]

No, the way I took it was leave the int 87 connector in place, Take the 87 bulkhead connector and swap it onto the 88 harness... using the FSM's for location...

anyone else with a take??

[mo' parts]

thats the way i was understanding it, and it doesnt sound too bad.
i guess i just mis-understood your previous post Ken, sorry
but it would be nice if that was a viable option.

[GLHNSLHT2]

you've got to cut all the 87 engine side pins off and splice them onto the 88 wires as the sexes are reversed from 87 to 88. Sucks, wish you could just put the 88 wires and pins right into the 87 bulkhead. I want to shoot the engineer that messed with that. There is NO reason to mess with the bulkhead connector. It's like they were bored and wanted a little job security so they decided to revamp the whole thing.

[supercrackerbox]

Kinda makes me wish I'd documented everything I'd done to my car this summer. Had to essentially rebuild the underhood harness and then replace the entire dash harness (Thanx again, Ken). I will say it was so nice once everything finally worked properly.

[mo' parts]

PM me if you need some of it. I have 83,85,86,87,88 and 90 FWD car FSMs and 89 and 93 Minivan FSMs.

i just want to say thanks to(sorry, didnt get your name, lol) 85lebaront2 for taking the time to scan and e-mail me the diagrams. its nice to have people this helpful in one place.

on a different note can anyone help me out with the legend for the diagrams? i have a pretty good idea on the color abbreviations, and gauge wire, there a just some that i dont understand. but i have plent of time being un-employed right now(im getting tired of construction, grrrr.), it just sucks my car is an hour away, but i got the motor out last night, right before it started rainig, in the dark.
figured id post these up for future reference..

[Subliminal]

Hey Adam, thanks for the diagram. I'm not sure when or how yet, but we're going to compile a database of those babies sooner or later.

Also, his name is Bill. Bill is the man. He helped me out quite a bit in my swap too!

[steviej455]

Hey guys hate to but in on this thread, it's kinda related. I'm currently installing an 88 daytona harness into an 85 Omni GLH. The daytona has, what I believe is an air charge temp sensor located behind the grill. During the stripping of the harness out of the Daytona I have lost the sensor and bracket and now I'm having a hard time finding a complete bracket and sensor in the j-yards. Did the TII's only come with this sensor??? Were they used on later vehicles? Anyone have they can seel me???