wiring harness
Good evening all. A question for those who know, I have a zc non vtec engine and im doing a swap to a b16a.Ihave the engine in my garage and wanted to know if I can use the harness thats in my car, most of terminals blocks look the same.Ive been reading up on engine swaps and think I can do this. If this is so where do I connect those extra wires for the vtec to on the e.c.u., I just cant seem to find any diagrams.thanx for the help
I just bought 3 nice, solid 4ga grounding cables from autozone for ~$11 total. No exposed wires, solid connections, although the terminals are all steel. Seems worth it rather than track down the separate ingredients…although my house is full of romex and professional electrician’s tools…hmmm 
My question is, is there any need for the two terminals on the valve cover that get spliced into one wire going to the bulkhead? seems a little goofy, so I’m hoping one 4ga wire works as well. From what I know, you can never really over-ground, and I’m also planning to use 2 separate wires for the battery and tranny, both going to the original ground point.
Originally posted by XDEep
i picked up those brass terminals from either pep boys/walmart or whatever. they are worth it, they dont gall or strip like steel ones do.
i hear welding cable is pretty cheap and comes in either 4 or 2 gauge… expect 50cents to a dollar+ per foot for audio cable.
Pops is a welder… thats what i’m using… welding cable… 4 guage i believe… But i’m still getting dimming on mine too… I think i better clean those contacts off better then i did with just the wire brush last time…
Few questions about ground wires.
I don’t notice any dimming of my lights, but the reading of the tach will change slightly with different electrical load, i.e. turning on the headlights drops the reading slightly, turning on hazards will cause the tach to fluctuate in rhythm with the blinking, etc. it is mostly an annoyance due to the greater shaking from the engine when the idle drops. Will better grounds help this?
Does the alternator have it’s own ground wire to the chassis, or does it ground through the engine? I know my valve cover ground is real shady (very corroded and lots of the strands are broken). Also is there anywhere online to order terminals? I have had trouble finding any around here. The auto parts places don’t carry terminals for smaller than 10 ga, and the car audio install place I went had only one type of terminal for 8ga, and the holes are huge (don’t think it would work for the valve cover ground).
Also, I looked into the difference in resistance between 4 and 8 gauge wire. For the distances considered here, it is in the thousandths of an ohm range, so I think I’ll stick with 8ga for everything.
are those central grounding kits that i found on ebay for $20 any good? I know its more than just the grounds mentioned in this forum, but it sounds like purchasing those 4ga and conectors will come to close to the same price.
man that 4ga is so thick and the valve cover wire is in such a high traffic area (if you work on your car a lot), mine eventually separated from the terminal. too bad i never got around to soldering it. luckily i had some house wire lying around to replace it. ill probably only go with 8ga or less next time as anything is better than that stock piece.
Maybe Thats it…
I have been following this thread and now I post my problem, my lights not only dim they will blink out for a second but come right back and my car idiles like there is a drain on the electrical system. But the longer I drive the problem tends to smooth out as far as the idile is concerned. I have a nice non amped system, but this problem started long after the system was installed. I just got a new battery (Diehard silver) and had the charging system checked (Normal) so that leaves the grounds. The other threads suggested that a ground wire may be loose, the engine ground is secure, I should check the one UNDER the Batt tray to the fender, is this correct or shuould I look elsewhere?
Da Groovemaster B.
yes you might as well check all your grounds. the negative cable on the battery goes under the tray to the fender like you said, and then to the transmission. also the one from the head to the chassis and the valve cover to the head. i ran 4ga for all my grounds and it cleared up a lot of my idle and dimming problems. just make sure the surface is clean, scratch it up with sandpaper or a wire brush.
dont know how much help that is but it worked for me.
peace
Thanks I’m on it
Yo thanks for that hit back, I’m on it…
While checking my grounds I found this…
Check the pic below, I found this connector beside my battery un-coupled! By the look of them they have been this way for a while. The plug seems to be attachted to the passenger side front light wire harness. My car is a 93 RS 5 Speed 3 door…by any chance can anyone tell me if this should be connected. Outside of the dimming, idle situation the car runs like a top…can someone help a Frat brother out…
sorry man i forgot what that is and im having trouble finding it in the helms at the moment. i guess leave it unless you notice any immediate problems, otherwise wait until you can verify what it is.
anyways, good news people. when i did the motor swap i replaced the alternator brushes and i can say my idle is a lot better. the brush lengths were way below specification, im assuming for the 14 years its been in the car. dimming is mostly gone. pressing the brake at a stop doesn’t make it dim. turning on the a/c does still make it dim slightly, but idle returns stable. bumping up the stereo and sub doesn’t make it dim anymore either. i recommend everyone do this. i believe the brushes are about 25 bucks from the dealer, and very easy to do if you can get access to the alternator. just remove the nuts from the cover, twist some screws out, pop the old one out and put in the new one.
i know a motor swap could have caused many affecting variables, but i did reuse all wiring, iacv, fiv, intake manifold, even gaskets. i only replaced the head and block. wires were pretty much untouched, other than the ECT on the head which ripped off and i had to ghetto solder it.
#005 1 HOLDER ASSY. 24.07 20.70
A little better
I checked my grounds just to make sure they were connected. and I reconnected the neg pot on the batt after a good scraping. The lights did not dim and the idile is better, not perfect but better. When I get the chance I will replace the brushes in the alt, that does seem very logical especially since a race H.O. and S Scale slot cars…and I see the effects of worn brushes. Thanks again for the help out frat brothers…
Sorry to bump this thread again, but I have a question. The stereo and automotive shops around here don’t sell anything bigger than 10gauge wire. Can I buy wire from a home improvement store? Is it the same?
i got my 4ga wire from an amp wiring kit. its like monster cable or some shit. is 10ga bigger or smaller than stock? as long as its at least the size of the wire thats on the motor already, it should be fine. just make sure all connections are clean and tight.
the main difference between audio and home wire is how thin and how many strands there are. audio cable has many small strands to make it flexible for ease of routing, but it makes it thicker for the same gauge. home electrical wire uses fewer, thicker strands (or a solid wire) which makes them stiffer, but an equivalent gauge is smaller. whatever works best for you is fine. i find 4ga audio a little overboard and hard to work with. in high traffic areas they can even get dislodged.
Also, the difference in resistance is in the thouandth of an ohm range per foot between 4 and 8 gauge wire.
After months and months of looking things over, trying to figure out what the problem was with my lights dimming, weird fucking electrical problems, I finally decided to read carefully where all the grounds should be. Turns out I had no ground to my chassis. I had a straight cable from my negative terminal STRAIGHT to the tranny ground.
So I ran 2 grounds, one wire from the tranny to the chassis, and another from the negative post to the chassis (in the same spot as the tranny ground)… It seems to have fixed all these really weird problems I’ve been having with my alarm making weird noises when i touch the brakes, tempature guage going to high when I brake.
Not to mention my sub / amp / speakers pound crisper and cleaner then ever 
Thanks to Speeddaddy for saying one thing “this info is from page 23-15 in the helms manual.” I looked it up, and it gave me a pic of where the chassis ground was. I had read what other people had been saying the entire time, and no one had mentioned the ground to the chassis
THANKS AGAIN
I,m having a similar problem wondering idle, and when I turn my fogs on my stereo cuts out for about 3 seconds then comes back on
I got similar problems to you jordy, but mine are getting worse by the day.
here are my symptoms…
it is driving me nuts, please someone help meeee.!!!
i have the same problem, my ground goes directly from the battery to the tranny.
So i bought a new ground…at CT…but i think its too short…18’’…anyways…