Butt Connectors Acceptable for Ignition Coil Harness?

rrres · Post by **rrres** » 02 Jan 2023, 14:09

Hi,

99V70XC

The ignition coil wiring harness in my 99 is in really bad condition: insulation cracked, exposed wires, wrapped with electrical tape by someone, connector clip locks broken off on all of them, and etc. Initially, I was just going to replace the coil connectors and, possibly, install some heat shrink over the exposed wires. As I was removing all the electrical tape wrapping from the existing harness, the wires are in worse shape than I expected.

I cut a nice looking wiring harness from the junkyard with the thought of just removing the coil connectors and installing them in my existing harness...but now I'm, thinking it might be better to just replace the whole wiring harness with the one I grabbed from the junkyard.

Can I use butt connectors to splice the new harness? or do I have to solder these connections? I will be making the cut where the bundle enters the engine cover.

Below is a picture of the "new" harness.

Post by **ZionXIX** » 02 Jan 2023, 14:54

I think you could make a pretty good repair with crimped connectors that have the heat shrink around them and you could even put an extra layer of heat shrink. That would at least make things water tight and insulated.

Post by **Chuck W** » 02 Jan 2023, 15:28

They would be fine, as long as they're sealed.

Post by **Krons** » 02 Jan 2023, 15:30

Personally I prefer a solder connection over a splice. Kind of depends how much power is running through it. IMO splices ok for sensor voltage, solder for anything with more current.

Post by **ZionXIX** » 02 Jan 2023, 15:57

I like to use the heat shrink crimped connectors with the solder ring inside.

Post by **Chuck W** » 02 Jan 2023, 16:12

I built my own harness for my COP conversion on my 97 T5. All crimped and sealed. 2+ years and about 15K miles. No problems.
(Ran a new wiring from the ECU to the coils)

Post by **ZionXIX** » 02 Jan 2023, 21:27

Chuck W wrote: 02 Jan 2023, 16:12 I built my own harness for my COP conversion on my 97 T5. All crimped and sealed. 2+ years and about 15K miles. No problems.
(Ran a new wiring from the ECU to the coils)

COP conversion? Were you able to use the same ecu and valve cover?

Post by **Chuck W** » 03 Jan 2023, 05:48

ZionXIX wrote: 02 Jan 2023, 21:27 COP conversion? Were you able to use the same ecu and valve cover?

I already had an M4.4 conversion on the car.

I purchased the COP conversion bin from VAST and modded an ECU per the instructions.

The coils all bolt down to the N head, except you need to flip the #1 around and make a provision to bolt down the #5. I added a threaded insert to an existing hole for that.

I added the coil outputs to the 24/15 connector under the ECU and ran the leads out in the stock wiring raceway. The car was apart for a manual swap, so that part was a bit easier. When I did it to my wife's car, I just ran the wiring along the existing raceway in a protective sheath. (Hers already had an RM swap, so no head mods were needed to mount the coils)

Post by **ZionXIX** » 03 Jan 2023, 13:56

That's awesome. I would imagine tuning is far superior with COP that traditional rotor/cap designs. I may have to file this in the future mod list for the 850.

Post by **800artfreed** » 03 Jan 2023, 14:50

When I had to replace a 1994 Ford Taurus wiper motor with a totally different connector Ford instructed soldering the wires but using a hot glue gun to inject melted glue into each end of the heat shrink tube insulation. The hot glue shrank the tube and created a water proof seal for each connection. They also instructed to offset each of the lengths of the wires (7 if I remember correctly) so that they did not overlap and bunch up all in one spot.