Cleaning up wiring under hood, pics and ?s

[Doober]

Theres a computer (ECM) in these cars....humm didn't know that.

Yep. '80 or '81 was the first year for the 'Bu I believe. It was very basic compared to today though. Basically a computer-controlled carburetor and distributor (may have had an O2 sensor too).

I would like to remove the ECM and it's associated wiring as well from my Cutlass. I'm going to have to do some research on this myself.

You should be able to just switch your carburetor and distributor with an older year, then you can remove all the extra ecm stuff.

 

[LWillmann]

You should be able to just switch your carburetor and distributor with an older year, then you can remove all the extra ecm stuff.

I'm getting a little more extensive than that. I've removed the factory Olds 307, and will be swapping in a SBC 357, removing the factory gauges and doing a custom cluster. Keeping the 200-4R, but it's getting rebuilt to handle a lot more power and getting a higher stall torque converter, and will be getting a lockup switch so I get to keep lockup functionality once I disable the ECM.

I'm wanting to get the car on the road as soon as possible, but there is so much to be done yet on the engine, and still a lot of money to be spent (money I don't have right now) so the wiring removal might be something I can start on and work on while I have the time.

If I am correct, the ECM is located in the passenger kick panel. How much of the ECM wiring runs up into the dash? I may just pull those pins from the ECM connector and then start working the rest of the ECM harness from the car. I wonder how much of the factory wiring that's under the hood I'll have to keep? I want to keep A/C and heat, and the other creature comforts as well.

 

[liquidh8]

there isn't a whole lot of harness that hooks up to the dash. You have the VSS, a ing+ wire for the ecm, the aldl, the SES light, the wires to the brake swith for the TCC, and to the Nuetral safety switch. I would do like these guys have said, take out the RH inner fender, the RH kick panel and the glove box. Remove the ECM and pull the harness from under the hood. The headlight harness runs out of the DS. There may be a wire that runs to the A/C compressor, or spliced in. And you may or may not of had a IDLE up soleniod on the carb controlled by the ECM. Just split the harness apart and don't cut the heater wires you need.

 

[MonteMike79]

When I took my computer out I opened up the kick panel, took out the inner fender and unplugged the harness from the computer and left it attatched to the stock 305. I yanked everything out still hooked up. The regular harness has a few plugs like the AC and other small things that you don't use, you could clip them, or just tape them up. I taped mine in case I wanted to put the car back to stock. There will be a hole about 2 inches around in the lower corner of the firewall where the comptuer harness goes through, you will want to make a small plate to cover it.

 

[whitetrash84]

My blower motor does not work, when looking at some connections, found a few melted and a few corroded. So I'm going to wait untill it gets cold again before working on it ](*,)

But I did cut out everything that went to the computer and pulled the computer/harness out.

 

[grizwald]

i have very little wiring under the hood on my car. i traced almost every wire back to the fuse panel that i didn't need and removed it (a/c, heat, radio, ecm, etc...). i don't like having chopped wires taped off and hidden.