Burned Up Engine Harness Connector

[Bill-W]

I was looking at my wiring harness when changing the fuel filter yesterday and noticed it looked like it was all melted and burned up. It is still connected but I cannot get it apart as both sides have melted and deformed together and looks like I have had some arcing on the edges of the exposed connectors. So I temporarily wrapped it up with tape to prevent any arcing with the body. All my glow plugs test good but the truck starts like crap in the morning when it is <40 without the block heater plugged in for 2 hours or so. I am thinking the burned up connector might be causing a voltage drop so the plugs do not fully heat. The solinoid cycles them for about 20-25 seconds when cold but it sounds like most people only get 10-15 or so.

Where can I buy a replacement connector? I have looked but cannot find it without the entire engine harness and cannot find the body site at all. The engine harness is less than a year old and don't really want to buy another one. Is there any reason I cannot cut out the connector and run sealed blade connectors for each wire individually? I know if I did this I would have to swap out engine harnesses if I ever changed engines but would there be any other problems with it?

 

[franklin2]

I am assuming that's the famous connector where the glowplug power feed melts the plug. This is a common problem. If you look at it closely, the two heavy yellow wires are the culprits that are overheating, and these two wires are the ones that feed the glowplug relay.

You certainly can convert it to slide connectors, just make sure the wires are the same colors on both sides so it's obvious how it goes together if you have to take the engine out.

I would not use slide connectors for the two large yellow wires. You would probably end up with the same problem again. On mine I crimped ring connectors on the yellow wires(4 total) and then used small nuts and bolts and bolted them together for a heavier connection. These two yellow wires are just parallel wires to double the current carrying capacity of the circuit, so it doesn't matter if you get them mixed up.

 

[leftcoastjeff]

Check the cold advance?

LCjeff

 

[icanfixall]

Mine burned up too. I connected a wire directly from the fender solenoid directly to the glow plug controller. Its 6 gauge speaker wire and any steryeo shop has it. Buy their larged heavy duty lugs too. Remove the 2 wires that Ford "thought" would handle this electrical load. I cut apart that end of my plug. It will really surprice you how small the connecter pins are in the plug thats carrying all that load...

 

[Bill-W]

That all makes sense thanks for the reply's. Once it warms up a little I'll go tackle this one. I've got lots of different size high load connectors at work that should work. I like the idea of running the heavy gauge also think I might do that as well.

The cold advance and high idle seem to be working fine. The high idle I am sure about, the cold advance I can feel the engine change when it kicks down and I am already driving on the road.

Do the gauge sensors run through this harness also? It seems like they are as I did not see any other wires coming off the engine.

 

[ericboutin]

Man I just posted about this a couple weeks ago if that! Mine was headed to where yours is now. I just finished doing the mod Icanfixall is referencing and just posted this about it.....​

I would suggest this to everyone whether you are experiencing problems with your GPC or not to run a separate wire to power your GPC. The wires Ford ran originally just weren't made to make it the long haul!! Your connector will most certainly eventually heat up and melt, fry etc. Do this mod now before you run into what I did. Ron (Dsl Dog Catcher) was right about the change in the GPC after this mod....my light clicking and after burn clicking are definately more pronounced. Starting is also night and day!! The truck has always acted like it's -50 degrees outside when I first start it on a "cold' morning (our cold mornings)......well after finally finishing up this evening....it was sleeting if you can believe it so it must have been around 32....anyway she fires right off now....absolutely no complaining!! Huge difference!!! Definately worth doing this!!!

Thanks again to all for your help!! And thank you Ron for letting me bug yah wth questions!​

I went ahead and ran 4 ga wire with a 250 amp mega fuse.
Good luck!​

 

[Bill-W]

I went ahead and ran 4 ga wire with a 250 amp mega fuse.
Good luck!​

So I got a good length of 4ga monster wire from a friend left over from an amp. upgrade. It came with an 80amp fuse. Should I use that or upgrade to the 250? Why did you use the 250? or should I just keep the fuse-able links, which have not burned up yet, and splice the 4ga onto the 2 of them? Any one know how many amps can/should the GP's pull?

Thank you many questions but I am trying to get this done the end of this week and not screw the whole thing as funds are tight right now. Plus I still need to replace the steering gear which blows through 1/2qt fluid on every cold start-up and I want to do a 3g alternator conversion as my charging system sucks. My truck spends weeks at a time outside in an airport parking lot and has to fire-up dead cold every time I get back as it is usually late at night of first thing in the morning.

I will post up some pics when it is done.

 

[typ4]

the quick fix is to cut the wires and butt them together for now. Then when it warms up a bit do the good fix. an 80 amp fuse will blow quickly I bet.

I sawed off the burnt part of the connector so it is fine now, and yes all the sensor and power wires go thru that plug.

 

[ericboutin]

Actually the quick fix is to just do it right the first time. It takes all of 10 minutes to do this. An 80 amp fuse will blow in very short order. The fuse is not entirely necessary....I believe it's Icanfixall who has been running a straight wire/no fuse with no problems.
Back to the 10 min job....disconnect the two wires at the Glow Plug Controller.....let em hang.....then disconnect the two wires at the starter relay....let em hang....now put a terminal on each end of your 4 ga wire and hook one end to the GPC and the other end to the starter relay. It is really that simple. Turn the key on and enjoy the fact that you have full power going to your GPC and no smoking anymore!!!!

 

[typ4]

He said it was cold, that what I was shooting for. Although if he had the glowplugs on during the quick fix at least the fingers would be warm.

I had a very good crimp connector on my main to the relay and it still loosened up till i soldered it, the current the GP's consume is formidable. Makes the crimp swell and shrink and then they get sloppy. The factory connector was just a dumb idea.

 

[ericboutin]

He said it was cold, that what I was shooting for. Although if he had the glowplugs on during the quick fix at least the fingers would be warm.

I had a very good crimp connector on my main to the relay and it still loosened up till i soldered it, the current the GP's consume is formidable. Makes the crimp swell and shrink and then they get sloppy. The factory connector was just a dumb idea.

X2! Yah you gotta wonder what the electrical guys at Ford were thinking? Of course this is obviously the same group that gave us the headlight switch too!

 

[geonc]

Using the 4ga wire direct between fender relay and GP relay is the way
The reason for such a high mega fuse relates to 8 gps drawing close to 30 amps ea =240amp possible load. Those #s are for new gp's...older ones will naturally draw more so a slight fudge factor on the safe side----

Of all the ones I have done and others who have done it, I have not heard of any wiring failure/meltdown of any sort

Doing this mod you will also notice a pronounced difference---less gauge movement, less clicking and in many cases, much faster,smoother starts

I did this mod on my 90' back in 01 thanks to another member here NJKen and have promoted it as best as possible .

 

[Bill-W]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions so far. I made up the cable last night after work but was to dark when I finished to get it on. Planning on getting it on tonight.

 

[geonc]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions so far. I made up the cable last night after work but was to dark when I finished to get it on. Planning on getting it on tonight.

Good to hear! Keep in mind if availability or moneys for the mega fuse is limited, you CAN run it straight and get on with your business

 

[Bill-W]

Well the stock wired finally burned out this morning and did not want to start dead cold. Hooked up the wire I made up last night and it fired up like never before for me. WOW

Good to hear! Keep in mind if availability or moneys for the mega fuse is limited, you CAN run it straight and get on with your business

That is how I did it this morning, need to run by west marine and see if they have a circuit breaker in stock or the local car audio place and get a fuse.

Thanks again for all you helping me with this.