Where's this wire supposed to go?

Ok, wiring in my truck is seriously wonky, dunno what moron worked on it, but its real interesting. Most interesting is this one, a white wire with a black stripe, stripped at one end and resting in the main harness across the top of the engine, and the other end seems to go into the test plug.

Is that supposed to join the white with black stripe running between the alternator and the choke (there's three matching wires tied together already)?

Donkey... i mean danke,

Looks like an 86 but aside from that...can't tell what engine it is without pics...or if the wiring/engine has been swapped out...test plug? As in the EEC-IV on the passenger fender???

Mark_88 said:

Looks like an 86 but aside from that...can't tell what engine it is without pics...or if the wiring/engine has been swapped out...test plug? As in the EEC-IV on the passenger fender???

Click to expand...

Whoops, forgot to mention that as its in my profile and photo album.

86 2.0, 5 speed, and yep, the EEC-IV plug. The picture isn't great (and you can see another problem), but its the top most wire with the plug in that position.

Ah, yes, the old profile checking trick...forgot to do that.

I just yanked out all the wiring from my 2.0 so I can't just go out and have a looky for you...but anything to do with that mess of wires on the passenger side (aka Idle Control Module or some silly thing) I pretty much gave up on...unless something wasn't working right on the heater box.

If you don't have a choke or fast idle kick down and everything else is otherwise working right I'd have to say roll it up and hide it somewhere...

As for the mess on the driver side...sheesh...makes you want to find the previous owner and smack them a few times without saying so much as why you did that...lol

Looks like they were trying to figure something out and hired a chimp that was good with a pair of scissors and blade knife...

Mark_88 said:

Ah, yes, the old profile checking trick...forgot to do that.

I just yanked out all the wiring from my 2.0 so I can't just go out and have a looky for you...but anything to do with that mess of wires on the passenger side (aka Idle Control Module or some silly thing) I pretty much gave up on...unless something wasn't working right on the heater box.

If you don't have a choke or fast idle kick down and everything else is otherwise working right I'd have to say roll it up and hide it somewhere...

As for the mess on the driver side...sheesh...makes you want to find the previous owner and smack them a few times without saying so much as why you did that...lol

Looks like they were trying to figure something out and hired a chimp that was good with a pair of scissors and blade knife...

Click to expand...

Nods, "Choke appears to be hooked up, just had a stray wire, and since i had to fix the wiring over there any way (alternator wiring was a tape wrapped lump, turns out there was a wire with a ring connector at one end, and the bare end wrapped around an uninsulated butt connector), figured i put it in place while i'm at it."

"Oh, the wiring is fun, would you like the stereo wiring that hangs down from the dash, or the fog light wiring that's routed out through the door opening? Don't mention the fog light power wire which is around three or four pieces of wire joined together. Oh can't forget what started this, the harness from the ICM to the distributor that wasn't wrapped or covered, and was resting on the steering shaft. Gotta make that one since you can't by it, nor can you buy the distributor plug, but i did get a pigtail from Standard that looks identical except the lock tabs, which dikes and a file can fix. Oh, and that pic was the right side, that chewed up wire is the one your supposed to plug in to use the self test feature."

Javarod said:

Whoops, forgot to mention that as its in my profile and photo album.

86 2.0, 5 speed, and yep, the EEC-IV plug. The picture isn't great (and you can see another problem), but its the top most wire with the plug in that position.

Click to expand...

That plug is to connect an OBD-1 code reader. The loose wire with the plug is also for testing. I wouldn't worry about it. Most folks don't have an OBD-1 code reader as they are now obsolete. I checked the wiring diagrams and found Ford uses Blk and Wht as going to ground.

THIS MIGHT HELP

http://www.veryuseful.com/mustang/tech/engine/images/88-91_5.0_EEC_Wiring_Diagram.gif

freedom5 said:

That plug is to connect an OBD-1 code reader. The loose wire with the plug is also for testing. I wouldn't worry about it. Most folks don't have an OBD-1 code reader as they are now obsolete. I checked the wiring diagrams and found Ford uses Blk and Wht as going to ground.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Basically i finally remembered to test that it didn't go to anything active, and tied it in with the other matching wires including the one off the alternator. Under the hood wiring is sorted now, and the truck runs a bit better. Amazing what having a harness with insulated wires between the ICM and distributor will do.