Vortec V6 in a flatfender with a power Saginaw conversion.

Came home from work to a little sumptin sumptin waiting on my porch:



The old transfer case mount had as much give as a slab of granite.....



Shiny new Omix-ADA mount:



And the real reason for the extra large box:



Not sure how they named the company. Sure as hell wasn't referring to the price. $1350 for both the stand alone fuel injection harness and a complete chassis kit. Figured I might as well do it all at the same time for the cleanest install, and they are running a factory rebate of $100/harness through the end of the month.

Just have to wait until Sunday to get started on the fun.....

 

Cool. I generally make my own wiring harnesses because I can't afford the price for someone else to do it, but I am not running FI either.

 

I did some research before I bought the FI harness. I could use a junkyard one, but I didn't want a bunch of loose unused wires, or want to deal with someone else's repair/replace, or worse, trying to track down a faulty or bad connection in a 20+ year old wiring loom 3-5 years down the road. Tax return funded it, so (at least in my logic) it was basically free. The $200 in rebates made it a little easier to swallow.

 

And to think I wired mine myself. What was I thinking?

 

Honestly I might have been more inclined to try, but I have no wiring whatsoever with this motor. It was supposed to come with a harness, but the person I got the motor from fell ill a day or two after the motor was delivered before Christmas. He is still in the hospital and now waiting for a heart transplant. I just don't feel right bugging him about a harness.

So I had absolutely no pigtails or connectors whatsoever for any accessories (alternator, knock sender, MAF, distributor, fuel injector spiders, the 5 separate connectors for the computer, etc.) trying to source quality ones would probably still run me a few hundred at least. All that combined with the beautiful weather we are having here makes me itching to get this jeep on the road. I re-wired the chassis myself a couple years back, but failed to plan ahead and the accessories and such I added since caused a big ugly under the dash no one but me could see, but I hated it. I figure while I'm in one wiring project I might as well do it all and plan ahead for accessory expansion. What the hell. It's only money and it's not like I have any children to leave it to, right?

 

I under stand. I would do the same.

 

Who would've thought, that after everything I've had to do so far, finding a place to mount the computer would be the hardest. Currently scouring the interwebs for a solution....

 

Rubber mount to the right fender.

 

Thanks for the picture Scott. The harness I have relocates the computer to under the dash, but I'm not finding any agreeable mounting there so far. I might end up re-configuring the harness to make it work though. I could mount it in the glove box, but I would loose it as storage space. Not wanting to do that either. Pulled a couple different mounting brackets from the pick and pull earlier today. Playing around with them now. Your computer looks smaller than the one I have.

 

Well it seems I may have wasted about $40 at the pick and pull. By the way, did you know that even with the seats out, working under the dash of an early flat fender sucks? Anyways, I think I found a solution, I have the beginning stages of a bracket laid out that will allow me to mount it horizontally against the underside of the cowl just inboard of the glove box, but my back couldn't take any more contorting tonight. A little of grandpa's medicine tonight and hope to have good news by the end of tomorrow...

 

On my 1945 GPW I made a couple of brackets and mounted directly under the glove box. It is tucked up tight to the bottom of the glove box so it does not interfere with anything yet is fully accessible. Pictures if you want. And, you are right. Working under the dash is a pain in the neck, back and just about every other part of the body.

 

Yes Please! Any issues with passengers hitting things with their feet? I considered that location, but am unsure about clearance

 

I have not found any issues with the ecm being mounted under the glove box. Whether it be my wife or my 6' 1" 260 lb hunting partner they both have ample room for the feet.





There is another possible location and that is like Scott used. With your passenger fender mounted, look at the void between the firewall and fender. Depending on the physical size of your ecm, it may fit in the void. In my case, I used that area to route my header primaries through there. With you using the block hugger headers you don't need to do that.

 

Wow. What a pain this weekend. But I finally came up with an agreeable mount and got some work done on the harness. I wont bore you all with the 3 bracket designs and locations that didn't work (Here is a quick pic of 2nd place - hated it)


But I took 45es' suggestion and looked at an "under the glove box" mount. I initially was trying to use a modified mount from a 96 Astro van to make it work. I tried it in two orientations against the firewall, and on the underside of the glove box. I eventually found one that worked (above pic) but it took up real estate I wanted for a fuse panel among other things. Put some bourbon and a few hours of sleep on it and headed back out to the garage this morning.

Started off with a piece of 1/4" flat stock ('Cause that is what I found in the scrap pile). Cut it to length and drilled a 5/16" hole in each end...



Took some 1/2" angle iron and welded 2 tabs to each piece, drilling a hole in each tab...



Had some 1/8" thick rubber sheet left over from a previous project. Cut a strip to go between the 1/4" flat stock and the computer. Also a couple strips to insulate the computer from the angle iron as well....



Sandwiched it together with some 1/4" bolts.



I welded (2) 5/16" bolts to the top of the flat stock. Used a single hex nut and a washer as a spacer (to give a standoff between the computer and the underside of the glove box. I don't think a computer generates too much heat, but I figure it has heat sink fins for a reason, and air flow on both sides cant hurt....) I then had some 1/8" flat stock - I cut two pieces and drilled holes to match the bolts. I sandwiched the glove box between 2 pieces of the 1/8" to spread the load a bit. Finished it inside the box with acorn nuts....

 

So, after I got that mounted, here is the end result (at least as far as the underside of the dash is concerned....)





Main harness tucked up very nicely inside that little nitch at the top of the cowl.

 

All in all, a clean mount I am happy with. I really like the Painless wire braid - an obvious improvement over the run of the mill corrugated plastic loom. Stopped here for my weekend, I will continue with the engine bay side next weekend.

 

Progress has slowed down a tad. Between this creeping crud I've caught and an old knee injury, I haven't been able to get into the garage as much as I would've liked.

The Painless kit is actually fairly easy to install, and damn near fool proof. Each connector is labeled to assist with routing, and in any event, the connectors are all different making it impossible to hook up wrong. All the connectors are quality, water tight types.




I got as much of the harness wired up as I could. I still need to finish the exhaust before I route the O2 sensor leads. Over all, I think it makes a nice uncluttered bay. The kit came with a large grommet for the 1 5/8" hole I had to cut in the firewall. Now, this harness is only for the EFI and computer controlled sensors. Connections to things like the alternator will need to be done with a separate chassis harness.

 

Now is the time to start re-checking clearance issues. I also need to verify room available for radiator and fan prior to ordering them. So I bolted the fenders and grill back on.


My father in law was an old jeeper, and has collected many parts over the years. He came out for a visit and brought me two 9 slat military grills. One was in good shape for the age, and still had all the baffles in place. The other was a bit straighter, but the shrouds had been removed. Seeing I would need maximum space anyway, I opted to keep the stock one stock and mount up the other.



The other candidate:



I had this 2A grill on it, but would like to get back to the military look. It is an MB, after all.


The body still has the indent for the shovel. I will patch up the fuel tank filler when I move the tank from under the seat to behind the seats.

 

Two areas of concern: Battery location and the inlet/outlet hoses for the power steering.

There is only 6 inches of space between my alternator and the battery. I can cut it back another 2 inches and re-build the fender well box or mount the battery in the back behind the passenger seat, or buy a gel/optima style and mount it under the passenger seat. Gonna have to think that one over for a bit, but need to figure it out before I continue with wiring the chassis.



So this is where I ended up with the powersteering gear box. It will be tight, but I think I can make it work with some custom hoses or 90* fittings.

 

The good news is the front end clearance. I have over 6" to mount a radiator and an electric fan.