Getting engine harness through firewall?

[maxdoogie]

I was curious on how to get the engine ECU harness through the firewall. I recently installed a custom stereo setup into my car, and during the process, I drilled into the firewall engine harness rubber plug to get the stereo wire through. I think in the process, I may have damaged a wire in the engine harness, as right after I did this, I got a check engine light. It was quite stupid of me, I know

I would like to take the plug out and see if there is any wires that may be touching something they shouldn't be. Is there any trick to getting the harness out, or do I just unplug the ECU and pull it out carefully?

Oh, BTW, I took my car to the nissan dealership to run the engine codes and they told me it is my distributor. I was also wondering if one of these wires could have been damaged, if it would cause the car to throw a distributor code.

Any help you guys can give would be great! :ylsuper

[[s3]]

1) yea not smart to drill into firewall where ECU wires are, hundreds of other places you can stick wires thru

2) harness comes out when you take rubber grommet out, and unplug from ECU, slide sideways and be careful not to strip/break any wires

Distributor codes can pop when the right wires are grounded/crossed, probably shorted something.

[quiksilvia]

in the ecu wiring near the firewall on the inside, the tape is wrapped around the wires and a plastic reinforcement, what i did was CAREFULLY cut the tape off and get that plastic out, then pull it out, comes easy0-u just have to guide it, then i reewrapped the wires. el fin

[maxdoogie]

thanks for your replies, guys...If I drop my glovebox, will I be able to see where the ecu wiring goes through the firewall? It seems like it is pretty high up in there

[maxdoogie]

ok, well...I tried this weekend to get the wiring harness through the firewall, to no avail. is there any other plugs I should undo, besides just the ECU big plug to make the struggle easier? would it help to have someone pushing on the harness, while I try to pull it through?

[LittleBrotherSilvia]

theres more than just the plug that goes into the ECU, theres one for interior controls and whatnot, and another 1 or 2 plugs.

the wireharness in the 240 is a pain in the a$$ to get out, and droping the glove box wont help u.

[s13sr20chris]

hey good luck and all, but i have to let you in on something. those distributors go bad all the time. the most common cause is the inner seal leaking oil into the distributor. you cant replace that seal unfortunately. you can however remove the dist. and clean it inside and out.

[maxdoogie]

so how and what would I use to clean the distributor inside and out? Any specific cleaners you would suggest?

[s13sr20chris]

yeah, get brake cleaner from the auto parts store. its like 99 cents a can around here. it does not leave much if any residue and evaportates quickly. we use it at the shop for everything.

[maxdoogie]

so can someone help me with the process of swapping out the distributor? Anything special I need to do, or do I just unbolt the old one and slide the new one in?

[[s3]]

Remove old one, put new one on, reconnect all plug wires

[s13sr20chris]

yeah, only goes in one way(on all ka24de's i think).

[maxdoogie]

nice, nissan wanted to charge me 3 hours labor to do it. I'm glad to hear it's just a undo old/slide new one in process.

Thanks for your help, guys!

[maxdoogie]

Also, the distributor I got came with old wires/cap/rotor...You think those will be fine to use, or should I replace everything at once?

[s13sr20chris]

i would get new ones(oem). three hours? maybe for one of the old ones from the sohc motors. they were a pain to time up with the oil pump, but the dohc dist is cake.