[Berk8520]

While I decided to work around the forever cursed wiring harness I thought I would share my findings for other folks who might be braver or more knowledgeable than I.

[RANT] Why Ford could not put a couple of disconnects or at least run the wire way in the wall will forever be a negative mark on a pretty great platform for me.[/RANT]

So I decided to look into what it might take to lengthen the drivers side leg of the wiring harness which would of allowed me to at least bury it in a soffit in the top corner.

I started by open the harness where it splits and heads down to the driver rear corner of the van. There are 13 wires at this point.

Opened loom

I though about cutting and extending all thirteen but not being sure what they led to gave me pause. I had also read on some European forums that a cut to the loom can throw the Ford computer into some sort of security mode. I have not verified this.

Following the loom down the rear pillar I first came across three ground wires tapped into the van body. I undid these but found that there was no addition slack. Reaching inside the pillar you can feel where the wires are secured by clips. These are those horrible one time use plastic barbs. I undid all I could find. Still no more slack n the harness.

Ground Wires and Clips

I little up the pillar I found where the loom splits and heads towards the driver. There are five wires going into a 20 or so pin connector. the other side of the clip there is about 12 inches of wire witch I think is the sway senor in the end? If you open the connector you see there are the five wires going into the 20 pin connector and 5 pins in the connector but only four wires coming out the terminating side of the connector.

Sway Sensor connector?

Inside the pillar at the bottom is two connectors white and grey. These wires go into the large rubber covered flex tubing going from the van into the door. From the size of the wires I would guess that one connector is the for the defrost and the other is possibly a door latch sensor or some such. I un-clipped these.

Further still up the pillar I found another split in the loom. These wires all head into the taillight. I pulled the taillight by removing the two torx screws on the top and bottom inside lens housing. Then open the rear van door to full extension by disconnecting the door catch. Then starting at the top of the taillight gently pull the lens away from the body working the pins out of there clips. I disconnected the taillight wires and the lower loom was now free.

Taillight removed

To recap on the loom we have:

Taillight connector

Sensor connector?

Defrost connector

Sway Sensor Connector?

Three Ground Wires.

In the end I decided to leave the harness alone and work around it. I am especially concerned with cutting into what I think are the sensor wires. If anyone has more to add or experience with repairing or modifying the harness I would love to hear it. What I really wish ford had done was create wire way in the wall and added connectors to each corner of the loom.

Hope this info helps someone.

Berkeley

 

[klp]

Nice post, thanks. I plan to mess with mine a bit if possible, that will be down the road for me though. My van is a low roof - looks like yours is a mid or tall. I hope to be able to run them all inside the panels instead of outside.

 

[Berk8520]

Defeated by loom

 

[swellguy]

That is SO LAME. Thanks Ford for nothing. Thanks Berk for the detective work.

 

[klp]

Well hold up, we don't know what happened yet. Don't consider this a defeat but a minor battle that has not been won.

I mean, does your van still run? That's a win!

 

[orton]

Had the same issue on a high roof van. Needed to move the loom up the wall enough to get the horizontal run of the wiring up enough to get it into the upper cabinet.

First I discarded the OEM plastic wire cover down left side and across back above the rear doors. The loom going down the left rear corner can be moved up a few inches. (Did not measure how much)

The wiring going to the sensor located in wall over the left rear wheel well can be rerouted up higher to give some slack. The ground wires at bottom of wall can be reconnected to get some slack. I also disconnected the wiring clips inside the left rear door pillar to obtain some length. These changes gave be enough length to get the loom up into the cabinet. Did not cut any wires.

Replaced the stock loom cover with 1 1/2" square Panduit with a snap on cover. Have run additional conversion wiring in the Panduit with the original loom. The wiring above the rear doors is hidden inside a fabricated box above the doors. In the bottom of the box I reinstalled one of the two original rear LED lights powered by the house battery. There is a switch to turn the light on/off next to the LED light. One light is more than adequate.

Have not yet posted pictures for this on the ortontransit.info web site. Did post the electrical drawing and block diagram:

http://www.ortontransit.info/electric.php

 

[Ian Bierley]

I have the same issue; I need to get the harness into the framework.

Does anyone have any further thoughts or experience on cutting and splicing in extension wires?

Has anyone completely removed the harness from the back of the vehicle to above the drivers seat? My plan is to re-route the harness from just above the air bag.

Does anyone have contact details for a starting point to ask the factory?

I've just asked my dealer to see if he can find a suitable factory technician or some kind of customer service rep that can provide a definitive answer on splicing in a few inches. I'll post the results here once I have a verified solution.

 

[Eiko]

Have you searched? One of the regulars here cut the wires in the loom one by one, labeled the ends of the wires and soldered them all back together inside the wall. Van still worked. All described in that thread.

 

[taylor234]

Having no desire to mess with the loom, I followed Orton's advice, which he repeats above, and removed the stock housing and found enough slack that I was able to move the loom higher on the wall, where I will be able to tuck it inside the upper cabinets. It was not hard to do and took me less than an hour. For me, that made for a pretty easy solution.

-- David

 

[Ian Bierley]

Have you searched? One of the regulars here cut the wires in the loom one by one, labeled the ends of the wires and soldered them all back together inside the wall. Van still worked. All described in that thread.

Yes, I searched; I thought extensively but only ended up with this thread. Still can't find the one you are referring to even with a variety of search terms. Do you happen to know who it was or any search word that will get me there? I'd like to read over it before getting started with the snippers.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ranxerox]

Yes, I searched; I thought extensively but only ended up with this thread. Still can't find the one you are referring to even with a variety of search terms. Do you happen to know who it was or any search word that will get me there? I'd like to read over it before getting started with the snippers.

Thanks in advance.

it was mentioned in a recent thread, i think somebody else did a full right up on it almost a year ago.
there is really not much to it: buy some wire markers at home depot or an electrical supply house, (a wire marker is a small piece of tape with a number on it, wire markers come in a dispenser with 10 rolls of tape labeled 0 thru 9) put matching numbers on each side of the cut you make on each wire, then you will know how to splice the wires back together in the right order after you tuck the cable inside of the transit wall!

 

[Ian Bierley]

Thanks ranxerox.

My main concern was someone had mentioned changing the harness might effect onboard computers or something like that.

In the meantime, Ford just called me back moments ago and said it should be no problem at all to extend the entire harness as per my requirements. They just highlighted that the camera signal may be an issue because of its shielding, however that is my area of expertise and was the least of my concerns. I'm installing a high mount rear view camera this week that will replace the factory camera and monitor anyway.

The bottom line is I'll now be heading out there with my snips and soldering iron as soon as I can get to it.

 

[Eiko]

Yes, I searched; I thought extensively but only ended up with this thread. Still can't find the one you are referring to even with a variety of search terms. Do you happen to know who it was or any search word that will get me there? I'd like to read over it before getting started with the snippers.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/...ated-cargo-van-wiring-into-body-cavities.html

I'm beginning to think the forum google search sucks. I used regular google with this syntax "site:fordtransitusaforum.com cutting wire loom". I think there is another thread doing the exact same thing but the person labeled each wire before cutting. But I only looked at the third result on the search. If that's not good enough you might have better luck finding the thread I'm thinking of if you try the regular google using "site:fordtransitusaforum.com" and different search words.

 

[Ian Bierley]

http://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/...ated-cargo-van-wiring-into-body-cavities.html

I'm beginning to think the forum google search sucks. I used regular google with this syntax "site:fordtransitusaforum.com cutting wire loom". I think there is another thread doing the exact same thing but the person labeled each wire before cutting. But I only looked at the third result on the search. If that's not good enough you might have better luck finding the thread I'm thinking of if you try the regular google using "site:fordtransitusaforum.com" and different search words.

Thanks for the extra feedback. I took a look at the link you had there and I'm good to go now. Just thought I'd check the forum before I got started but it seems to be simple enough.

One thing I noticed was a comment about a "no drill zone" and that reminded me to recheck the body builders guide because I am planning on making one routing hole above the airbag. In fact it reminds me to keep the no drill zone guide to hand with the amount of holes I'm planning on during my build.

 

[Eiko]

One thing I noticed was a comment about a "no drill zone" and that reminded me to recheck the body builders guide because I am planning on making one routing hole above the airbag. In fact it reminds me to keep the no drill zone guide to hand with the amount of holes I'm planning on during my build.

If you already know what page the no drill zone guide is in the BEMM, let me know. I skimmed through it but only found the no drill zones around the door frames, B pillar and didn't find the zones in the back of the van. (I'm being lazy).

 

[Ian Bierley]

Strangely, I'm seeing the high roof left and right sides, but only the low roof rear doors on page 55. That's a 2015 BEMM though, I didn't find a 2017 specific. Going by other threads and G search, the publication date 11/2016 is the latest rev. Let me know if you have anything newer.

I'm not seeing anything for the area above the airbag (behind the black blob) and that's where I want to move the harness from outside to in. Might get to it this weekend, have a look with an inspection camera and start with a pilot hole to see how it goes before expanding to something big enough for a grommet and the harness.

 

[Eiko]

I got off my butt and discovered this magical thing called an "index"! Page 83 cargo area and page 223 for cab. There's a LOT of no drill zones!

I have the BEMM labeled Ford Transit 2016.75 published 4/2017.

There's a TON of tidbits in the BEMM almost all of which I will never read. For example p.79
"Ford Motor Company strongly advises against the use of wire splicing due to the variable and unpredictable nature of making robust, durable and reliable connections. However, if it is deemed that a wire splice is absolutely unavoidable, it must be made with DuraSeal Heat-Shrinkable, Environmentally Sealed, Nylon-Insulated Crimp Splices (manufactured by TYCO-RAYCHEM). For example the D406 series. As a further process to improve the splice integrity, the splice should be further sealed with a suitable heat shrink tubing. See Figure E131081."

That actually fits with what I learned about crimping. There is a long discussion on wire connections somewhere here. What I learned from elsewhere was that a proper crimp creates a gas tight junction that basically results in "welding" of the wire strands and is better than soldering. Hein advocates cutting through your crimp to confirm you're doing it correctly. Most applicable to the crimps on large current carrying wires.

p78 - "Cutting into vehicle wiring is not permitted because:" reasons, etc etc etc.

Basically, everything everyone has done here is prohibited by Ford:laugh:

 

[ranxerox]

I got off my butt and discovered this magical thing called an "index"! Page 83 cargo area and page 223 for cab. There's a LOT of no drill zones!
I have the BEMM labeled Ford Transit 2016.75 published 4/2017.
There's a TON of tidbits in the BEMM almost all of which I will never read.

often it seems like half of all questions asked (over and over!) on this forum can be answered in the BEMM. but like the owners manual, people look at it once and never look at it again!

the newest updated version (9/2017) of the BEMM (along with all publicly available technical data on the transit, including my black foam block link.) can be found in this link: (click on the red box at the bottom)

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/

 

[Ian Bierley]

often it seems like half of all questions asked (over and over!) on this forum can be answered in the BEMM. but like the owners manual, people look at it once and never look at it again!

the newest updated version (9/2017) of the BEMM (along with all publicly available technical data on the transit, including my black foam block link.) can be found in this link: (click on the red box at the bottom)

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/

Great, I've now got the latest version.

Here's my take away from that : "However, if it is deemed that a wire splice is absolutely unavoidable, it must be made with ............." Ford didn't provide an inline connection block, so splice is indeed absolutely unavoidable.

I've just had a look and think I'll need to splice above the drivers door and again roughly in the center at the back. Two locations and I can get everything in the walls, I think. Now I'm searching for how to pull the front roof liner and shelf off so that I can get easy access above the drivers door.

 

[ranxerox]

youtube is sometimes your friend, a transit forum members video's. (how to remove head liner - the shelf)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...npjKKgJrx1gkxE