Junkyard Run!

[bensenvill]

No way man! The harness was from the '98 SVT at the yard. What year harness do you need?

orly?? now I'm really confused (the parts tag sayed 97, which ya that could be 98), and its something I need for my early 99 (return style). anyways it plugs right up but none of the wires match up. This harness should be identical to the cougars (theres also an small additional 4th plug at the top that I can't place). I do have a spare 98 contour dash harness that I guess I'll pull out of the attic and can verify the accuracy of the wiring.

I hate this, its the stupid little things like that that you think are going to be super easy to work.... ugh. Well I'm going to get caught up on my reading on the subject.

lol, wanna see something cool. heres what I've reduced the wiring of the car down to.

 

[blu_fuz]

Yah, I saw your pics posted on NECO and people are drooling over how clean it is :laugh:. I hope you find the correct harness :shrug:. Good luck!

 

[Thinkmoto]

Thats the whole problem with these damn cars. The 98 model year seems to be a cluster of parts. I'd trace the wires out and make sure they go where they are susposed to and say the color code. Who says the factory didn't change colors during the model year? How much of the wiring was trully interchangeable between contour and cougar??

 

[bensenvill]

Thats the whole problem with these damn cars. The 98 model year seems to be a cluster of parts. I'd trace the wires out and make sure they go where they are susposed to and say the color code. Who says the factory didn't change colors during the model year? How much of the wiring was trully interchangeable between contour and cougar??

I have a good percentage of the cars wiring memorized. as far as core functionality the compatibility is identical (or as near as I have traced out). I've ran my car using a 98 svt dash harness and currently have a 02 cougar dash harness.

and yes the factory did change colors between years, greatly... but the basics of orange being powered wires and black being ground has been pretty consistent through the industry for a 'few' decades now. and when these are swapped theres a good indication that this may not be compatible (although maybe polarity doesn't matter). I just want to scream about it, theres no good reason that you would alter this wiring, and that I'm glad I spent the time to double check and trace out the wires.

oh well, its my own project hell that I've put upon myself. I'm shocked that I've been able to mash together wiring from different cars, cut 20+ pounds out of it and fire up after minimal idiot checking.

 

[Thinkmoto]

Well its 12VDC the chassis is ground and everything else will be power wires. Not sure how much polarity is going to come into play here. I dunno, thats cool what you've done for sure. Sad ford couldn't keep some interchangeability between platforms or at least more of it and color coding. Isn't that car a track car? Just cut it all out. Keep all the engine and abs functions the rest. Or did you get lucky and have a non abs cougar?

 

[bensenvill]

track car? ya I guess. more of just doing it to do it.

I'm just removing wires bit by bit. got just about everything staged last night that there will no longer be any body wireharness other than the taillights and fuel pump. The five or six wires that are remaining are just going to be bundled along with the dash harness (which was already halved and will be rehalved again this weekend). When I started this, I had no idea I could get away with stripping this much wiring out... the car is turning out to be quite simple.

and no, no ABS, thats for pussies.

 

[Pole120]

and no, no ABS, thats for pussies.

What brakes you running? Tires get expensive when you keep flat-spoting them from brake lockups...

 

[Thinkmoto]

Bah brakes are for pussies just throw it in reverse or spin out....