I have been reading and have come to find out the 89 year is a big problem year if you are swapping ge to gte and one done it them selves what is the hardest part and what are some tips and tricks?
89 technical on ge to gte swap
- Thread starter alucardunit1
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There is no problem.
If you have 89 you just need to use the same motor mounts that is on there. And for the wiring there are a few cars out there that are yellow plug but most are gray. If its yellow plug get a yellow plug harness. If its gray get a 89-90 gray plug harness.
That is all.
If you have 89 you just need to use the same motor mounts that is on there. And for the wiring there are a few cars out there that are yellow plug but most are gray. If its yellow plug get a yellow plug harness. If its gray get a 89-90 gray plug harness.
That is all.
awesome thank you sir i couldn't find this for just the 89s sounds like i just need to ask you any thing on here lol
I've done this in my car.
My car is an early '89, so it has the same motor mounts as the '86.5-'88. The donor car was an '87. No problems with compatability there.
The chassis/GE harness was a grey plug. The engine/GTE harness was yellow plug.
The plug for the instrument cluster worked without issues, all instruments worked (Swapped out tach board, but my tach does read high.)
I had the following issues:
1. Headlights. As soon as the battery was connected, the headlights turned on. They did not flip up, just turned on. I removed the headlight relay until I could re-run the line. I ran a new wire from the headlight relay to the trigger line on the #2 headlight integration relay, and cut the factory harness line. I believe that this hides the headlight status from the ECU, so it doesn't try to idle up for the extra electrical load, but this hasn't caused me a problem.
2. ABS. The plugs were not compatable, however the colour coding on the wiring harness was similar enough. I cut the pigtail for the chassis harness on the donor car, and the ECU side harness from my car, and turned them into an adapter harness.
That was it for wiring issues, though of course all of the underhood goodies (Except the FP relay/resistor) were taken from the donor car as well, so of course the wiring harness worked with it.
My car is an early '89, so it has the same motor mounts as the '86.5-'88. The donor car was an '87. No problems with compatability there.
The chassis/GE harness was a grey plug. The engine/GTE harness was yellow plug.
The plug for the instrument cluster worked without issues, all instruments worked (Swapped out tach board, but my tach does read high.)
I had the following issues:
1. Headlights. As soon as the battery was connected, the headlights turned on. They did not flip up, just turned on. I removed the headlight relay until I could re-run the line. I ran a new wire from the headlight relay to the trigger line on the #2 headlight integration relay, and cut the factory harness line. I believe that this hides the headlight status from the ECU, so it doesn't try to idle up for the extra electrical load, but this hasn't caused me a problem.
2. ABS. The plugs were not compatable, however the colour coding on the wiring harness was similar enough. I cut the pigtail for the chassis harness on the donor car, and the ECU side harness from my car, and turned them into an adapter harness.
That was it for wiring issues, though of course all of the underhood goodies (Except the FP relay/resistor) were taken from the donor car as well, so of course the wiring harness worked with it.
^If you used a 89/90 gray plug harness you wouldnt have had those problems.
Buddy did the same thing. Used to unplug the head light relay everytime he got out. Then we swapped in a 89/90 gray plug harness and it solved all his problems.
Just use the same color wiring harness thats in there and the same motor mounts.
Buddy did the same thing. Used to unplug the head light relay everytime he got out. Then we swapped in a 89/90 gray plug harness and it solved all his problems.
Just use the same color wiring harness thats in there and the same motor mounts.
Well, since the parts car was an '87, the yellow plug harness was what I had. With that one modification to the headlight relay and the ABS adapter, it worked perfectly.
Would the grey plug harness have the pigtail for the HAC sensor? (Later ECUs had the HAC sensor inside the unit itself, whereas the '87 ECU that I had had the sensor mounted externally.)
Obviously it's better to get an ECU/engine/harness that just plugs into your car, but in the case you can't, at least it's manageable.
Would the grey plug harness have the pigtail for the HAC sensor? (Later ECUs had the HAC sensor inside the unit itself, whereas the '87 ECU that I had had the sensor mounted externally.)
Obviously it's better to get an ECU/engine/harness that just plugs into your car, but in the case you can't, at least it's manageable.
where do you find what color plugs your car has? easiest place to look. because i dont want to get a motor and ecu and wiring and it not work. but im going to get a motor here in the next week.
Connectors under the hood are the easiest place to look, at the FP relay, igniter, and a few other places. You can be absolutely sure if you pull the glove box and look where the ECU connects to the chassis harness.
Ecu is the best place to look as it will show body connector color which is basically the ones you want to match. igniter plugs will be green on yellow plug and same with cps. Most connectors on gray plug have gray plugs.
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