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'88 GT ready for wiring

BriansStang

Member
I am at the point I need to wire my '88 GT to the 4.6 SOHC from a 2002 donar. Using the '88 dash and all interior components. I have all kinds of diagrams but looking for helpful hints, clues and tricks in order to wire her up. I am planning on flashing the '02 ECM so that it is stripped down for performance, no PATS, security, or emmissions. Before I cut any wire I want to be sure I marry the interior to the '02 as seamlessly as possible. Any one ready to share their secrets with a guy ready to finish and drive this beast? THX!!!!!
 

vabeachsand

Hell yea I street Race!
Donator
Take a piece of thick copper wire and attach alligator clips on each end. If you bend it into a U shape, then you can use it as a handy soldering jig for holding two wires together to solder.
 

FuturaGuy

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I've done this but took a different route than most people. How much of the '88 wiring are you going to keep under the hood and how much of the '02 computer and fuse box harnesses are you using? Depending on how much of the computer harness you keep, you'll have to jumper some of the wires that now go thru the firewall next to the steering column over to the connectors behind the passenger side kick panel. Send me a PM.
 

BriansStang

Member
What I have is the entire '02 wiring under the hood and entire '88 behind the firewall. I replaced the computer so that we have the '02. All the controls for the engine are '02. Basically, where I am is wiring the essential systems for the '02 to the '88. My interior lights are functional, windows, dash illumination, tail lights. Now I am looking to wire fuel management and delivery, injectors, coils, ignition. I will get some pics and send to you, I am read to run into the firewall and through the fuse panel is I need. I am mostly lost with the '02 wiring since I went to 24 wires. I figure I only need half if that of the wires from the '02 harness, I need to get the computer flashed to get rid of PATS and security. Since I am not going with the '02 cluster.
 

BriansStang

Member
I've done this but took a different route than most people. How much of the '88 wiring are you going to keep under the hood and how much of the '02 computer and fuse box harnesses are you using? Depending on how much of the computer harness you keep, you'll have to jumper some of the wires that now go thru the firewall next to the steering column over to the connectors behind the passenger side kick panel. Send me a PM.

What I have is the entire '02 wiring under the hood and entire '88 behind the firewall. I replaced the computer so that we have the '02. All the controls for the engine are '02. Basically, where I am is wiring the essential systems for the '02 to the '88. My interior lights are functional, windows, dash illumination, tail lights. Now I am looking to wire fuel management and delivery, injectors, coils, ignition. I will get some pics and send to you, I am read to run into the firewall and through the fuse panel is I need. I am mostly lost with the '02 wiring since I went to 24 wires. I figure I only need half if that of the wires from the '02 harness, I need to get the computer flashed to get rid of PATS and security. Since I am not going with the '02 cluster.​
 

BriansStang

Member
So, it is now story time. I aquired this car about two years ago from a guy that was redoing the car with his son. The son went off to boot camp and final destination...Afgahnistan. Dad was told to sell the car and Mom did not want it in the yard. I fell in love all over as I have wanted one of these cars since I was a teenager. The 4.6 was nestled nicely in the engine compartment on a new tublar K-member and the transmission installed with new mounts. Hard part done. The only wiring done was the injectors, the alternator and the +/- battery terminals. everything else came in three boxes and in the rear of the car. I started wiring up the carby connecting everything that I could with HUGE success until I got to the nitty gritty. I have found that there were several wiring issues along the way which have kept me very busy. Thank GOD for butane soldering irons and tinning wire!! As I draw nearer to completing the wiring I still have work to do before she can be driven but I LOVE this stuff!!!! There is still the matter of fectifying the speedo cable, connecting my cltuch cable, brakes, exhaust (FlowMaster X pipe), tail pipes, aligning the suspension and fine tuning everything........
only to take most of it out and finish everything to be as "pretty" as possible so that it is the envy of other Fox owners (in my area of the world at least!) Finding this forum has really inspired me to finish going where only a few have dared. I read the threads in here and see how much fun everyone has with their ModFox and I am ready!!
 

4eyedcoupe

Active Member
Donator
So, it is now story time. I aquired this car about two years ago from a guy that was redoing the car with his son. The son went off to boot camp and final destination...Afgahnistan. Dad was told to sell the car and Mom did not want it in the yard. I fell in love all over as I have wanted one of these cars since I was a teenager. The 4.6 was nestled nicely in the engine compartment on a new tublar K-member and the transmission installed with new mounts. Hard part done.
Sounds like THEY did the easy part and YOU got left with the hard. Good luck with the build. Post some pics when you can
 

Svt Fox

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Subscribing as I am in the same boat. I have the mechanicals done, was going to farm out the wiring to a friend of mine and pay him to make it look factory.
 

FuturaGuy

Well-Known Member
Staff member
What I have is the entire '02 wiring under the hood and entire '88 behind the firewall. I replaced the computer so that we have the '02. All the controls for the engine are '02. Basically, where I am is wiring the essential systems for the '02 to the '88. My interior lights are functional, windows, dash illumination, tail lights. Now I am looking to wire fuel management and delivery, injectors, coils, ignition. I will get some pics and send to you, I am read to run into the firewall and through the fuse panel is I need. I am mostly lost with the '02 wiring since I went to 24 wires. I figure I only need half if that of the wires from the '02 harness, I need to get the computer flashed to get rid of PATS and security. Since I am not going with the '02 cluster.​
I did essentially the same thing, with '98 wiring under the hood and an '88 dash. I have a couple of posts in the "Electrical Wiring" forum, one titled "Wire Harness" dated 5/18/10, and another about wiring in general from last September. Long story short, I got the connectors that mate to the underhood wiring from a donor car, then made a custom harness to connect the '88 dash to the '98 underhood wiring. I drew a wiring diagram of the custom harness, which should be of some help to you.
 

BriansStang

Member
How many solder connections do you recon you have done thus far?
Thus far I have had to solder very little. I have about thirty miles of shrink wrap, 4-5 sticks of flux, two bottles of butane, and three large spools of solder. I work with electronics so the material is readily available. I am at the point now where I am matching wire, using a jumper and testing the wire and function prior to cut and solder. I am "mapping" the wire by writing color code, function and location. Thanks to some of you in this forum, some of this work is already done with the aid of color schematics and suggestions. I am going to tin and solder once I am satisfied with the results and seal with shrink wrap. No electrical tape if possible.
 

FuturaGuy

Well-Known Member
Staff member
It took a while but here's the wiring diagram and a picture of the finished harness I made to mate the '88 dash to the Modular wiring. (I apologize for the wiring diagram being upside down. One edge of the paper was wrinkled and when I went to scan it, the scanner tried to eat it. Flipped it over to the good end and and it worked O.K.)

Connectors C213, C216, and C259 all connect to their counterparts on the Modular computer harness. The Modular harness also has a fourth connector, C202, which is a round white connector with provision for 4 pins. In non-California cars, there is only one pin, circuit 29, a yellow and white wire that connects to the gas gauge. Not having the mate to C202, I ran the yellow and white wire to a vacant hole in C216.

On the other end of the harness, I used an 11-pin connector (with 5 blanks) that I labelled C1108. The two halves of the connector came from the damaged harnesses from the donor car, and was the connector (C108) behind the right head light that connects the computer harness and the fuse box harness. The eleven wires shown connected thru C1108, with one exception, come from the bundle in the '88 dash that used to go thru the firewall next to the steering column. C135 mates to the green 8-pin connector from the dash and goes behind the passenger kick panel to feed the old computer. C245 goes to another small jumper harness that connects to C243 and C244 in the dash. Those normally connect to a module used only on the 5.0 GT's, otherwise they dead-end. C232 is the port for the OBD-II diagnostics. Since I'm re-wiring the entire car, I put that connector in the center console where it's easy to reach.

It made a very neat installation (some people on this board seeing the photo of the harness said it looked OEM - I'll take that as a compliment) and the underhood wiring is completely stock. The local Ford dealer actually has done some work on my car since the Mod Motor was installed and they had no trouble with it. It was just like working on a Mustang.
 

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anyway someone can email me the diagrams posted, i am new to this site and about to start my first swap and want to use my factory fox interior and gauges since they are in great shape
 
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