How to clean wiring harness?
 

What's the easiest way you guys have found to clean the wiring harness? I'm about to start tearing into mine and was looking for any tips you guys may have.

Use a seam ripper (Google it. It's for sewing/upholstery) for splitting open the harness where it's taped or loomed up.

Use a very sharp exacto knife, a curved pick and a set of nail scissors to remove the wrap. Try to unwrap the canvas tape on the joints rather than ripping it off. As you remove the wrap use zip ties or velcro wire ties to hold it together. The velcro ties work great because you can reuse them while you are modifying the harness. Once the wrap is completely removed spray the whole harness down with full-strength simple green and let it sit for 10 minutes. After it sits take a tooth brush to each connector and clean off the grime and tape residue. Use a brillo pad on each wire to get the grease off them. Rinse it off with very hot water and then hang the harness up somewhere dry to dry off. Give it two days to completely dry.
-Jason
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Thanks. I think Ive got everything I need to get started laying around.

Moved post to electrical secton

Another question. What would I need to remove wires from the ECU plug on my Ford ECU? I want to remove all the wires I dont need, but I dont want to just cut them off.

It's actually very easy. First, pry the red plastic insert out of the ECU side of the plug carefully with a pick or very small screw driver. Once its out you can look down next to each pin and you'll see a small little clip. Use the point of a number 11 exacto knife blade to pry the little clip away from the pin on the ecu side as you gently pull the wire from the wire side. The pin will slide right out.

All Ford plugs (and many others as well) work this way. Most every Ford plug has the red (or in some cases yellow) "lock" on the side that plugs into something and small clips under it that hold the actual pins in place. On plugs other than the ECU plug it is also useful to pull the gray or blue rubber weather seal out from the back to make it easier to pull the pins out. I often pull the rubber seals out and turn them around when I rebuild a harness for someone to make them appear new again.

Good luck,

-Jason