Active Weekend

 Been running around trying to be myself again, and actually got a bunch of stuff done. A good chunk was paperwork in the design-and-chase-parts-for category for the electrical subsystem in the Supra. I need to replace the crusty, brittle, 40 year-old, barely-big-enough battery cables for newer, better ones. I found a place that makes beautiful custom battery and other power cables for a reasonable price, and since they're custom cables, you can have them made with other leads coming out on either end. This opens up an area that needs improvement on the car, and will allow me to integrate the function of the disintegrated and unobtainium "TB1" terminal block into a more functional "Terminal Block Assembly", and bring all the power wiring up to current standards. It will also allow me to easily upgrade the cable from the output of the new high-current capable alternator to the car's existing wiring harness, and allow me to easily add the two new relays for the electric fans (the fans, shrouding, and new aluminum radiator arrived last week), and the two new relays to properly power my 125 Watt high beams.

There are three distinct wiring harnesses under the hood;

1) The main 12VDC Harness for charging, starting, and lighting distribution

2) The Fuel Injection/Sensor Harness that runs to the Engine Control Unit on the passenger side of the firewall

3) The Fusebox/Main Distribution Harness, or "Everything Else".

This is the existing mess at the positive battery post, where the #1 harness begins:

Toyota just used a stud and ring lug to attach the fusible links to the Battery positive post. Pretty crude, and prone to flexing and corrosion. "TB1" is dead center in the picture. It's toast. I don't trust those lengths of fusible link wire, either. Looks like a whole buncha bad connections to me. Checking my sources, calling around, and cashing in a few favors, has found ZERO of these in Japan, Down Under, or on The Continent. Decent to Very Good used ones are out there, but people are loathe to hack one off an otherwise perfectly good, and therefore irreplaceable and valuable, wiring harness. I don't blame them. This car is never going to Pebble Beach, so if I have to replace it, upgrade it! It'll give me better reliability, improved access, expandabilty, and a neater engine bay. Sounds like a win-win to me.

This is the Fuel Injection and Sensor Harness:

ALL of the plastic connector housings that plug on to the individual fuel injectors are broken. They've been in a very hostile environment for 39 years, and have given up the ghost. They crumble very easily and need to be replaced. Parts are readily available, and come in pig-tail form, or loose parts. All the non-adhesive vinyl wrapping tape is hard and brittle, so I'm going to get that off, inspect and clean the individual wires, and re-wrap it with new, better quality tape.

Here's a closer look:

And this is the Everything Else harness:

All these connectors will get cleaned with DeoxIT, and then given a shot of silicone grease before re-mating them. This vinyl wrap will also get replaced, and the wires wiped down before being re-wrapped.

Tedious work, but the engine bay will sparkle when it's done!