Extra wire needs a home (Update w/ pic 10/04/11)

[A_Whelan]

Hello,

*Spark notes: Fuse box gets power to fuses 1,5,6,8,10,12,16,17, 23,25, 25 ,27,28 and the rest are without power. #9 and 11 are for the fuel and we need power to them. Also not getting a spark. One spare wire on the right hand side of engine not hooked up, has 12volts coming from it, bigger wire with eyelet on the end, will post a picture tomorrow. Please help.*

All of the major things on my swap are complete and now I'm down to the nitty gritty of trying to get this beast started. I have 92' NV engine in a 89 325i shell. We have the usual no spark no fuel so we're starting to look back and recheck a lot of things.

There is, however, one wire that isn't hooked up and we are wondering where it goes. It's a red wire and it comes out of the left side of the harness (it's an automatic harness btw). Where might this wire go?



Cheers,
Aaron

[10Toes]

Looks like there is some red showing under the black cover, if so it needs to be hooked to the power distribution block.

[e30rapidic]

is its a red wire under there....hook it to the positive battery terminal.
If its brown....ground it to the chassis

[dogsbark26]

Doesn't anyone else think he might want to see what the other end of that wire goes to before hooking it to anything? I understand it goes into a harness but how many kinda thick red wires can come out of a harness? Since problem starting, I'd start looking at starter and ignition (under dash).

[A_Whelan]

Well this is the current situation. It's an auto harness and we worked out how to hook the started and all of the other red/brown wires up thanks to people here on the board. We know that red is a hot wire and goes to the + but we weren't sure what it was for which relates to dogsbark26 post. Does anyone know what it does?

Also we get full dash lights, radio and all of that jazz, the car even cranks over. Where it is a auto harness I think there may be more red wires than a manual harness. I think there were 3 or 4 in total, I can't remember off the top of my head.

Would hooking it up and cranking it possibly do any damage, and yes it is a red wire.

Thanks again.

[dogsbark26]

Just hooking it up even without cranking could do harm.

Do you have a dmm? I'm gonna guess that a thick red wire might be fused. Disconnect battery first. Then check continuity with each leg of each fuse and relay in both the fuse box and the main relay panel (where fuel pump relay is located). You may / should find what circuit is involved with that wire.

[e30rapidic]

are your relays clicking when you turn the key to on? If not, that could be their power wire.

[A_Whelan]

Going to check that stuff tonight, I'll post back. Thanks again!

[nando]

the starter gets it's own wire, so just because it's turning over doesn't mean the engine harness has power. since it does look like a red wire, I'd think it's power for the engine itself.

[kermugit]

Its an extra power lead used on the e36 + relay box. It can be removed, you dont need it.

[85bim]

^^^This

[MattM]

its either the extra wire from the E36 fuse box, or its the DME's power wire that needs to go to the top little wire on the b+ post(fused link)

[A_Whelan]

Ok so that wire (as many said) seems to be useless and not the cause of the problem. We still aren't getting a spark or fuel.

My uncle and my father are going to look over everything on the car tomorrow and start working through the wiring to find out what might be causing the problem and Ill post back with results/questions.

Thanks again, the help is much appreciated.

[greyis89]

From my experience that goes to that loom of red wires in the harness cover to that one side there in the pic. Two of which go to the dme, one to the maf and I forget the others exactly. Needs 12v power. But don't be like me and forget to hook up the fuse box before turning the key. I fried a few things. Hope this helps.

[MattM]

follow it back and check, it seems small to be the e36 fuse box power lead.