There is a decent chance the wiring for my O2 sensors already had something wrong with them since I was getting erratic readings. I was messing with the O2 sensors, and had a zip tie on the O2 sensor wires (drivers RH side) and crankshaft position cable so it wouldnt flop around as much. When I cut that zip tie, I accidentally cut a wire on the harness side of the O2 sensor wiring. About 2 inches up from the plug. It seems the wire I cut was the Orange O2 sensor signal wire. This wire seems pretty hard to get at to fix, but hopefully I can get at it if I remove the rocker cover and intake plenum. When splicing and crimping the wires back together, is there anything special I need to use or do differently that other wires? A butt connector crimp will work, right? The cut cable and another one (ecu ground I think) have a bare ground wire and shrink wrap tubing around them. What is this ground wire for? It is OK if I shorten it slightly? Is there anything special I need to do to accommodate this?

I found this image on another post and it is pretty much exactly what happened to me. Note the weird bare wire.

 

Hi.
Reconnect all the wires with good solder joints and shrink tubing, then insulating tape or larger shrink tubing over all. Do it well so you will not be in doubt of the splice if your sensor misbehaves, being the problem somewhere else. A crimped butt connector will not be as good as soldered. The grounding wire is the reference for the sensor and negative for the heater element.

 

Try to get a pig tail from a breaker, easier to repair when you have more wire available.