Anyone know an easy way to get at the plug that appears to be on top of the transfer case that comes from the engine wiring harness that leaves the left side of the motor (has a ground point on the head, follows the trans tunnel to the frame, has a 4-pin plug into the transmission and then heads over to another 4-pin on top of the transfer case on the right side).

I'm sure this would be much easier to find on a lift, but I'm looking for it from the ground. I've probably just spent too much time on this and need a break, but any help would be appreciated. I've had my arm up over the transfer case in just about every way I can think of, and the parking brake drum is in the way from the rear.....so.....anyone with a hint for me?

 

Bumping this up, as I'm back to working on the truck this weekend. No one here has dealt with this? I can't be the only one here that has swapped a motor.

 

If u are swapping the motor u should just leave the wiring harness in the vehicle, unplug the sensors from the motor and
pull it. The rave sometimes tells u to do more work than is necessary or
reasonable, this is one of those areas.

 

That ship has sailed, and as someone in the middle of this, I'm not sure I agree. The transmission plug was a pain, the transfer case plug si giving me problems, but the rest are quite easy. I'd say much easier than pulling the grounds off of both sides on the lower while the motor is in, pulling the fuels injectors plugs, etc. The main harness to the ECU is quite easy to remove, as is the battery and fuse box harness. I can't imagine its much easier to try to get a motor in and out while wrangling that entire harness around.

Have you done this job on a D2, or are you just offering an opinion based on other experiences with Rave?

 

I've done it, check my signature. Many here respond all the time about things they have no knowledge of, I post rarely but only because I don't want to mislead, which is why I needed to do my swap in the first place...

It may be personal preference, but I can tell u for certain that it isn't hard at all to unplug the harness from the engine and lay it aside while u pull the engine. A couple of months ago someone else actually cut the harness because he couldn't access this part of the harness, which makes me think its more work than my method but who knows?

U do also take out the
harnness as a variable when doing the troubleshooting should the motor not start when u use the existing harness that u know works. The harness on the new engine should be fine, but if only one wire was pinched during shipping, u could have a host of issues.

Good luck with the
project, its tough but worth it.

 

I appreciate the advice, and I only ask if you've done it or not because of the high number of armchair mechanics.

As I mentioned, that ship has sailed, because I did cut the harness (just before the transmission plug) so that, worst case, I can do a proper patch job to the harness using most of what came with the "new" motor. Both plugs are either 2 or 4 wire, and nothing fancy, so a proper patch/solder/heat shrink would be more than enough, however I'd always prefer to use an unbroken harness.

So that still leaves me with trying to get the transfer case plug out for a best case scenario, and I have a hard time believing that there's no one on here who's done it before. I haven't been back underneath to try since a very tired attempt 2 weekends ago, an attempt where I was in such a state from getting the motor from in to just about out that I didn't even remember to stick a mirror up there to see what's going on. So hopefully it will be obvious once I see what's up there. Go go gadget arm.

 

[QUOTE=DarylJ;237396]I appreciate the advice, and I only ask if you've done it or not because of the high number of armchair mechanics.

As I mentioned, that ship has sailed, because I did cut the harness (just before the transmission plug) so that, worst case, I can do a proper patch job to the harness using most of what came with the "new" motor. Both plugs are either 2 or 4 wire, and nothing fancy, so a proper patch/solder/heat shrink would be more than enough, however I'd always prefer to use an unbroken harness.

So that still leaves me with trying to get the transfer case plug out for a best case scenario, and I have a hard time believing that there's no one on here who's done it before. I haven't been back underneath to try since a very tired attempt 2 weekends ago, an attempt where I was in such a state from getting the motor from in to just about out that I didn't even remember to stick a mirror up there to see what's going on. So hopefully it will be obvious once I see
what's up there. Go
go gadget arm.[/
QUOTE]

I hate to hear that u cut the harness,
regardless of how easy it may be to solder it seems like additional headache and variable for error. I wish I could help telling u where the tc case plug is or how to unplug it but I never needed to look for it. Surely someone who has
done a tc case swap knows what u are referring to. That's on my to do list but not anytime soon.