Electrical Fun

Decided to dive into electrical goodness. Got really interested in how the electrical setup is from Mazda.... LOL I’m thinking of doing a full rebuild of the main harness with some tefzel wiring and new connectors. Might have bitten off a bit much though!! Ordered a junkyard harness to get connector part numbers, loom sizes, wire AWG and lengths. Planning on improving what I can where I can.

 

So much heat! The factory wire wrap is dry and brittle! Also the loom near the alternator/turbo has turned gray from black!

 

There is some weirdness going on in this harness folks...
There are a couple of random shielded cables that have a ground type wire running through them that are hooked up into black wires on the ECU end but on the sensor end they don’t connect to anything....

also not to mention they are wrapped in a tar like substance covered in tape?

 

This is most likely a drain wire. Very common in automotive applications, drain wires keep electrical noise away from the remaining wires.

 

Is that like shielding a wire, but without actually shielding?

 

Definitely sounds like it, one of the “shielded” sets goes to the knock sensor and the other one goes is the coil pack via 6 pin.

 

Knock sensor wires should always be shielded so that way ignition noise doesn't randomly trigger false events.

Kind of like how if you run your amp power and grounds along the same side of the car as your speaker wires. You'll get a high pitch whine noise or distorted sound.

Also if you are planning on redoing the harness and you do new pins, make sure to put a small dab of solder where the crimp is on the pin. Vibration is a major factor for terminal tension issues and even though a crimp looks good, a slight amount of air gap can lead to random funkiness down the road.

 

Thanks @L337TurboZ appreciate the info good stuff!

 

Got everything identified! Now on to find connectors, oh and still tracking down the wire sizes and to measure lengths. Wanted to get this posted up information wise.
The battery cable harness I'm dismantling is part number GP9A-67-070F the 24 pin connector is listed as C-08 in the Speed 6 wiring diagram.
Sensors that are connected to this are listed below, the numbers after them are where they are in the wiring diagram:
MAF/Throttle Sensor 0140-326
Oil Pressure Switch 0922-104
Starter 0119-101
A/C Clutch 0140-302
Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) & Boos Air Temperature (BAT) Sensor 0140-330
Knock Sensor 0140-324
Power Steering Pressure Switch 0140-322
Oil Control Valve (E) 0140-113
Alternator/Generator 0117-01
Crankshaft Position Sensor 0140-323

That all being said I've double and triple checked the diagram(s), I'm still trying to read and understand it, far from being an expert, use at your own will, LOL