Wiring harness: day 1

Dug into it today.
Took all afternoon to study the mess and pull the manifold.
What's the trick to getting the injector plugs off without busting them
all up? They have a little wire around them that locks into tabs on the
injector and they are a pita to get off.
Is this the knock sensor?
<http://home.pacbell.net/clayt/may_0130s.jpg>
Looks like the tab or stud or screw or whatever, is busted off. Found a
loose connector that may have been attached to it at one time. Maybe
that's why it pings when I run it hard...

The harness runs everywhere! Through the firewall on the passenger side.
In some weird connection on the driver side.
<http://home.pacbell.net/clayt/may_0112s.jpg>

Going to take another day to figure out how to get it all out.
It's so stiff I had a hard time getting the injector wires down between
the manifold runners.
The wad passed between the back of the manifold and the rear lifting
ring was almost too stiff to get out of the way of the last nut.

Manifold evidently has been off before... couple washers missing.
Only lost one nut getting it off. Amazing how nuts disappear when dropped.

Connector and wires are a bit trashed Took a half hour just to get it
unplugged.
<http://home.pacbell.net/clayt/may_0129s.jpg>

 

There's two styles of connector, the older ones you have to pop the wire
clip off with a small flathead screwdriver, dental pick, etc, just start
at one end and unclip it and then the flat side can be pulled far enough
away to free the connector. The newer ones are much nicer and have a
raised portion on one side you push in on to release. I forget when this
was changed. When I made the harness for my 240 Turbo I used the newer
style connectors.

That does look like a knock sensor, it's different than the ones I'm
familiar with but I think this is an older 240?

Seems like the harness on the driver's side goes to the instrumentation
and is a separate harness from the one that snakes all over the engine.
More than once I've rebuilt the harness while still attached to the car
since the stuff close to the firewall was fine but if yours is too far
gone you might be best off to remove it. I never have had to mess with
the stuff on the driver's side but it's worth checking.

I find it makes working much nicer to douse the engine with degreaser,
scrub where you can and rinse it off. At any rate it's a lot more
pleasant to work with the nice new flexible harness than the crusty old one.

 

It's an '83. It looks different than the ones IPD sells.
Don't know what else it could be. The two water temp sensors are obvious.

It's all bundled together. I can split the wrapping to remove the
harness...

I would but the HOA frowns on big puddles of grease...
They're not too keen on working on your cars in general.

 

Doh..
Dental pick. I use those for all sort of things, including picking teeth.
....why didn't I think of that?
Thanks James.

 

I have vague recollections of early knock sensors being different, I've
only worked on older (no knock sensor) and newer (the kind IPD sells)
cars. Someone else would be a better reference here, but if it's broken
you'll want to replace it, pinging is bad and should never occur with
the system working correctly.

If they're anything like the ones I've heard about, they probably frown
on '83 Volvos as well but whatever. Those DIY carwash places are good
for this sort of thing too, prior to taking things apart.