Hi, I was chatting with a Ferrari guy yesterday and he mentioned he had heard of a company in the USA that was manufacturing a new wiring loom for the engine end of a 355. He was told the loom had gold plated connectors for better conductivity. Unfortunately he never followed it up or took any details!! Does anyone know anything about this or who the manufacturer is? thanks Mark
Most likely not a wiring loom, I think they were referring to the Scuderia Rampante Gold Connector Kit, which has been covered alot on this board, alot of mixed opinions. Looks like a great bit of kit to me.
Agreed sounds like OP is talking about Gold kit. There are 2 parts to the kit. The engine end and the ECU end. Typically, people do both or the engine end first. Engine end is a nice improvement and adding the ECU is a great improvement. I have done it twice and written about it here. Many have had very positive results with it.
See this thread. Love it or hate it, it's all inside and no point going down the same road again. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/348-355-sponsored-bradan/414232-installing-sri-gold-kit-today-little-help.html
I have the gold kit on a 355 and it idles better, is more responsive and just feels more robust overall.
Okay I'm gonna answer this as objectively as possible. 1) There is no US manufacture making entire new looms that I am aware of. 2) The main issue with the wiring harnesses is the factory chose to use junior timer pins on the connector that mates to the ecu. Those pins over time lose their clamping force. The fix is to use junior POWER timer pins, which have much greater clamping force. 3) The tin oxidizes over time because of fretting corrosion and exposure. The oxidation creates resistance which is not good for sending signals. The male and female pins need to have the oxidation cleaned off. 4) Both tin and gold jpt pins have been used. Some choose to use tin plated jpt pins, while other chose to go with gold plated. Myself, I am of the tin jpt pin camp. Here is how I repined the t55 connectors on my wiring looms. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/technical-q-sponsored-algar-ferrari/444155-348-motronic-2-7-connector-harness-repin.html It is a VERY time consuming tedious job. By changing out the factory pins you kill two birds with one stone. You correct the poor clamping force of the old pins, and you get a new surface that is not oxidized. It is advised that you clean off the oxidation from male pins on the sensors as well.
Don't know how I missed that post Ernie but another classic one from you. Great work! I would love to see some sort of documentation of an inventory and location of all the connectors of concern ar in the car so that maybe this project could be taken up over time in a systematic way.
The absolute best time to tackle the loom is when the engine is out of the car during the major. That's when I did mine anyway, and glad I did. I had all the room in the world to work with.
I have all new pins. If I remember when I do mine with the engine out I will snap some pictures I usually just blast through my work ripping skin off my knuckles but Ernie told me to slow down and take some pictures. Hopefully I can try this time and keep a log But thats like work and I'm retired
If it is felt that a new harness is needed there is a company called Rhode Island Wiring that has been in that business for a very long time. They make very high (far better than OE) harnesses primarily for the restoration business. Have a look at their website. I have used their products many times and cannot give a better recommendation. They are not limited to what is shown in their catalog. Rhode Island Wiring Service Inc.
Thank you for the info If your into motorsport harness components, these guys have everything under one roof for those special projects https://www.prowireusa.com/
