I am considering relocating the wires leading to the ECM for cosmetic reasons. To do this, I'll need to cut them and lengthen them. What is the best way to do this, since they are the wires to my computer?? Wire taps, butt connectors, solder and shrink wrap? Or might GM even sell extensions so I don't have to splice into my factory wiring??

 

If there are no extension cables available, I wouldn't do it any other way other than solder and heat shrink tubing.

 

OK, so assuming I'm proficient at soldering (I am), it would be safe to go ahead and cut my ECM wires and lengthen them?

 

Painless sells extra lengh harness's for LT1 conversions into 3rd gen's and such. I don't see why it wouldn't work for your application as well.

 

That is a complete change over harness which won't work for him very easily.

I have a harness that I am selling pretty cheap that you can use to make your extension, that way you will only have one solder connection per wire instead of 2.

 

You can do a good splice without solder, if you worry that your soldering skills are iffy.


Strip the wires back a full inch, hold them at right angles to each other and fold each wire over it's opposite partner at the half-way point, then continue to tightly wrap each "end" tightly around it's opposite's "body"

sorry, that's the best i can do without drawing a picture.)

Once the wires are completely wrapped around each other, slide down the shrink tubing that you had slipped onto one of the wires, and heat it up.

That'll give you a strong connection with good conductivity across the splice.

There ARE high quality butt connectors available, from Painless for instance, but I don't trust them with anything smaller than 14ga. Not enough "meat" for the crimp to grab onto. Even on 14 ga, I like to strip extra wire and fold the conductor back over itself to double it's thicknes.