Ok so recently I got like 4 questions asked my direction on how to relocate the master fuse box panel from under the hood and bring it inside to the glove box. Well, first and foremost, I have no pictures, I did this trick almost 2years ago so im also writing out of memory.
The other two very important things you do at this time (if you havent already done this) is one, you must relocate the battery to the trunk. There is several write ups on how to do this correctly, im gonna make it a douple point to repeat a few key items that are a must on a batt relocation. 1st, mount the battery with an actuall tie down box not ghetto style, 2nd, MUST HAVE 150amp fuse/breaker, 3rd, run a 4awg wire from the negative battery post the whole length of the car and make that negative batt post touch the engine (use the starter/bell-housing bolt just like mitsu did from the factory) Other major thing to already have done (but isnt a must) is a ABS delete.
So kids, you wanna do the wire tuck/un-used plugs delete? Ok, lets get started. First im gonna outline a very important part of this job. YOU NEED TO HAVE PROPER TOOLS. An actuall pair of strippers and crimpers are needed here. The bull$hit yellow handle combo wire stip/crimp tool they sell you at walmart or the gas station isnt good enough. Throw that peice a $hit out the window. What you need is front end wire strippers (not the BS kind where the stripper is located in between the 2 handles) quality pair of crimpers (I suggest Klein Tools) flush cuts (sometimes called zip tie cutters) mini tourch and NON insolated connectors and heat shrink, flux paste and solder.
For those of you that are scared to cut a plug off the harness, DONT BE! There will be certain wire/plugs that need to be extended and some that will work better shortened. When ever we cut a plug off of the Mitsu harness do like this. *example* we need to lengthen coil pack signal harness. This is a 3 wire plug, cut each wire one wire at a time, cut them so they're all stagard cut, so no butt connector will touch the connector next to it. Cut the wire so all three wires are about 3/4" of a inch apart. We now use NON insolated connectors (these are the pure metal connectors, do not have plastic coating on them) slide a peice of 3/16"s heat shrink over a wire, crimp, connect wire, crimp agin, use flux paste, now carefully use your mini tourch and drip solder over the connector, slide shrink tube over freshly made solder connection, shrink down the tubing. Repeat on other two wires using same method. Now look what ya did! You safely extended the wires like a pro, they have perfect connection that will last and theyr'e not side by side butt-connectors and the modded wires arent to fat to fit in loom. This method is plenty safe and is the correct way of doin it.
Now when I did this trick I peeled off ALL the 20year old crappy plastic wire loom and replaced it with nice marine grade loom (a cloth type that can be heat shrinked when finished) Your gonna want to peel off both fenders and remove the radiator. (we'll get to why in just a few minutes) Your gonna want to have a good plan of attack at this point, you need to know that your car is running tittys and you have no problems, you know all your wires in your engine wire harness and your not scared. If your taking on a project of this size than its safe to say you already are smart enough to know what wires your engine needs to run and where all the ugly BS wires are that dont do jack.
Remove the wire harness first off of the engine, Pull it completley off the car. Theres a good sized bundle going into the firewall to hook up at the ECU and a few other relays and what not under the radio. Take this whole harness off. (there will be a big black plastic connector that links the engine harness to the chassis harness, take a mental note of this)
Now you have engine harness off, score. Do not start mocking up where your gonna cut plugs or where your gonna shorten/extend wires. Its temping to do at this stage of the game but your not ready for this step yet.
Now we need to remove the chassis harness off the car. (now you will see why you pulled both fenders and radiator). Start by unbolting the master fuse box panel, follow the wires down, you'll see alt. charging wires goin over towards the alt, theyre tucked under the radiator support. You will also find the wires punch thru the under side of the fender and lead into the secondary fusebox panel thats at the driver side kick panel. Remove the whole thing. (forgot to mention, if you have a hard time remember plugs, wrap them with packaging tape and write their name on the tape, this sometimes helps alot)
The only wires that need to be extended from the master fuse box panel are the white colored alt charging wires, crack into the underside of the fuse box panel and it becomes super obvious on how this puppy works. The alternator wires unbolt off of the fuseable link under there. You will have to replace this wire. You could just extend it but where already there, might as well upgrade the two baby lil tiny piss poor white colored wires and make it one nice 4gauge wire.
Open up the glove box, remove the 2 side tabs so this sucker can really swing fully open. Gonna have to mount the plastic fuse box panel up in there. Get crative, make a braket, be super clever on your zipties, do what you gotta do to mount the fuse box up in there in such a way that if the day comes that you gotta test for blown fuses all you gotta do is open the glove box and pull the plastic cover off as normal. This really isnt hard to do. I made a braket to bolt mine in and my glove box opens and closes perfet as it should.
Now that we have the fuse box panel up in the glove box your gonna take the wires that were naturally factory rigged to go down the driver side of the car and bundle them all together and run them across the underside of the dash. Your gonna have to be clever and tricky when the wires go underneith the pedals and steering shaft. Use rubber insolated clamps and bolt them down under there, use zipties and ziptie the wires up under the dash (I did this with dash in car the entire time) keep rigging the bundle over towards the secondary fusebox under there. You should now be able to plug the harness back into the secondary fusebox. Punch the rest of the wires thru the supplied fender hole. These wires will now need to be extended, using the staggard cut method and non insolated connectors that are crimped soldered and shrinked and extend plugs.
Now we can do the same thing on the passenger side. (I cant really remember but I dont think Mitsu put a hole there you may have to cut a hole) the wires that were naturally factory rigged to be on the right side of the car now pop thru the passenger side fender. Underneith the fenders you will find a lip so to speak, this lip you can drill 3/16" holes (and counter sink to take the sharpness away) and use these holes to act as ziptie mounts. ziptie up your harness and bring wires out underneith the headlights all sneaky style.
So now you pretty much got the chassis harness relocated and re-installed (hey, the car doesnt know if the wires are sittin under the radiator support or under the dash it dont matter to the car as long as they all work strill) Now its time for the magic of engine harness tuck. Im not gonna go into extream detail or nothin but heres a few tips, the fuel injectors can be installed upside down, this makes the wires come up inbetween each intake manni runner and the wires plug in upside down. The entire emmisions system can be deleted with no Ill effects (california exempt
) The big black plastic connector I asked you to take mental note of, ya that peice to plug in your chassis harness is still under the dash, its not woth extending or modding. The engine harness will touch here under the dash no problem.
At the beggining where I said a ABS delete helps, heres why. The factory ABS system has its own seperate brain box (ABS ECU) its factory mounted on the passenger side floor. This brain box has a metal protector cover that goes over the top of it, THEN, the carpet goes down. If you delete the ABS (plenty of detailed write ups on here) then you will have no need for the ABS brain box. Throw that lil mini ECU out to the trash and use its home as a safe spot to put wires or whatever. There is a super sturdy protector cover thats made of metal that will go down and protect this stuff. On my car, this spot is used to hold the buss bar (power distrubution box) for my battery in the trunk mod.
There is a ton more crap im forgetting but its late and ive been crawling around the cement floor working on a million mile semi truck all day, I GOTTA LEAVE WORK AND GET OUTA HERE
.
Ill check back on the thread from time to time and awnser any questions, Hell, tonight I might feel like bustin out the old laptop and scan through it for old pics. If I come across any pictures that are directly related to this write-up then Ill post the pics I find for sure.
Good luck, and hope this helps some.
Tristen
Finished product should look like this
The other two very important things you do at this time (if you havent already done this) is one, you must relocate the battery to the trunk. There is several write ups on how to do this correctly, im gonna make it a douple point to repeat a few key items that are a must on a batt relocation. 1st, mount the battery with an actuall tie down box not ghetto style, 2nd, MUST HAVE 150amp fuse/breaker, 3rd, run a 4awg wire from the negative battery post the whole length of the car and make that negative batt post touch the engine (use the starter/bell-housing bolt just like mitsu did from the factory) Other major thing to already have done (but isnt a must) is a ABS delete.
So kids, you wanna do the wire tuck/un-used plugs delete? Ok, lets get started. First im gonna outline a very important part of this job. YOU NEED TO HAVE PROPER TOOLS. An actuall pair of strippers and crimpers are needed here. The bull$hit yellow handle combo wire stip/crimp tool they sell you at walmart or the gas station isnt good enough. Throw that peice a $hit out the window. What you need is front end wire strippers (not the BS kind where the stripper is located in between the 2 handles) quality pair of crimpers (I suggest Klein Tools) flush cuts (sometimes called zip tie cutters) mini tourch and NON insolated connectors and heat shrink, flux paste and solder.
For those of you that are scared to cut a plug off the harness, DONT BE! There will be certain wire/plugs that need to be extended and some that will work better shortened. When ever we cut a plug off of the Mitsu harness do like this. *example* we need to lengthen coil pack signal harness. This is a 3 wire plug, cut each wire one wire at a time, cut them so they're all stagard cut, so no butt connector will touch the connector next to it. Cut the wire so all three wires are about 3/4" of a inch apart. We now use NON insolated connectors (these are the pure metal connectors, do not have plastic coating on them) slide a peice of 3/16"s heat shrink over a wire, crimp, connect wire, crimp agin, use flux paste, now carefully use your mini tourch and drip solder over the connector, slide shrink tube over freshly made solder connection, shrink down the tubing. Repeat on other two wires using same method. Now look what ya did! You safely extended the wires like a pro, they have perfect connection that will last and theyr'e not side by side butt-connectors and the modded wires arent to fat to fit in loom. This method is plenty safe and is the correct way of doin it.
Now when I did this trick I peeled off ALL the 20year old crappy plastic wire loom and replaced it with nice marine grade loom (a cloth type that can be heat shrinked when finished) Your gonna want to peel off both fenders and remove the radiator. (we'll get to why in just a few minutes) Your gonna want to have a good plan of attack at this point, you need to know that your car is running tittys and you have no problems, you know all your wires in your engine wire harness and your not scared. If your taking on a project of this size than its safe to say you already are smart enough to know what wires your engine needs to run and where all the ugly BS wires are that dont do jack.
Remove the wire harness first off of the engine, Pull it completley off the car. Theres a good sized bundle going into the firewall to hook up at the ECU and a few other relays and what not under the radio. Take this whole harness off. (there will be a big black plastic connector that links the engine harness to the chassis harness, take a mental note of this)
Now you have engine harness off, score. Do not start mocking up where your gonna cut plugs or where your gonna shorten/extend wires. Its temping to do at this stage of the game but your not ready for this step yet.
Now we need to remove the chassis harness off the car. (now you will see why you pulled both fenders and radiator). Start by unbolting the master fuse box panel, follow the wires down, you'll see alt. charging wires goin over towards the alt, theyre tucked under the radiator support. You will also find the wires punch thru the under side of the fender and lead into the secondary fusebox panel thats at the driver side kick panel. Remove the whole thing. (forgot to mention, if you have a hard time remember plugs, wrap them with packaging tape and write their name on the tape, this sometimes helps alot)
The only wires that need to be extended from the master fuse box panel are the white colored alt charging wires, crack into the underside of the fuse box panel and it becomes super obvious on how this puppy works. The alternator wires unbolt off of the fuseable link under there. You will have to replace this wire. You could just extend it but where already there, might as well upgrade the two baby lil tiny piss poor white colored wires and make it one nice 4gauge wire.
Open up the glove box, remove the 2 side tabs so this sucker can really swing fully open. Gonna have to mount the plastic fuse box panel up in there. Get crative, make a braket, be super clever on your zipties, do what you gotta do to mount the fuse box up in there in such a way that if the day comes that you gotta test for blown fuses all you gotta do is open the glove box and pull the plastic cover off as normal. This really isnt hard to do. I made a braket to bolt mine in and my glove box opens and closes perfet as it should.
Now that we have the fuse box panel up in the glove box your gonna take the wires that were naturally factory rigged to go down the driver side of the car and bundle them all together and run them across the underside of the dash. Your gonna have to be clever and tricky when the wires go underneith the pedals and steering shaft. Use rubber insolated clamps and bolt them down under there, use zipties and ziptie the wires up under the dash (I did this with dash in car the entire time) keep rigging the bundle over towards the secondary fusebox under there. You should now be able to plug the harness back into the secondary fusebox. Punch the rest of the wires thru the supplied fender hole. These wires will now need to be extended, using the staggard cut method and non insolated connectors that are crimped soldered and shrinked and extend plugs.
Now we can do the same thing on the passenger side. (I cant really remember but I dont think Mitsu put a hole there you may have to cut a hole) the wires that were naturally factory rigged to be on the right side of the car now pop thru the passenger side fender. Underneith the fenders you will find a lip so to speak, this lip you can drill 3/16" holes (and counter sink to take the sharpness away) and use these holes to act as ziptie mounts. ziptie up your harness and bring wires out underneith the headlights all sneaky style.
So now you pretty much got the chassis harness relocated and re-installed (hey, the car doesnt know if the wires are sittin under the radiator support or under the dash it dont matter to the car as long as they all work strill) Now its time for the magic of engine harness tuck. Im not gonna go into extream detail or nothin but heres a few tips, the fuel injectors can be installed upside down, this makes the wires come up inbetween each intake manni runner and the wires plug in upside down. The entire emmisions system can be deleted with no Ill effects (california exempt
) The big black plastic connector I asked you to take mental note of, ya that peice to plug in your chassis harness is still under the dash, its not woth extending or modding. The engine harness will touch here under the dash no problem. At the beggining where I said a ABS delete helps, heres why. The factory ABS system has its own seperate brain box (ABS ECU) its factory mounted on the passenger side floor. This brain box has a metal protector cover that goes over the top of it, THEN, the carpet goes down. If you delete the ABS (plenty of detailed write ups on here) then you will have no need for the ABS brain box. Throw that lil mini ECU out to the trash and use its home as a safe spot to put wires or whatever. There is a super sturdy protector cover thats made of metal that will go down and protect this stuff. On my car, this spot is used to hold the buss bar (power distrubution box) for my battery in the trunk mod.
There is a ton more crap im forgetting but its late and ive been crawling around the cement floor working on a million mile semi truck all day, I GOTTA LEAVE WORK AND GET OUTA HERE
.Ill check back on the thread from time to time and awnser any questions, Hell, tonight I might feel like bustin out the old laptop and scan through it for old pics. If I come across any pictures that are directly related to this write-up then Ill post the pics I find for sure.
Good luck, and hope this helps some.
Tristen
Finished product should look like this
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