Orange ECM wire

danostuff67

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Joined
Oct 26, 2018
Anyone know what the round rubber thing is on the bottom of the orange ECM wire? It has “20” on it. I have to repair the wire and was wondering if that needs to stay on the wire. Thanks!

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It’s a fuseable link. You can cut it out and use a inline fuse if it’s bad.


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The round thing with the 20 on it is the splice. The 20 means that the fusible link itself is 20 AWG (gage).

RemoveBeforeFlight
 
So I should be able to remove it correct? The wire broke off right at the joint


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Common for the wire to break at that point. Cut the round item off of the red wire from the battery. Then either splice in a new link, or as Scott posted splice in an in-line fuse holder and use a 20 A fuse. GM started using the in-line fuse holders at some time along the way.

RemoveBeforeFlight
 
The only reason that link is in the battery cable is in case of a dead short between the ECM side of the wire harness and the ground. It's a safety measure, two wire gauges smaller than the wire (16ga) that it is protecting.

You can bypass it, but be careful that you have some sort of fuse in the wire. It's very low current so you can use a 1 amp fuse. However, if that fuse ever opens, the car won't start.
 
It was 20 gauge wire not a 20 amp fuse. I think I put a 10 or 15 amp in mine. You could probably put a 5 amp fuse in there if you wanted. It’s really just protection from a dead short in the power wire. My orange wire had ended up hitting the exhaust under the heater box where I couldn’t see it until I pulled the engine. It would short out from time to time so I ran a new power wire to the ECM with the in line fuse at the battery.


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