Fellow Owners, check your car!

[Jim]

Folks;

As some of you may have inferred from my previous posts, I've had some trouble with my Marauder. In the 28 days I've owned it, it's been in dealership hands for 8.

The transmission featured a dazzling '2nd gear affinity' in which it would shift to 2nd, seemingly at will, at all speeds. 90 MPH is a great time to select 2nd gear, BTW.

It's been 'fixed' several times, replacing transmission lever position sensor, as well as the PCM.

After being returned to me (again) last week, a transmission fluid leak showed up; the dipstick tube O-Ring was damaged from the R&R of the trans for inspection.

Got the car back Monday, and the original 2nd gear symptom returned Tuesday.

I returned to the dealership with the car yesterday (Tuesday,) and the process began to replace it. The whole car.

Now this was NOT my first choice, as I love this car, and another Marauder was not what I wanted. If nothing else, this one has great paint!

Anyhow, to make a long story slightly less long, several mechanics pored over the car, and discovered the actual fault.

Here's what you should check:

The wiring harness under the hood, on the drivers side, where it comes up and over the valve cover and down into the bowels of the car, was rubbing on the cast metal brace that seems to hold the wiper cowl. The harness cover was damaged, and one wire was chafed through the insulation, grounding out on the brace. That wire lead to the transmission selector sensor.

Wire repaired, harness re-covered and re-routed, problem solved.

So, check your wiring!

I'll post a picture tonight when I get home.

BTW, the regional Ford guy came out and took pictures to send somewhere; I guess to tell the folks in Canada that craft these cars to be a little more careful!

-Jim

PS The dealer that I bought the car from has been excellent to deal with through all this. Southern Lincoln Mercury (now Courtesy LM) in Decatur GA. See Jimmy Grotz, and tell him Jim sent ya'!

[b4z]

Jim,

It is amazing that those kinds of things happen.
On the first night I had my Camaro the headlights went out.
I opened the hood and rooted around and found that a wiring harness
was up against one of the 2 electic fans on my radiator.
The edge of the fan had eaten through one of the wires.

Extremely annoying, but those things happen. Hope it hasn't dampened your enthusiasm for the car.

[OKmrodr]

I am definitely going to check this when I do the deed this fall. Thanks for keeping the board updated on your situation.

Now, get out there, roll up the miles and report back so you can let the rest of us enjoy it vicariously (for now... ).

[Logan]

Thanks for the information Jim, yes, please post up pics so we know what we're looking for.

[Jim]

As requested, and promised.. Pictures!

First a general underhood shot. Affected area highlighted.

[Jim]

And, a closeup of the actual problem. Wiring harness, and the metal bit that chafed it to exposed copper...

[Fourth Horseman]

My harness seems to duck down lower, behind the valve cover. Just to be safe, though, I might cut a rubber hose and tape it into place around the trouble spot on that harness.

Thanks for the heads-up, Jim!

[Logan]

Same with my harness. It goes alot lower down. I couldn't even pull it up far enough to contact that bracket, though the edges are indeed incredibly sharp. They must've rectified the problem on the line already.

[MarauderMike]

I have that same problem plus the harness running to the oil sending unit is awfully close to the power steering pulley, need to tie that one back.

[RancorKeeper]

Interestingly, several Bullitt owners (including myself) had a bundle of wires routed over a sharp peice of metal near the firewall. They went to two of the driver side COP's & a few guys who had some stalling issues made the discovery. It was easy enough to unplug the connectors & move the wires behind the metal bracket, but I wonder why so many cars made it out of the factory this way.

[WJSOLOMON]

Originally posted by Jim: "And, a closeup of the actual problem. Wiring harness, and the metal bit that chafed it to exposed copper..."

Checked mine (Early July Deliery) and ended up gathering the two outside loops together with a 'twisty', then looping the entire harness back to one of the Brake Fluid Reservoir Lines to keep them in the middle of all of that open space, and way from all metal contact. When I first looked at it more closely, following these very helpful posts, the 'loop' to the Left was close enough to the Driver's Side Valve Cover to expose it to wear from abrasions caused by the movement of the Engine on it's Motor Mounts, under a Rough Idle, etc.

Thanks for the great "Heads Up"!

[Gaylon Harwell]

Mine was definitely "in hazard's way". Already showing some abrasion. You saved me lots of headaches with this tip. Thanks, Logan, for this board... and to all the users for the fantastic info!

[TripleTransAm]

What a coincidence... I just posted the exact same thing in another thread last night. It completely disabled my MM during a vacation trip on Thursday. Same area, same harness.

Only I'm not getting a new car out of it...

[Blue Marauder]

Checked mine this morning and all harnesses seem to be routed properly. But then, mine is a 300B so maybe they fixed the problems in the later series?

[Jim]

Please note, my original post was from 7/02!