What are the wires for that are circled in yellow? They go from behind the firewall to somewhere on/near/behind the back of the engine. The insulation is all cracked and missing so I don't want to move it too much to see what it is, so any help would be great.

[IMG]local://upfiles/10141/E58330682FEF4AB8A107E49E142EFCAE.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/10141/C66261DC4DFE4DB4859F448C61A8FDB2.jpg[/IMG]

 

from what I see in your pic, this is not a wire, but a vacuum line going to the transmission modulator

 

No, it's definitely three wires. The third one is hard to see in the picture because it has a chunk of electrical tape on it, but I know what wires look like

There is cracked insulation on all three and there are pieces of the insulation missing. The copper wire is getting that green stuff on it that copper gets when it is exposed to the elements.

I am 100% sure that these are not plastic vacuum tubes.

The blue and the white thing on the right lower corner of the close-up picture are probably the vacuum lines you mentioned. I went back and looked at the picture and i can see why you would think that they may be vacuum lines, the resolution is a little low - camera phone.

Does anyone know what these wires do?

 

OK, here's a higher resolution pic:

[IMG]local://upfiles/10141/E686D7F33379457EA0A1B73EC655B634.jpg[/IMG]

 

those wires are going to your starter is one of them a violet with a white stripe. well that is your 50 circut wire aka start wire it looks damaged from the pic better get that fixed