I have a 2.2 L with a bad harness, but everywhere near me has had issues with people chopping the wiring harnesses when removing ECU, and as a last stitch effort to get things running my friend asked if I could use his wiring harness from his 96/97 s10 that originally had a 2.2L... is this possible without major modification?

 

Why would anyone wish to mess with the ECU? My Cavvies both ran great stock, so I never had to touch the ECU at all. I once had to replace the ignition coil pack on someone else's Cavvy as it had a bad C-O-P issue, but never the ECU.

 

Not sure why, but every junkyard around me is in the same boat, when someone removed the ECUs, they just cut it out instead of unplugging it...

 

It might be for speed or it could be they want the connector to splice it into another vehicle. The result is the same. I gave up on junk-yard parts long ago when the full-time pickers set up shop. There is nothing of value there as its all been stripped out as soon as the junk-yard opens up..

Many years ago, before the pro-pickers, I put an entire A/C system into a vehicle with no A/C. I could not possibly do that these days.

 

If there is nothing else wrong with a junk yard wiring harness except for the plug at the ECU, you can splice in your old plug and make a good harness. That is if you have the plug. I haven't checked, but you may be able to buy the plug. Check Ebay you xcan find many odd parts for sale there.