Re: IML: wiring methods

["mike and linda sutton" <mikanlin62@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I finally decided to add a bit to this thread,  having held off since many 
people are scared s*&tless of working on wiring or electrical things, let 
alone repair or fabricate a complete harness.  I do this kind of thing for 
my living on aircraft now,  and in the past in my automotive/heavy 
equipment/truck days I did a fair amount of it as well.  Having done a mixed 
bag of things such as 54 Vette- new harness ,  mid 70s Ford tractor 
trailer - fabricated new harness after a cab fire, several of my own Mopars 
and a myriad of assorted odds and ends,  a  few things come to mind that may 
alleviate some of the fears or misconceptions about this kind of thing.

I would break this down into cars built in the mid to late 50s and earlier, 
and cars built later on ...no specific date here but the difference being 
the older cars that had cloth covered wire and few if any molded electrical 
connectors and newer cars that have molded wire connectors and a lot of tape 
wrapped plastic insulated wire. The key thing here is that you either have 
suitable tools to remove the connectors from the plastic connector bodies so 
you can re use them or you have to replace the connectors AND the various 
terminals inside of them.  Things like the bulkhead connectors or lamp 
sockets come to mind here.

The main thing I have encountered was that the older vehicles with cloth 
wire tended to have brittle insulation and the cloth would fall off while 
handling it, though it often looked fine until disturbed.  The terminals 
were very straightforward and not hard to find for the most part and while 
colors were kept the same or as close as could be found,  I used modern wire 
and skipped the cloth covering.  (The vette was the only time that I 
actually purchased cloth covered modern wire thru a vette parts supply 
house,  since the price of pre built harnesses was higher than what it cost 
to pay me my hourly wage to dupicate it. )

I had the advantage  of being able to take the various harnesses  out and 
lay then out on a sheet of plywood and use tacks and staples to hold it in 
place while I measured and cut the new wire,  it was painstaking and took 
longer than I thought but it was not difficult per se.  Like anything, just 
do one circuit or sub harness at a time, like the charging system wires or 
the headlight wires.  In the case of the semi tractor,  the fire took that 
possibility out, so I built the individual harnesses like headlights and 
front signals,  brake, tail and signal lights in the rear,  etc etc,  engine 
compartment harness, and then tied them together under the dash with 
terminal blocks and ring terminals.

There are no doubt many sources of info, one that I found rather helpful is 
an HP books title, " Automotive Electrical Handbook ", probably 20 bucks at 
Borders or whoever.  Not tooo big on theory but a little, but some good 
methodology in the back about repairing, replacing and fabricating a harness 
from scratch,  and if one has the FSM to go along with this, I see no reason 
why nearly anyone who can read and understand the book couldnt accomplish 
this kind of thing. Im sure someone will attempt it and no doubt prove this 
wrong, but generally I think most of the people who will read this can 
handle it.

Mikey
62 Crown Coupe 


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