Rebuilding wiring harness

[cbudvet]

I am planning on trying to rebuild my wiring harness this fall and have some questions. My books are with the car at the body shop but what gauge of wire is used? If I end up upgrading the alternator and the headlights, should I use a heavier gauge or just a good quality wire that isn't 39 years old. Fortunately, I have 2 complete harnesses so if I screw one up I have another to fall back on. Thanks for any input.

carl

[hls30.com]

39 year old wire isn't usually the issue, the issue is what chemicals have reacted to the exposed connections in the last 39 years.

As long as the wires are not boogered up, they should be fine, the common issues with wiring result from corroded connections, and the higher current draw they cause.

Removing the crimp connectors, cleaning both the wire and the connector, and using solder is really the key to an issue free harness.

To clean, I use Deoxit, NO ABRAISIVES-they simply grind the corrosion into the metal meaning you will have a worse problem later. Media blasting rusted steel does remove rust scale, but treat it with phosphoric acid after media blasting and you have a seriously clean base.

Normally I remove the connectors from the hood and then from the individual wire one at a time, clean up the hood with 409, the wire and the connector with De-oxit, add some flux to the connector, recrimp it to the wire, then add sufficient heat from a clean soldering iron and some silver solder, and reassemble. Before I plug the corrected harness back in, I normally strip the wrap from it and rewrap it with 3M super 33 electrical tape, cleaning and reusing the white identification tags held on by the wrap, then I give both sides of each hood a shot of De-oxit lube to keep them protected.

Add to that some inline relays (extremly well made by a member here!) to remove the high current from the switches(headlights, taillights, etc...), and you should have a great harness without reinventing the wheel, or changing color codes!

Will

PS apply the same tactics to the fuse box as well. I dissassemble the fuse box and flux and solder the rivetted connections as well-the connections are only as strong as the weakest one...

Edited August 20, 2009 by hls30.com