Custom Wiring Harnesses (Part 2)

[drunkenmaster]

You can use the one lay up board to built many different harnesses with the same vehicle fitment. i.e. you could use the same board for the improved harness and the replacement harnesses.

Here are some of my suggections to get started, i am not sure at what stage if any this is at, but feel free to use these or not:

Creat a jig board based on the OEM harness using 2 pronged forks along the harness to keep it in shape and 3 (triangle) or 4 (square) pronged forks at the end of the branches where it splits into individual connector branches.

Number all the connectors numerically.

Name each circuit, suggestion would be 001A - 001B and so on, identifying each end as it may require different terminal crimp.

You should create, if not already have done, a wire list which lists every circuit in the harness along with size, wire type, colour, connector number on each end and terminal part number for crimping. Add circuit length as well, I would simply use Excel for this as you can manipulate and search the data very easily.

Include both the OEM and Improved circuits on the same wirelist, just have a column A and B with a "1" or "0" indicating which it belongs to. Most likely most will be common between them.

[drunkenmaster]

Actually with all this talk its making me think about doing this myself.

My location and the side of the car our steering wheels are on maybe a problem though.

Is it possible to pool or at least list what information has been compiled and what still needs to be done.

I have access to an australian '77 harness and perhaps a '74, but I am sure i can borrow more.

My guess is the most valuable information aside from routing is the mating connector part numbers and manufacturers/suppliers.

[Bambikiller240]

OK, Mike. I should have said EXTREME PRICE (as in what they are charging) the "COST" is indeed quite something else. certainly it is relatively easy to manufacture, but they also assume some liability for the performance of the product

My point about the "versions" (and this should be obvious to anyone) is that the cost of having harnesses manufactured is more expensive per unit when you are having only a few made vs having hundreds made. There are a lot of variations to be considered and a relatively small market for each.

This thread discussion was about us (members) having harnesses made in China. (India wouldn't be much if any better) Who is going to invest the money to have this done? Customer Pre-orders? A CZC soda can collection drive?

How many people will actually pay in advance for an item that hasn't been made (not just say they will do so, but actually pony up the bucks months in advance) without having any guarantee of receiving a quality item? Who will guarantee the "investors" money is not wasted or lost?

GM, or Buick, or Calloway setting up a plant in China, or arranging for production in an existing plant in China is FAR different than a loose-knit group of entusiasts making the same arrangements. They will have agents on site to look out for their interests Who's gonna make the arrangements for us, who will arrange the manufacture, who will ensure the product is built to spec (not just the sample, but the production), who will handle the shipment, export/import docs/tariff?

All this talk of us contracting to have anything made 1/2 way around the world is just wanking off.

Drunken: There may not be significant differences in wire lengths or connectors between RHD and LHD cars, but the wrapping and routing of wires into a loom will be dramatically different. IMO This idea for a project is one that is best left to enthusiasts with lots of time and dedication, or to people with lots of money to fling around the world (China)

[drunkenmaster]

Well, I agree that contracting to an overseas company is far fetched for low volumes, or contracting to any company for that matter local or not for these volumes will be excessively expensive to say the least. As I said earlier, it is extremely labor intensive and if your paying more that 3rd world hourly rates for labor, forget it.

The only reason i am interested is that I already know how to build a harness and I have access to tools and materials used in cars people will be buying new 3 years from now.

So, lets tally up the info and see if there is enough to make this viable or not.

[drunkenmaster]

Continiuity and crossed circuit checking is also an issue, personally i cant see any of us affording or willing to setup automated tables with mating checking fixtures and writing code to test each circuit from A to B, nor will we be sitting on the floor with a multimeter probing however many circuits one by one.

[hls30.com]

Hey, the Club hats came from Bangladesh, why not the Harnesses!

Maybe a "how to" guide-much like a military spec list would be the first step. That way all of the quotes could be made from it.

Will

[Bambikiller240]

The Club hats were not made for us to our specs. They are a stock hat manufactured for Port Authority. I feel confident that they had much more control over the hat than we could ever expect to arrange for our product. The Embroidery was designed/manufactured for us. (and quite well I might add).

Just to be clear. I would love for the OEM wiring to be reproduced. But only if built by people who know what they are doing, who "have skin in the game" and care about how the end result will perform in their own car.

[hls30.com]

I agree with you Carl. When I re-wrap, clean and solder my harness, I will measure the wires, and make up a jig to hold it while wrapping, maybe that could be a bassi to start.

Will

[bpilati]

The schematic is already a raster graphic in as scanned form, ther are a multitude of programs that readily convert a raster graphis to a scalar graphic that is ediable in virtually any platform, Aegis, Dfx, etc... I think Designcad has a converter built in, all it would take is running the conversion program, and assigning the colorcodes within the graphic. In other words, a good chunk of time!

Will

Can it be put in vector graphics format?

[hls30.com]

Yes, I was typing too fast in a no sleep zone, replace scalar where ever I used it with vector-oops, would a diaper fumes defence hold up in court-I mean that "is" nonsense has already been used...

Will

[bpilati]

So with vector graphics you can work with specific entities; this should make it easy to make modifications and show added relays and other things.

[hls30.com]

Yes sir! Each individual representation is editable and held as a mathmatical equasion so that it may be enlarged or reduced in proper proportion, have assigned colors(pantone if required), and completely modifiable with stock circuit board components.

Will