Wiring harness restoration question

Photo the harness in question

 

Dave. Do you mean post a photo, or take a photo before you start so as to avoid a problem later, or both?

There are a couple sources for replacement harnesses, complete.

If you root around in the Dino sub forum omgjon has gotten a couple of them made. I think a search of his posts, or a pm to him should get you the supplier.

DM

 

The wiring harnesses do harden over time. I cannot comment on the conductivity of the wires but for sure the casings get really hard, crack, and can be the root of shorts and bad grounds.

As for replacing the harness I am not sure if they are made however making your own harness is not hard just very time consuming. The first thing you want to do is remove your whole harness as complete as possible and hang it on a large white wall using nails to hold up all of the curves so that you now have a life sized schematic. Using pencil write as many details as possible on the wall then take the harness down and make a new harness from there. You can re-use most of the plastic covers over the connectors and the internals are pretty standard stuff. Again this is a ton of work but when harnesses cost $4-5K it is totally worth it.

Of course my time has little to no value

 

That is unique and innovative. Although, there is not a single white wall in my house that I can use to display the harness as a piece of art. Not to mention that all the pencil writing will distract from the art value of the harness. Then, when you are done, you do have to repaint the wall.

Although, if I ever need to make a harness, I just might clear a wall for that... I think my wife will not like me much for about 3 months while I use the dining room wall for that purpose.

Back to the original question, the wiring copper does harden and break over time if exposed to excessive heat from the engine. Most of the problem comes first as the insulation becomes brittle, cracks, lets in moisture, oxidize the wires, and then short them out to the adjacent wires.

Recreating a wiring harness is entirely possible but time consuming. For the DIY like you and me, the hardest thing to do is to find a spool of the correct wires, in the correct AWG, the correct insulation colors, and the correct pins. If you only need 10 feet of Green/Yellow 18AWG wire and the minimum buy is a 500 ft roll, well you get the point.

I can't even find the right cloth tape that they use at the factory to wrap the harness with. Still looking.

 

Contact Rhode Island Wiring. www.riwire.com

 

Yup

What he said.


It will be higher quality and concours correct

 

Automotive wire is a totally different spec from "hardware store wire" in most cases.

And the Lambo in the OP is really finicky .....I recall JRV battling one front to back, early engine mangement computer included!!

Wires can corrode internally without external indications if submerged, and we've seen on our own Ferrari fuse blocks how accumulating oxidation can send components south....plus, any place it routes thru the frame can make chaffing that will over time short out the circuit.

 

This should be a sticky!!

Thanks, I cut thru some wires chopping my 308GTB nose panel off, I don't think they were important........

 

Thanks for the riwire site! Always wondered where to get factory style wire!

 

I use an old door or large wood plate as a table, then spread out the harness and use nails as vertical guides wherever a trunk branches. After photographing everything i start on removing tape and cable ties, remove connector housings and then replace each wire is replaced with a new one (one by one) and fit crimp connectors and connector housings. After exchanging all wires, tape is applied according to the original harness. Time consuming but not that difficult.

I guess that rebuilding the Dino harness will keep you busy for 3-4 days if you do this the first time. Sourcing correct wires, tapes and connectors is another topic, especially more exotic colors such as Azzuro/Black.

 

But a closely related topic, so this may be a good place for it...
+1 that this should be a sticky

 

The technique I presented is used when low volume wiring harnesses need to be made. Here is a photo of a wiring harness being made for a helicopter. High tech machine meets low tech procedure.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The factory once loaned me "THE" 328 wiring blueprint. It looked like a 2 dimensional version of that board.

 

IMHO in a complete restoration, a new harness is expected, especially to replace connectors which are the first element to give intermittent problems. Thirty years ago quality materials were available so a NOS harness is fine, over 50 is a stretch unless cotton harness binding is necessary for concurs reasons.

Copper doesn't change resistance...the green patina only occurs on the surface of bare copper exposed to air but can make unsoldered joint questionable. The copper strands are tinned in good wire to prevent oxides from forming.

Buying or building - expense vs time - wire gauge information should be available on the wiring diagram, (Ferrari supplies it). Near identical connectors are available. Making a harness might take two weeks but isn't hard, a good part of the time will be spend making the list and ordering. (I like Waytekwire.com) If it was for my car I'd choose pvc covered tinned copper wire (original colors and gauges) and gold plated connectors plus do it myself. For your job grab the NOS harness without hesitation or reservations.

 

There is another possible option: source a used harness in nice shape, if you can find one.

I did that on a couple of vehicles (not nearly as rare as a Lambo, admittedly), and in both cases someone had replaced the original wiring harness, then wrecked the car soon thereafter.

A good way to go, IF you can find one.

 

Brian,

You didn't happen to make copies of that blueprint, now did you???? Care to share with an old on-line buddy??????

<GRIN>

Steve

 

You bet, with all the shared components there is no market too small to justify a shot at it. The Gold Kit is well under way on Lamborghini, Porsche, Benz..... Ferrari was just a starting point where I had a comfort level and plenty of seat time to be objective in the result testing. With the Patent pending it only made sense to start on the other marques.

The RIW guys are terrific and the best at what they do. Problem is they only take on harness projects where there is a volume potential unless someone wants to step up for one off's. As soon as I started identifying harnesses that required replacement (Very few but there are some) I tooled up and started building jigs. Having Ball Aerospace a few doors down gave me access to MilSpec wire in an array of colors, sizes and spec's and all kinds of little goodies one just cant find. Some times it makes sense to build one off harnesses, sometimes just repairing them is good enough to hold the smoke in. I am now making a few different sub system harnesses in a modified design from that of Ferrari. If RIW can do it at a reasonable price.... they are a great bunch of folks, very good at what they do.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I had planned on it and was shopping for someone who could do it. It was 1:1 scale so it was as big as the car. This was in mid 86 and we still did not have a single piece of technical info on the cars. Then Ferrari told us it was on the way and we were getting an all new format for the wiring diagrams. I asked what it was and was told we were getting exactly what I already had, only scaled down. It was really easy to use except it made me brush up on my Italian. I sent it back at their request and in a couple of weeks we got the electrical books we now have and use. They really are pretty good but I still wish I had copied the blueprint. It was an official factory production document that is probably archived somewhere never to be seen again.

 

Rhode Island uses all modern rubber insulated wire and where applicable it additionally has woven cloth insulation with the correct color codes and correct soldered on ends. The outer covering is rubber or cloth, whichever is correct.

I have had them do a few, some one offs and they are a great piece of work.

 

David, you're known for great stuff but here's an off the shelf product to save you some time.
LOL - Happy New Year!

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I have an E Type (no good deed goes unpunished) sitting in here now. Dash gave out a puff followed by the brake system emptying itself over night on the floor. I NEED a case of those.

 

Have anyone tried www.classicwiring.com? They do Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Porsche and special orders. They also have a nice photo gallery with some of their projects.