Wiring help please

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grassy

grassy

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I am standing in front of my car looking at the lump of wiring that I have cleaned so carefully. I don't have the money for a kit now, as my friend suggested, just run new wires.

I thought perhaps I could place on a large table and cut / re attach wires so there would be a left and right side of the 3 block plug in.

Can anyone give me some tips ?

Thanks
Ian.
 
Ian, this is no job for beginners. Not only do you need the correct color wires, you need the right gauge wires, proper connectors and wrapping. You could unwrap what you have and inspect it, then replace any wire found melted or missing insulation with identical stuff. You will need the correct blade fittings and crimper. You'll also want to solder all crimped connections as well.

If you must unwrap the entire harness, I recommend laying it out on a plywood panel and tracing out the bundles onto it before taking off the wire wrappings. Annotate where the splits are too, so when you are rewrapping, you'll get it right. Buy some of the non-adhesive tape too to match the original. Clean all reused end terminals and coat with dielectric grease before reassembly.

Take your time to get it right. Good luck!
 
Hi...too late for much of that :(

The wiring harness was covered in tar. We had a filthy mess on our hands. It was unwrapped and some of the connections were disconnected.

What I have is a bundle of clean wires.

How do I make this usable ? I do have an extra very abused second harness.

Ian.
 
Prob'ly too late now, but if you would have tied off the major points of branches as you cut the tape, you could have re--taped it.

Have you cut any wiring? Are the individual wires in generally good shape?

Also, I've seen "generic" harness/ fuse panels for down around a hundred bucks. Now that does not solve the connector problem....................
 
Do you have a Harbor Freight near you:
http://www.harborfreight.com/100-piece-4-34-black-cable-ties-69406.html

Can you use the "abused" harness as a guide so that you can assemble the good wires? If so, I would try and put them together using the nylon ties. If you mess up, just snipe the tie and remove the wire from the wrong bundle.

What is the application? I had a couple of abused harnesses laying around myself. I can see if I still have them. If I do, and the app is the same we should be able to get you close on some of this stuff.
C
 
How about after you've finished repairing the wiring, you plug it all back into where they need to be plugged. Then group them together neatly into bundles, taping them only at the branches. Then remove the harness again and properly wrap it with the non-stick tape. Reinstall one last time and "Bob's your uncle".
 
Sorry for the delay in response...it has been too hot here and we are hiding from the heat.

I must be missing something when I look at the harness.

I know I need wires for the horn, blinkers, running lights, headlights (high and low), distributor, coil , starter, auxiliaries and battery but there seems to be far more on this harness.

I am moving from a /6 to a 360 ('75 Duster), electronic ignition. I am using aftermarket gauges that have there own wiring and I am tossing out any pollution controls.

Is there anyway I can simplify this mess? My back up came from a friend (fabo member) from Ontario and he said it was complete. Perhaps I should set them out back to back ?

Clyher, you read my mind. What I had planned on doing after I cleaned it was to string out and nylon tie.

I think several times and sit on my hands a while before I cut or modify an original unless I have a perfect backup. I had thought that I could lay out logically a "left side" and a "right side" starting from the three major connections in the middle but it doesn't look like it was designed that way....hence my comment about trying to do a layout like that cutting / splicing back the wires that didn't fit that logic..

I am slightly confused with my new ballast only have 2 plugs vs 4 and the new wiring that goes with my new electronic (orange) ignition.

I looked into a "painless" and they are anything but. I wish we had studied the harness more before we cleaned but it was just gross. The cleaned wires look great actually...maybe the tar preserved them :)

What would my next best move be ?

Thanks
Ian.
 
It "came out" of there so if you have not cut it, should go "back in."

The 2 vs 4 ballast:

Original, older design ECUs needed a 4 pin resistor. These are known as a "5 pin box" but you cannot always tell by looking, as some newer "4 pin" boxes have 5 physical pins, it's just that the 5th pin doesn't do anything.

So an older, 5 pin box MUST have a 4 pin resistor

A newer 4 pin ECU CAN use either a 2 or 4 pin resistor, it's simply that the second resistor doesn't do anything.
 
The bulkhead connector has 3 separate plugs. One is lighting, another is engine. 3rd is wiper motor with or without other wires depending on year model.
There are wires for starter relay, washer pump, brake warning, you haven't considered. Then a electric choke assist, a/c, whatever, might be there too.
What you decide you don't want isn't as important as all the things you do want and/or need.
If you have a car and wiring diagrams you can systematically build a wiring harness for it from what materials you have. Trying to do the whole works at one can only cause confusion. For example... There are some who have connected a brown washer pump wire to the ballast resistor thinking it was brown from ignition circuit. The wire from starter relay to NSS is also brown. All the park lamp wires are brown. The terminals used to connect them will identify most of them. Sure they overlap just like the colors repeat.
The terminal on the brake warning lamp is very much like the one on the temp sender. Those are 2 different colors and lengths. You can do this.
 
RedFish said:
The bulkhead connector has 3 separate plugs. One is lighting, another is engine. 3rd is wiper motor with or without other wires depending on year model.
There are wires for starter relay, washer pump, brake warning, you haven't considered. Then a electric choke assist, a/c, whatever, might be there too.
What you decide you don't want isn't as important as all the things you do want and/or need.
If you have a car and wiring diagrams you can systematically build a wiring harness for it from what materials you have. Trying to do the whole works at one can only cause confusion. For example... There are some who have connected a brown washer pump wire to the ballast resistor thinking it was brown from ignition circuit. The wire from starter relay to NSS is also brown. All the park lamp wires are brown. The terminals used to connect them will identify most of them. Sure they overlap just like the colors repeat.
The terminal on the brake warning lamp is very much like the one on the temp sender. Those are 2 different colors and lengths. You can do this.
Click to expand...

I was originally thinking about blowing up a wiring diagram and using colored markers to trace the various wires but that isn't going to work.

It is a shame that the '3" were not separate and could be installed separately.

So I should forget what i could do and focus on what I should do.


Dig out the other harness and hope it is complete.

Should I need to do and cutting / splicing to get a smooth layout let and right ?

Some of the labels I put on the original harness are still there and readable.

Do not cut off obsolete wires...just make it look clean.

Any other helpful advice ?

thanks
Ian.
 
I would suggest getting a wiring diagram if you havent already. Google it, I found one for my car & printed it at work. REALLY helped.
 
There is one in my '75 service manual. The one that you found, is it coloured ?

Thanks
ian
 
Is your 75 manual digi or paper? I could sure use a copy of that as an info source.
 
I saw the colored one, but the one I printed off was B/W. Had wire colors abbreviated. Mines a 68 so might be a little simpler than a 75.
 
Those diagrams, while somewhat useful, are not complete, and some years do contain errors.
 
For ignition, it would be easier and better to change to an after-market design. You can get a new HEI one for $45 on ebay, 2 wire hookup, no ballast to wire. Others are Ignitor II ($110) or wire your own 8-pin HEI module ($99 TrailBeast's kit), but later requires an electronic distributor.
 
BillGrissom said:
For ignition, it would be easier and better to change to an after-market design. You can get a new HEI one for $45 on ebay, 2 wire hookup, no ballast to wire. Others are Ignitor II ($110) or wire your own 8-pin HEI module ($99 TrailBeast's kit), but later requires an electronic distributor.
Click to expand...

Bill,

I know nothing about this subject...here can I find more info ?

It just seems to me that there are a whole lot of extra wires in this wiring loom...and that translates to complexity...I like simple.

ian.
 
grassy said:
Would you like me to scan my service manual ? If so, PM me with your e-mail addy ..

ian.
Click to expand...

I've got a paper 74 version, so that's OK. I just thought if it was already digitized, it would be "handy."
 
67Dart273 said:
I've got a paper 74 version, so that's OK. I just thought if it was already digitized, it would be "handy."
Click to expand...

Ok... however, if you need, I really don't mind doing this kind of stuff. It is the learning of new stuff that my brain seems to rebel at :)

ian :)
 
Ian, I don't understand what you mean by saying it is a shame that the three were not separate and could be installed separately?
If you have an old harness to go by, and the wiring schematic, you can figure this out.
C
 
clhyer said:
Ian, I don't understand what you mean by saying it is a shame that the three were not separate and could be installed separately?
If you have an old harness to go by, and the wiring schematic, you can figure this out.
C
Click to expand...

I understand that there are three different groups but they cannot be installed separately...the wires seem to be intermingled hence creating much of the mess. If I think back to my MGB, there were no where the same number of wires in the engine bonnet and it had electronic ignition as well. Actually, come to think about it, the only difference was that the MG didn't have a power steering.

My wife is dragging me away for 3 or 4 days..I am going to take both harnesses and the manual to see if I can fix my previous buggering.

Ian.
 
So I spent some time with my wiring this week. I found that the used engine bay wiring harness i bought was only one of the three groups in the engine bay.

I also found these octopuses ...mind you, after all these years you expect some buggering ... We have a lot of the wiring straightened out now....I am not sure what to do with the parts we don't use. For the time being though, we will do nothing. The pictures:

_IGP8362-L.jpg


_IGP8366-L.jpg


_IGP8359-L.jpg
 
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