Wiring harness got you down?

"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond) 01/16/2019 at 12:55 • Filed to: None

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You could always do what Prodrive does here and make your own. That way you know what wires go where and have control over everything . Plus, it’s new and not forty years old tech with forty year old wires wrapped in forty year old tape .

lone_liberal > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:04

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Or, as I did, you can buy a new harness for your car that includes provisions for updates. That was enough work, thank you very much. 

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:04

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The people who can do this in 30 years will be in demand. I cringe in horror at the thought of someone restoring a 2015 MY vehicle in 2045. So many wires, so many sensors, so much biodegradable insulation. *shivers*

Hopefully there are people, or companies that can make new harnesses when all the NOS disappears because electrical work is voodoo and witchcraft to me haha

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:06

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but why are they all the same color. 

For Sweden > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:07

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WHERE IS THE GROUND MAC

Tripper > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:10

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Big fan of this. I created my own harness(s) for all of the powered features that I added to my ranger and added connectors where they were helpful. I’ll be doing the same (at least for the ignition) on the Bimmer. Shit’s ugly behind the panel.

Tristan > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 01/16/2019 at 13:10

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I often wonder if people will restore 2015 cars. They’re built in such high volume that there will still be a lot of survivors if people really want one, but for the most part they’re built with an expiration date, versus cars of yore that were made out of lots of metal and simplicity- stuff that can be refurbished easily and last indefinitely. Time will not be kind to the plastic-laden interiors or the sensitive electronics.

Tristan > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:12

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Weaksauce... The wiring in my Studebaker is 62 years old and insulated with cloth!

Yes, I have a fire extinguisher within easy reach, and yes, I disconnect the battery when I pull into the garage.

Urambo Tauro > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:14

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Never had to rebuild an entire harness before, and if I did I probably would have used a workbench or floor instead. Working on a vertical surface never even crossed my mind .. . neat!

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:15

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Having new harnesses available for Series Land Rovers is a boon, as the old harnesses (while not complicated) are full of Lucas aluminum bullet fail that was in bad shape ten years after manufacture, let alone today.

Granted, most of the new harnesses also have Lucas bullets, but you can silicone grease them and they’re new.

TorqueToYield > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:20

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Aerospace wiring harnesses are really beautiful:

And yeah, sometimes the easiest way to do wiring, especially point to point wiring (i.e. no harness) or wiring that’s been hacked up into spaghetti , is to just rip everything out and start fresh.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:21

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Please do this. Please. Please please please.

Then call me when it doesn’t work and say “I don’t care about the price I just can’t find these connectors, the splices are weird, my fusible links keep blowing, and I just want my car to work.” Please do this. Especially the part about not caring about the price.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:25

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I helped my friend build a Factory Five Cobra in 2004. He went the donor car route, and pulled the complete wiring harness out of the ‘91 Mustang GT donor. OMG, what a rat’s nest . The pisser is most of those wires weren’t used and ended up being tossed.

Jayhawk Jake > Tristan 01/16/2019 at 13:30

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They also probably won’t deteriorate quite the same as older cars. Everything is built to a higher tolerance with longer lasting materials.

Shift24 > For Sweden 01/16/2019 at 13:32

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As some one who has recently had an issue where the engine wouldnt start because of a bad ground, there are n ot enough stars for you.

lone_liberal > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 01/16/2019 at 13:33

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A brand new wiring harness for an old muscle car that includes updated insulation and provisions for things like electric fans and fuel injection will run you $500-$600  Once modern cars get that old I can’t even imagine what a replacement harness is going to cost. 

Tristan > Jayhawk Jake 01/16/2019 at 13:35

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This is quite true. With even a little bit of care, cars last forever these days. When I was a kid, a 10-year-old car was a beat-to-death shitbox. Now they still look nice and perform reliably. A car used to be completely used up by 100,000 miles, and now they might need some maintenance at that point.

PartyPooper2012 > Tristan 01/16/2019 at 13:36

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year 2078: broo o, I just picked up this retro hyundai accent with million and half miles. Needs new harness. Only 4 trillion dollars (inflation)

EngineerWithTools > TorqueToYield 01/16/2019 at 13:53

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Wiring pegboard for the win!

Seriously though, if you think the manufacturing of these look tedious (and it is), you should see the design work. Mind numbing, but cool and critical all  at the same time - and guaranteed to change once you start checking routing by pulling strings. The colored connection / connector tables on those boards were probably produced by either Creo or NX’s wiring tools... actually the entire board layout was probably designed that way.

RallyWrench > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 13:58

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The best way to go if you can swing it . A fully custom harness by a professional is a thing of beauty, a guy I know does motorsport wiring and he’s an artist. 

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Tristan 01/16/2019 at 14:16

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I’m sure some cars will be in demand. Nostalgia is a strong motivator. Only in demand/rare versions will likely be restored, but I can imagine someone who lusted after a GT500 but could only afford a Rio will still want that 500 when he/she comes into that sweet middle aged money. But who knows, maybe the future is more about preservation versus restoration. I do think 3D printing will be a huge part if we stay in a restoration mindset. With advances in tech over the next few decades, I’m sure those fragile plastic parts, trim, etc., will be replicated with similar materials and textures. The difficult part will be the electronics. It is already hard to find compatible obsolete hardware. If a board dies, they are typically too small and compact to repair, and there won’t be a huge surplus of chips or whatever you need to swap the dead part.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > lone_liberal 01/16/2019 at 14:18

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The costs are going to be insane unless the manufacturing techniques are improved . Right now, I imagine it is a lot of labor. If a robot could do it based on upload schematics, the price would be a lot lower.

Tristan > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 01/16/2019 at 14:21

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I’m sure a lot of the more desirable yet rougher cars will be resto-modded with simplified wiring that eliminates body control modules and such, while incorporating  standalone engine management. States with draconian emissions laws need not apply as I’m sure in 2076 California will still expect 100-year-old cars to be 100% factory original with all of their vacuum spaghetti intact.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Tristan 01/16/2019 at 14:22

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2076 CA emissions scare the shit out of me haha

TheRealBicycleBuck > Shift24 01/16/2019 at 14:31

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I have a story about that. Short version:

Friend is a diesel mechanic working in a diesel shop.

Friend’s boss restores a Jeep.

Jeep won’t start and stay running.

Friend’s boss hires a new “g as” guy just to work on the Jeep.

Two weeks pass and n ew guy can’t get Jeep to start and stay running.

Frustrated Boss sells Jeep to Friend for cheap the following Friday .

Friend identifies a bad ground wire on Saturday.

Friend drives Jeep to work on Monday.

Boss demands opportunity to buy back Jeep.

Friend quits job to get away from angry Boss.

osucycler > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 14:35

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Terrified that after I finish the Painless kit I am installing on my 1967 Bronco that I will be chasing gremlins!

MM54 > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 14:53

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They make the wiring harnesses for locomotives on boards much like that. There a lot, lot, lot more wires, though.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > For Sweden 01/16/2019 at 14:57

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PEPE SILVIA!

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Grindintosecond 01/16/2019 at 15:22

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I had a modern one altered for my 52 Dodge. No worries about it now. 

Shift24 > TheRealBicycleBuck 01/16/2019 at 16:19

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Sounds like a nice jeep lol

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Grindintosecond 01/17/2019 at 20:58

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This was basically me the last couple days at work. Just doing a lube on a six-year-old plow truck, checked the lights quickly before kicking it out the door turned into completely redoing the wiring for a set of three clearance lights in the back, three bad LED lights/lenses (two unrelated to the harness problems), because of the green death, then fourteen hours chasing a ground fault that made the front remote clearance lights blink against the opposing turn signals. Apparently also sometimes when the driver hits bumps they lose all forward lights, which isn’t great, but we hadn’t been able to reproduce that fault in the shop. After redoing pretty well every connection in the ground circuit, I traced it to a melted pin inside a “ground adapter”, essentially a weatherpak style connector with a cap over one side with a small buss bar that joins a bunch of common ground wires together... A super fancy weatherproof splice, that unfortunately wasn’t up to the task of all the added load from the extra plow lights. It got overlooked by myself and two other mechanics because it looks just like they capped off a connector for some option the truck doesn't have.

Took me maybe twenty minutes to cut it out, solder on ring terminals, and bolt the grounds to the frame at a ground right next to the adapter, like International should have done, instead of running the ground all the way back up to the cab. All my work was made far easier too by the driver having attempted his own diagnostics and fixes for shit, most of which I had to fix before I could even start on chasing stuff around.

This was part of the clearance light harness that I had to redo. Somehow the twist-and-tape on that ring terminal outlasted the pins on the light socket.