When they pulled the wiring harness from the car, they decided to simply lop off and discard the part of the harness that goes to the front trunk. These wires are for the the headlights, radiator fans, turn signals, and side markers. There are seventeen wires that were cut. Should I get matching wire (or close) and solder it in and cover the solder joint with shrink tubing? Is there a better way?
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Steve,
Splicing would be quicker than replacing back to the source.
You can purchase butt splices that have heat shrink and low temp solder that melts with a heat gun.
You can duplicate a wire's spiral or stripe with a sharpie.
John
Thanks John. I did not know that type of splicer was available. It will save a lot of time and effort. I will be stripping a lot of pieces of wire during this effort. Are you aware of a handheld mechanical wire stripper that can help with this task? It will need to work with various gauges of wire.
+1 on those heat gun splice things. We used to use them many years ago at the Foden Truck factory (There's a blast from the past) The ones we used contained a resin that sealed the joint after the solder melted. Alternatively, have you thought about using a pair of 10x multiplugs?
I would recommend that you inquire with Jon Haas at Pantera Electronics.
He has fabricated entire duplicate replacement harnesses and in many cases has duplicates of the original wiring and he certainly has the original plug connectors as well.
That picture alone will get you an answer from him on what he can or can not do for you.
Pantera-electronics.com
@stevebuchanan posted:Are you aware of a handheld mechanical wire stripper that can help with this task? It will need to work with various gauges of wire.
I have a pair of these handheld wire strippers and it's one of my FAVORITE tools! It makes short work of stripping wire.
https://www.amazon.com/Strippe...11063W/dp/B00BC39YFQ
Demo..
Steve,
There are quite a few different types of multi-gauge wire strippers available. Search Google and Amazon and pick one that appeals to you.
John
I have a spare harness I scavenge parts from. If interested I will check to see if it has the section you need. Ideally some of the wires go to the fuse block so you don't have to splice all the wires. No charge for parts or shipping.
Richard O.
Hi Richard,
Yes, that would help immensely. Creating all of the missing section from scratch can be done but it is a lot of work and will not appear as factory wiring.
Thanks, Steve
and, PM sent
Maybe I missed something - but WHO butchered the wiring harness? If possible, I'd be contacting them for the missing section.
Long answer:
It was a father and son restoration project that started more than 20 years ago. They did a lot of good work but this misstep was not their highlight. They eventually sold the project to someone that planned on finishing it. That did not play out and now I am trying to bring it back to life.
Short answer:
The folks that lopped off the harness have likely discarded the parts that were in their way.
You'll have to stagger those 17 splices by about an inch apiece to avoid a big stiff lump in the harness.
I was thinking that as well.
If Richard's portion of the donor harness works out, eight of the wires connect directly to the fuse block. That leaves only nine splices.
Where was the cut made - i.e., where would the cut bunch of wires be sitting in the car when installed?
If it is a convenient spot/if there is room for a plug, Phil's comment above, "Alternatively, have you thought about using a pair of 10x multiplugs?" is one to consider.
Check Amphenol, Molex, and maybe some of the electronics supply houses (Mouser, Digikey, etc.). Just make sure the plug is rated for the current needed. Those are not low current circuits.
The wires, of which there are 21, look good. The harness looks mostly intact from the fuse block out to the LF turn signal. (The harness came to me partially labelled.) I'll open the harness up this weekend to see if/how the wires intertwine. Depending on what I see it may be best to ship the entire harness to you.
Richard O.
Richard,
This is looking good. If you end up sending the entire harness then I can ship it back to you after taking out the portion that I need.
Regards, Steve
This is the before scene of my splicing party. The big harness to the rear where it enters the rocker cavity. Eight wires either badly nibbled or severed.
Thing is, after I cut away the mouse chewed parts, I now had gaps in the wiring to fill, which meant two splices and a short length of new wire between them on each damaged wire without bulking things up too much to stuff it all back in.
Don't forget to slide on the heat shrink tube before your solder up your connections.
Yikes. in my case the ignition wire insulation was melted.
Those mice were hungry!
The Pantera uses "Marine grade wire". It's an upgrade from automotive wire and is tin plated.
Some people think that it is crap but they are unknowing and they are wrong. It will last much longer then regular automotive grades.
I've seen several attempted race car conversions where the first thing that they do is rip it out and try to rewire the car. Somehow that never seems to work out. Leave the stuff alone. It's usually a previous owner that didn't know WTF they were doing that caused the short.
I personally find it tough to solder and use high quality crimp butt connectors on it. You just can't use those 3M "guillotine" quick connects on them.
Even if you do successfully solder the splices you still will have lumps in the wires like a snake who just swallowed a pig.
These cars are approaching 50 years old now. Most buyers are going to accept that and that they have had repairs made to them.
They just want a high quality repair.
Those wires with the spiral stripes are going to the fuse box. Depending on whether or not the spirals are close or spread out indicates their polarity. That tells you what side of the fuse box connection they go to, i.e., in or out.
Previously Jon Haas told me he found the source of them and was able to purchase replacement wiring for them. If they don't match it probably would be because the original wire color has faded over the years or needs a cleaning off of the surface oxidation?
During the reassembly of 2511 I did a lot of work with the OEM harness. Except for the plastic harness wrap, the wire insulation and the wire itself all appear to be still in excellent condition.
but in my experience none of the OEM wire was tinned copper, rather just multi stranded bare copper wire.
YMMV
Larry
@lf-tp2511 posted:During the reassembly of 2511 I did a lot of work with the OEM harness. Except for the plastic harness wrap, the wire insulation and the wire itself all appear to be still in excellent condition.
but in my experience none of the OEM wire was tinned copper, rather just multi stranded bare copper wire.
YMMV
Larry
I wouldn't know how to identify it personally. My information comes from my "Pantera electronics guy" Haas.
That's what he told me but in the couple of occassions where I repaired it, mine was a little funky looking copperish strands. Not pure copper as I expect.
In running it by my "guy" he said "that's because it's..."
See, here's the thing. In our education system, you can go all the way past a Ph.D without ever having touched the stuff. Just by having read texts on the subject and taken notes from the experts.
If anyone ever asked me to do a proof on say...gravity...I'd just have to throw a ball up and time it's fall. Other then that, I'd believe Newtons equations?
Did you ever go into a law office and see all the Law texts on the shelves? Do you think they even read everything in them?
I didn't, but maybe my guy did or actually designed and built something and it works? Hum. Very sophisticated?
When they say don't point the gun at yourself and pull the trigger, I take their word for it. No need to do the actual analysis.
I always thought the tin was in the copper. Like aluminized exhausts where the aluminum is in the steel?
What I would add is that on the aluminized exhaust systems that I have used and installed, there was no apparent exterior difference in appearance to non-aluminized if layed side by side.
The last one I've done was about ten years ago. I have not done one recently.
That issue got so infectious that the "factory rep" for Walker had to be brought in. What he said is not something that I made up.
He said, "the aluminum is in the metal". Believe it or not.
As far as the Pantera wiring goes, I was told that it is Marine wiring. I'm not a metallurgist and I'm not the one that made that determination.
