glarior

I am in debate of making my own wiring harness for a 80 vette. I have the stock harness on in the car now but its been hacked up by bubba. I think they are crazy for 900-1600$ for the whole wiring harness.

I am thinking of labeling everything, remove harness, pin it to a 4x8 board and trace with new wire.

Anyone done that before?

oldalaskaman

painless started that way, so did fast, I think they still do them that way.

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/s...e/DSCN2272.jpg
this is one caleb over in C4 did.

http://ls1tech.com/forums/picture.ph...ictureid=81486

Vette5.5

If you're current wiring harness is mostly there, but hacked, nothing wrong with repairing it, if done properly. Check the Waytek Wire site, as has everything needed. You may have to invest in some crimping, heat shrink and soldering tools, but not much in the scheme of things. If you do find yourself bundling wire assemblies in electrical tape, use nothing but quality products like Scotch 33+, or could end up with a gooey mess in a couple years.

glarior

Waytek was just the wiring site I was looking for.

I have good crimping, heat srhink and soldering tools. I made my customm harness for the HID lights... 4 lows and 4 highs hehe.

I agree with good quality stuff. What I find in my car is duct tape, some type of gooey black tape and rigged wiring.

Today, I found a wire from the power windows melted to a thin black wire which was shorting. Plus, two more wires were almost melted because of that. Been a nightmare! The only harness not giving me problems is the harness for the LS1/4l60 that I had a friends shop make. I wish they could make me the dash harness lol

Garys 68

WhenI did my LS swap I just started over with a new generic harness. The original leaves a lot to be desired with the lighting hookups, etc.
I set up each panel with molex connectors to install easier. Partially done center console.

Vette5.5

It's obvious you know a bit about wiring, and most wouldn't believe what damage a loose connection can do. Once you get a hot spot, tends to anneal the copper, causing resistance, and keeps traveling down the the wire, until it's really a goner. Have some stories about high current wiring, but a loose connection is worse than no connection, any day.

glarior

Well said!

I have had trouble with my windows since I have had the car. I replaced/rebuilt everything and still a problem. Never thought of checking the wiring harness. I started to cut back the harness and found multiple wires melted together and others starting to melt



Just in debate now... make my own or buy a new one and mod it to my specs? I don't need the engine/trans, speakers, center gauges but the rest is still stock.... hrmmmm

glarior

This is what I found while trying to fix the power windows. I think there are still breaks in the harness. Plus, they added electric seats to the car that have never worked right. I found where the took the power from....

If you found that in your car... what would you do? Replace with new harness? make own new harness? fix what is wrong?

aaroncorvette

Interesting topic, i'm about to take the dash wiring out to have my screen support repaired and was thinking about a rewire.

40 year old wiring is always going to be a pain, it's had it's day. My Dad's '51 Stude has a Painless wiring system and always starts great and everything electrical just works, I then get back in the vette and suffer the usual gremlins

Anyone used a generic wiring system for the vette with success? Mine is a pro tourer so it's got basic electrics.

Cheers, Aaron.

aaroncorvette

Interesting topic, i'm about to take the dash wiring out to have my screen support repaired and was thinking about a rewire.

40 year old wiring is always going to be a pain, it's had it's day. My Dad's '51 Stude has a Painless wiring system and always starts great and everything electrical just works, I then get back in the vette and suffer the usual gremlins

Anyone used a generic wiring system for the vette with success? Mine is a pro tourer so it's got basic electrics. ( and I don't want to use any of the original wiring)

Cheers, Aaron.

mrvette

I added PW to my '72 vert, back in '95 when I bought the car, one of many extensive mods to the car over the years.....just got finished battling a slow and repeatedly blowing PW on driver's side, it was in the harness ok, and had also weakened the switch.....but I have tons of switches from my GM junkyard raids back in the 80's....so not a problem for ME, in the PW setup, I also tore the entire car apart for the interior electical system, there is nothing stock about my car now except for about 1/2 the hull/firewall connector going to the front lights, all else is hard wired and goes out much further up on the bulkhead, and also feeds the injection and all that computer crap....

I just sat there for nearly a week, patiently tore all the old harness apart, and all the dash/interior plastic was gone, outta my way and up for replaced in some cases, anyway....I put molex connectors on my center gauge cluster and also more importantly on the tach/speedo cluster, all those lights I could never figger out how in HELL that assy guy went home sober any night, NFW, dealing with THAT crap all day long.....wonder he didn't snap and kill someone.....serious...: crazy2:

so I get my dash in and out in about 20 minits, with all my wiring simplifications....now for the console mechanics, talk of a PIA, I dread dealing with that stupid setup on the P/W switch rear section....talk about a PIA nitemare with those damn flange/Tinneren? nutz always outta position....

Got news, if you know your automotive wiring, and work that stuff with common sense, you can have about a bushel basket of misc.wire left over, I know I did....

Marlin

Another option is to get a universal wiring harness and build that into the factory connections, lights, signals, switch’s, etc…

That’s what I am doing to my 73. Can be had for less than $200 and usually have more fuses for option in the future, let alone all new wiring.

lars

Here's another site that I get a lot of my electrical/connector supplies from:

http://www.repairconnector.com/

Lars

Slalom4me

An issue which bears consideration is what wire to use for such
a project. Or rather, which insulation.

My vote is that conventional wire marked GPT (General Purpose
Thermoplastic) is unsuited for use in modern automotive
applications, including rewiring an earlier car that was in all
likelihood, equipped with GPT wire to begin with.

Instead, I propose that only wire with cross-linked insulation
be used. This kind of wire is marked TXL, GXL and SXL. The
T, G and S denote the wall thickness of the insulation coating
from thinnest to thickest. (I remember the difference between
acroynms by thinking of them as: T-Thin, G-General and S-Super).
The 'XL' is short for cross-linked.

Two primary shortcomings of GPT wire in an automotive
application are its limitations regarding high temperatures and
its susceptibility to plastic flow.

Regarding the working temperatures of GPT and TXL/GXL/SXL.
GPT's ceiling is rated as 221°F (105°C), compared to _XL's which
is rated as 257°F (125ºC).

However, these numbers alone do not tell the whole story. In
a simple test with a propane torch, when the flame is brought
near to GPT insulation, GPT sags, blackens, begins to burn and
in short order disappears to leave a bare copper conductor.
In contrast, TXL/GXL/SXL cross-linked insulation stands up
far better. When just approaching TXL with a flame didn't
appear to have any significant effect, I applied flame directly
to the insulation - the exposed side eventually charred and
began to shrink somewhat, but remained in place on the wire
continuing to provide some semblance of insulation.

It is an easy test to replicate. While your specific observations
may differ from mine, I vote that you will see the same vast
general discrepancy in heat resistance between GPT and TXL/GXL/SXL
cross-linked insulation.

IMO, GPT has no place in an engine compartment now that
cross-linked insulated wire is available.

The plastic flow issue is a reason for not using GPT elsewhere
on the vehicle where heat is less a factor. Discussed more in
the links below.

Regarding where to source wire. Painless offers not just a wide
selection of solid colors for insulation, but they also have insulation
with 'traces', the colored stripes added to further distinguish solid
colors. When I bought from Painless years ago, they offered just
the TXL thickness, perhaps they may offer GXL/SXL now.

A couple of links to posts about cross-linked insulation from the
archives
.

Slalom4me

A supplemental post to say that Painless calls their TXL insulated
wire "Painless Extreme Conditions Wire Stock".

In the index of their 2012 catalog, there is an entry for Pg 53
"Bulk Wire & Terminals" - this is your destination. Page 53
shows that 18, 16, 14, 12, 10 and 8 gauge conductor is
available in 25' or 50' spools.

A curiosity that appears in the product description on the page
is the statement "Withstands over 125ºC (275ºF)".

The conversion/equivalency is wrong. 125ºC converts to 257ºF,
not 275ºF. Perhaps someone transposed the 5 & 7 in a moment
of dyslexia?

.

Locke

Thanks gang!
I've been thinking about the wiring on my '69 and since it's going to be my version of a streetable, 1970s IMSA AGT car; the wiring will be pretty different than the stock harness.
I had seen Painless at the PRI show and have their catalog. I was hoping to see some place that could facilitate me using most of the old connectors but replacing the wire and the little brass plug ins that go into the connectors. I didn't want to cut near the connector and splice new wire in.
It would appear that what I was hoping to do isn't a pipe dream and that better wire and the clips are available.

Now, I just need to figure out how to wire the wiper motor, keeping the two speeds and the park function to a two position toggle switch.
The dash will look like a race car with few stock switches.

This dang thing never shows my signature any more!

Locke
North Florida Corvette Assn., NCCC
Buccaneer Region, SCCA
Jacksonville, FL

Slalom4me

What you refer to as brass plug-ins are known as terminals.

Take a look at page 32 (Electronic Terminals) in the Pico Catalog.
Page 34 and pages 35-38 might be interesting, too. Release tools
for extracting OEM terminals from Weather Pack housings appear
at the bottom of page 28.

There is much more to see besides this. Browse the entire Pico
collection when time permits.

With Pico part numbers in hand, you may be able to find a local source
that stocks what you need or can bring it in without incurring shipping
charges. NAPA outlets could be one resource. Regional & local auto
parts houses are others.

.