vinco

Finally today I felt good enough to get out in the carport and start the repair process on my wiring harness and other needed mostly maintenance items. I started by blowing the leaves out from under the car so the jacks could roll smoothly. Then I lifted the rear end from the middle and set it back down on 2 rubber pads stacked on each side, to get the rear 2 extra inches up. Then I placed the pucks in the front holes, and put a jack on each side. I went back and forth, raising each jack 3 or 4 pumps past the other one, until the front of the car is now well over 18" off the ground. I placed my stands under the cross member, and I'm done for the night.

On the way up!

vinco

The Corvette is up in the air and safe. The bottom of the front tire is 9.5" off the ground, and the bottom of the front fender at the back of the wheel well is 16" off the ground.


I probably should have taken some pics before I started blowing off the engine bay, but doing that gave me pause to take a moment to remember all the less fortunate people around the world who don't have a 60 gallon compressor to help them in their plight to clean stuff quickly.

So this is what I've found so far in terms of wiring damage. There's several chewed wires by the battery tray. The MAP sensor harness is chewed behind the intake manifold. The MAF sensor harness is chewed, and the driver side spark plug wires are chewed. We'll have to see what else we find once we get in there deeper.

vinco

First order of business is to pull the front wheels, pull the access panels, and pull the battery tray.

Just a little flex showing off the Wilwoods.

mstromquist

You're a brave soul for taking that job on. Best of luck to ya.

vinco

Thanks! This is a project of necessity rather than planned. The harness was in fine shape before I had to go away for 4 months for a stem cell transplant. I'll get this done and then proceed with the planned projects.

1999corvettels1

If you had insurance on car covering damage such as a tree falls on it, vandalism, maybe the critters chewing the wires could be covered?

vinco

Never even crossed my mind, but you might be right! I do have insurance on it.

acroy

^^ quite the project. Good luck, and yes I do hope insurance will kick in. That is why we pay and pay and pay after all!

1999corvettels1

“

• Comprehensive insurance covers damage to your car from animals, falling trees, natural disasters, theft, and vandalism. It does not cover damage to other vehicles or people.”

Comprehensive was the word I was thinking of, if you have it and deductible is not too high, maybe it can kick in and pay a shop to fix it, or get quotes get a check and fix it yourself if that’s allowed.

I have it on my vehicles here in Phoenix area because lots of rocks on the road and broken windshields, agent said with it I get free glass repair/replacement, even on my 1965 C10 pickup, lucky I have it some SOB shot my rear glass and windshield on the old truck (glass shattered but still together), I’m covered but it’s hard to find someone who does vintage glass replacement on the big rear window.

I don’t think making a claim raises your rates.

JCMDoug

I hate mice, I have been feeding some stray cats this year and have had no mice issues in the (house, shed, cars) for the 1st time is 20 years.

c5arlen

That poor car!! What a shame.... It wants some TLC.. and won't get it. 😢

vinco

As we speak I only have 7 more wires to extend and reconnect. This whole thread is about giving it some much-needed TLC. I will agree with you on one point, though: it won't get it at a shop or the stealership.

vinco

One bite at a time.

I started the wiring repair yesterday with a couple of quick wins. First, I decided to tackle the MAFS harness. There was only one wire chewed in two, and three others were slightly chafed but intact. The plan of attack was to strip each side of the broken wire, twist them together, solder, and then cover with heat shrink tubing. This seems to have worked well throughout the repairs thus far. For the chafed wires, I applied two coats of Liquid Electrical Tape. I finally rewrapped the harness with electrical tape.

RPederson

You are a brave soul to tackle these repairs. Just an FYI, I live out in the country and I have had mice build nests in my always garaged '98 C5 air conditioning ducting 3 times. My insurance paid (State Farm) paid $2000 twice to repair the damage and clean out the AC ducts. The third time, the damage wasn't too bad and things still work so I'm not going to tempt SF to cancel me. I also am getting a error code for one of my shocks but I think its only another chewed wire in the sensor circuit.

Good luck on your repairs. I'll be following this thread for repair tips.
Bob

vinco

Next I moved over to the passenger side, behind the battery. There were two extensions coming off the main harness, and the harness side of both were partially damaged. I started with the one marked with green tape, as it was the smaller of the two. Luckily it only had 2 out of the 9 wires actually chewed in two, and there were several others that just had damaged insulation. So it was the same process as before with trimming, stripping, extending, and heat shrinking, followed by liquid electrical tape and rewrapping the harness.




Finished up and plugged back in!

Tusc

When the strange electrical issues pop up, switch methods to this:

Strip em, butt connect em, heat shrink em. Connected and sealed for life and hercules couldn't pull them apart.



One-time life purchase of AWESOME adjustable crimpers

But you can use whatever basic stripper / crimper.

I prefer this setup to the wonky butt connectors that come with the heavy plastic covers. Those suck and can be hard to fit under heat shrink. These go easy. Find the depth on that tool that you need for whatever butts you're working with and you never need to change it. Every strip will be perfect. I tend to slide two sizes of heat shrink on. The tightest that will fit, plus one size larger and the larger one is cut longer also. Extra protection. The wrap listed has adhesive inside it which also serves to fully seal the ends awesomely.

Tusc

Also. That household electrical tape will heat up from the engine bay when the car runs and turn into a goopy sticky mess, as well as eventually slide off the harness.

Tesa tape is amazing. I use the base stuff on interior work. The link here is the high heat version which is stronger. This is what you want there. And then some inexpensive harness loom to cover over if you're ocd like me.


- there are definitely better options to be found, but no need for anything but the inexpensive stuff to just protect and secure the wire harness. It also helps retain any loose pieces like the household electrical tape.

Tusc

Good progress. Glad to see it. I just want to be clear that I am not in any way knocking the work being done, but respect the effort you're putting into it and want to help be sure you don't end up with any lingering issues for the effort invested my man.

I didn't remember the build but that car looks awesome. Wilwood brakes? LS2/3 conversion? Headers? Very nice!

Vetteman Jack

Nice certainly can be a PITA. Nice job so far repairing the damage and good luck finishing up.

vinco

Thanks for the pro tip! The Tesa tape isn't available locally, and it wouldn't get here until Friday next week from Amazon, so I made a compromise and picked up a roll of 3M 33+ tape at Lowe's. It's rated at 105c, and it's $3 cheaper at Lowe's than O'Reilly. My impatience may have led me to a less good product, but I am ready to hear it roar again before Friday. I can always redo the wrap later.